Should Speaking English Be Required to Graduate?

[Coito ergo sum]

I think uniquely Americans pass school while other countries pass subjects, don't think there is the equivalent of British GCSE/A levels in the US. They just get an overall grade and sit a university entrance exam?

Correct - each subject is not taken individually, they are each graded (A, B, C, D, F) individually and each letter grade has a corresponding numerical value (see here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grade_%28e ... ted_States ), which is looked at in totality to see if the person meets the minimum standard to graduate. Afterwards you'd take the SAT (scholastic aptitude test) which is another numerical indicator of proficiency in a number of subjects that is required when applying to secondary education.

As far as college/uni entrance exams, I'm sure they vary, but when I went, one simply applied to the schools you wanted to, provided your transcripts, SAT scores, etc., but the only 'exams' happened when I was accepted and chose to go to a particular school - I had to take basic maths and English tests.

I would add to that that when I went to school, it was impossible to graduate with an "F" in any one subject. Each subject had to be passed. Not sure if that's the same now, or if my school was rare in that regard.

[Bella Fortuna]

I think uniquely Americans pass school while other countries pass subjects, don't think there is the equivalent of British GCSE/A levels in the US. They just get an overall grade and sit a university entrance exam?

Correct - each subject is not taken individually, they are each graded (A, B, C, D, F) individually and each letter grade has a corresponding numerical value (see here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grade_%28e ... ted_States ), which is looked at in totality to see if the person meets the minimum standard to graduate. Afterwards you'd take the SAT (scholastic aptitude test) which is another numerical indicator of proficiency in a number of subjects that is required when applying to secondary education.

As far as college/uni entrance exams, I'm sure they vary, but when I went, one simply applied to the schools you wanted to, provided your transcripts, SAT scores, etc., but the only 'exams' happened when I was accepted and chose to go to a particular school - I had to take basic maths and English tests.

I would add to that that when I went to school, it was impossible to graduate with an "F" in any one subject. Each subject had to be passed. Not sure if that's the same now, or if my school was rare in that regard.

Yes, that's true - you had to get a passing grade, so as you mentioned, some people had to do summer school. I'm sure that was eliminated long ago in a budgetary cut!

[Hermit]

Most people speak English here

Presumptuous git.

How so?

Two reasons:
1. Presuming that Americans speak English
2. Presuming that I am serious

[Bella Fortuna]

Most people speak English here

Presumptuous git.

How so?

Two reasons:
1. Presuming that Americans speak English
2. Presuming that I am serious

Dr. Seraph, I presume...

[laklak]

1. Presuming that Americans speak English

There's more of us'uns then there is of you'uns so we'uns is right. Y'all jes need to larn to talk gooder.

[maiforpeace]

I think uniquely Americans pass school while other countries pass subjects, don't think there is the equivalent of British GCSE/A levels in the US. They just get an overall grade and sit a university entrance exam?

Correct - each subject is not taken individually, they are each graded (A, B, C, D, F) individually and each letter grade has a corresponding numerical value (see here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grade_%28e ... ted_States ), which is looked at in totality to see if the person meets the minimum standard to graduate. Afterwards you'd take the SAT (scholastic aptitude test) which is another numerical indicator of proficiency in a number of subjects that is required when applying to secondary education.

As far as college/uni entrance exams, I'm sure they vary, but when I went, one simply applied to the schools you wanted to, provided your transcripts, SAT scores, etc., but the only 'exams' happened when I was accepted and chose to go to a particular school - I had to take basic maths and English tests.

I would add to that that when I went to school, it was impossible to graduate with an "F" in any one subject. Each subject had to be passed. Not sure if that's the same now, or if my school was rare in that regard.

Yes, that's true - you had to get a passing grade, so as you mentioned, some people had to do summer school. I'm sure that was eliminated long ago in a budgetary cut!

Those were the days, CES.

The education system in the US is breaking, if not already broken, so this requirement, while sad, is not surprising.

[Bella Fortuna]

This is why I'm scared to death about what my son's educational future holds...

[laklak]

Yes you should speak English to graduate. You must pass an English competency exam to get citizenship, why should high school be any different?

You should at least be proficient enough to say "do you want fries with that?"

[maiforpeace]

Yes you should speak English to graduate. You must pass an English competency exam to get citizenship, why should high school be any different?

You should at least be proficient enough to say "do you want fries with that?"

FYI...you don't have to pass an English competency exam to get your citizenship, you just need to understand the citizenship questions and answer them correctly. I wasn't even required to take a written exam. I had a five minute oral exam where they asked me four questions...who is the president, what are the 3 branches of government, I can't remember the others, they were soooooooooooo basic. Frankly, I was appalled by the process. The person testing me was Chinese and I had to ask them to repeat the questions several times because I couldn't even understand what they were saying, their English was so bad.

