UK School vs Generic USA School ... (...Re: Question for British ...)

[potioncat]

> Carol responds:

>Carol: 
> Kids who take AP classes these days (I'm basing my conclusions on my
> niece, who was the valedictorian of her high school class) have 
(IMO)
> and inflated grade average because instead of an A being 5.0 instead
> of 4.0. So a kid who gets straight A's but doesn't take AP classes
> will have a 4.0 average and a kid who gets straight A's taking AP
> classes will have a 5.0.

Potioncat:
Not all school system follows the same grading scale either. In our 
county, an A is 94-100. Othere areas use 10 points for each grade.I 
guess that's why colleges put so much weight on the SATs and ACTs. At 
least that test is looking at the same material at the same time with 
the same scale.

SATs and ACTs not being good if you happen to bright, but choke at 
tests.

AP courses are supposed to be a higher level. There are standardized 
tests afterwards. Some universities will accept a certain grade as a 
college credit class. But I'm not sure if it replaces that same 
course, or counts as an elective. 

Our area is determined that every kid can and will go to college. I 
think it's unfair but there are no options for science and math other 
than the higher levels. The highly motivated college oriented kids 
take even higher level or AP courses, and, like you say Carol, their 
grades are given more weight.

There are some trade courses offered in our school system, but they 
are treated like one of Dumbledore's secrets.


> 
> Carol, sorry to sound like a female curmudgeon but thinking that 
some
> things were better in the old days

Potioncat:
What the Dickens! you're right. They were better! They were also 
worse. 


> bboyminn:
> 
> Using Harry Potter as a model, students in the UK get one more
> month of education per year than students in the USA. The
> typical USA school year is 9 months with June, July, and August
> being the summer holiday. In the UK, using HP as a model,
> the summer holiday is July and August.

Potioncat:
I think that depends on the part of the country. In SC they get out 
sometime in May and return in August. In Virginia my kids get out mid 
or late June and return in September. This year there will be 10 
weeks of summer vacation. We had a week for Winter break and a week 
for Spring break.

Is it standard in the US that schools have 180 days of instruction? 
We have "snow days" built into our schedule, with a plan for which 
holidays will be dropped if we have too many days off due to snow.

I used to suggest that our kids start school in SC in August, then 
move back to Virginia at Christmas, in time to finish school in June. 
For some reason, they caught on.

Potioncat, who complains about our educational system a lot, but I 
think the majority of our teachers work hard and care about their 
students.