educational system

• eight of the most renowned private universities in the U.S.

• Originally an athletic conference, "Ivy League" now signifies prestige and selectivity.

• highly competitive, admitting fewer than 1 in 10 applicants

• expensive

• “Ivy” = Efeu —>an allusion to the plant growth on the buildings of the comparatively old universities

  • primarily located in the Northeast

• Brown University (Rhode Island)

• Columbia University (New York)

• Cornell University (New York)

• Dartmouth College (New Hampshire)

• Harvard University (Massachusetts)

• Princeton University (New Jersey)

• Yale Universitiy (Connecticut)

• University of Pennsylvania (UPenn, Philadelphia)

• SCHOLARSHIPS: academic or athletic

• GRANTS: money from the government for economically challenged students (max. $ 5,500)

• STUDENT LOANS: subsidized by the government (low interest rates: 1 –3%) average time of repayment: 8 –10 years

• CAMPUS JOBS: e.g. Teaching assistance.

• The American system of education differs from systems in other countries in that the LOCAL LEVEL OF CONTROL is the heart of it.

• It is DECENTRALIZED and since it is not mentioned in the Constitution the power over education is reserved to the states, local authority, individual schools & higher education institutions.

• Seeing as there are 50 states which operate schools in that they have control over the curriculum, the minimum requirements, hiring, and supervising professional teaching staff (to only name a few) federal government has no direct authority over the U.S. education system.

• Instead, public education at the local level is organized by SCHOOL DISTRICTS, of which there are over 14,000.

requirements:

• bachelor’s degree

• teaching license from their field

• to have completed a teacher education program and

• a supervised teaching internship

• early childhood educators (kindergarten and elementary school teachers):

  • earn a bachelors’s defree in education

• secundary school teachers:

  • may earn a bachelor's degree in their specific subject area

  • pursue a double major in their subject and education

  • or obtain a master's degree in education in addition to their subject area bachelor's degree

• = local colleges (usually found in every mid- to large size town)

• Tuition is fairly inexpensive ($1,500 – 4,000) a year

• Many students go to a community college for 2 years and get their basic classes out of the way, and then transfer to a larger university

• After 2 years: able to get an Associate’s degree, but must do not offer a bachelor degree Programm

The funding system can be seen as unfair, since it ignores the need for additional funding in high poverty districts

G.E.D.