Education

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The English Education system is very different from our own. On Tuesday night we had our first house class in which different guests come and talk with us about England. Martin was our first guest and told us more about education in England. School starts at about the same age here but they number the years starting with 1 and going up. In the past they used to start numbering the years at age 11 when students entered year 1 - like in Harry Potter. The system is very complicated because there are so many forms of schooling - privet or public or associated with this or that religion. The main difference is the testing. England has had standardized testing in place since the 1940s and children are tested at ages 7, 11, 14, 16,17, and 18. The testing is all centralized - meaning that the government dictates what is on the tests and when they are taken. Since the tests are high stakes - school funding depends on the results - teachers often “teach to the test”. They are high stakes as part of accountability and to prove that standards are rising. Sound familiar? But there are also big differences with how these tests are used. The last two years of schooling - ages 16 and 17 - are called A Levels. These tests determine whether or not students can attend University. Before the students even take the tests they have to pick 6 Universities that they might want to attend and then out of those 6 pick their top two. If they do not get the right grades for their top two, they don't even have the option of going to the other Universities that they picked. Talk about pressure. The students don't even find out if they have gotten into University until the end of August - no wonder they can't do on-line registration the spring before. I have to say that I am starting to like the way that our education system works more and more. It seems - looking back on it from an ocean away and after going through registration and hearing about the system here - that our system, at present, has much less stress involved since we don't have to take such high stakes tests that determine whether or not we can go to University at all.

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