[Coito ergo sum]

I think uniquely Americans pass school while other countries pass subjects, don't think there is the equivalent of British GCSE/A levels in the US. They just get an overall grade and sit a university entrance exam?

Correct - each subject is not taken individually, they are each graded (A, B, C, D, F) individually and each letter grade has a corresponding numerical value (see here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grade_%28e ... ted_States ), which is looked at in totality to see if the person meets the minimum standard to graduate. Afterwards you'd take the SAT (scholastic aptitude test) which is another numerical indicator of proficiency in a number of subjects that is required when applying to secondary education.

As far as college/uni entrance exams, I'm sure they vary, but when I went, one simply applied to the schools you wanted to, provided your transcripts, SAT scores, etc., but the only 'exams' happened when I was accepted and chose to go to a particular school - I had to take basic maths and English tests.

I would add to that that when I went to school, it was impossible to graduate with an "F" in any one subject. Each subject had to be passed. Not sure if that's the same now, or if my school was rare in that regard.

Yes, that's true - you had to get a passing grade, so as you mentioned, some people had to do summer school. I'm sure that was eliminated long ago in a budgetary cut!

Those were the days, CES.

The education system in the US is breaking, if not already broken, so this requirement, while sad, is not surprising.

Are we sure that the situation is different now? Can students graduate with an F in a class?

[laklak]

Yes you should speak English to graduate. You must pass an English competency exam to get citizenship, why should high school be any different?

You should at least be proficient enough to say "do you want fries with that?"

FYI...you don't have to pass an English competency exam to get your citizenship, you just need to understand the citizenship questions and answer them correctly. I wasn't even required to take a written exam. I had a five minute oral exam where they asked me four questions...who is the president, what are the 3 branches of government, I can't remember the others, they were soooooooooooo basic. Frankly, I was appalled by the process. The person testing me was Chinese and I had to ask them to repeat the questions several times because I couldn't even understand what they were saying, their English was so bad.

WhenMrs. Lak got her green card she had to provide documentary proof of proficiency in English, they accepted her UK uni degree as proof. Otherwise she would have had to take a test. Maybe it's changed?

[Hermit]

Most people speak English here

Presumptuous git.

How so?

Two reasons:
1. Presuming that Americans speak English
2. Presuming that I am serious

Dr. Seraph, I presume...

Fair dinkum, mite! Ifyer wanna mike yerself unnerstood, youse afterspik Strine.

[Coito ergo sum]

This is why I'm scared to death about what my son's educational future holds...

Most education in high school comes from work and stuff read by the student on his or her own anyway, and not because of in-school instruction. Basically, in school instruction is good for motivation (sometimes) and keeping the pace of what kids ought to be learning over time. But, the kids still have to work the material themselves. If a kid reads his history book, for example, he can learn the history necessary to pass the test. The teacher is largely unnecessary.

Most teachers suck anyway - no offense to teachers here (who I am sure are awesome ones). I had a math teacher in middle school who didn't believe in giving math homework, because she thought that kids were under enough stress and didn't need to bring math work home with them. LOL. My dad was livid, as I recall. I mean - learning math without doing math problems outside of class? What a joke!

And, there was, in the early 80s I believe, a movement to take "civics" and "geography" out of schools in favor of amorphous "social studies." That did much to prevent kids from learning basic information. Then there is the silly notion that many people I talk to hold about it not being important to learn things like "dates, places and names" in history classes. Somehow, people have been convinced that to learn history, one does not actually have to have some basic understanding of the chronology. I had a friend a while back some years ago who made that claim - I said that while exact month, day, year is not usually something that we need to know, we at least need to know roughly when things happened, and in what order. Without knowing that, it's impossible, IMHO, to put events in context and flesh out the skeletal chronology with the why's and how's associated with the events. It also made me really question my friend's intelligence when she could not say what century the US Civil War occurred in, and whether it occurred before or after World War 1. I remember asking her to think of which war used the more advanced weaponry and whether that could clue her in to which one came later, and she was unable to puzzle it out (even though airplanes and tanks were involved in WW1 and not in the Civil War, for example).

[Coito ergo sum]

Most people speak English here

Presumptuous git.

How so?

Two reasons:
1. Presuming that Americans speak English
2. Presuming that I am serious

Neither presumption was made.

[Coito ergo sum]

Most people speak English here

Presumptuous git.

How so?

Two reasons:
1. Presuming that Americans speak English
2. Presuming that I am serious

Dr. Seraph, I presume...

Never presume. You'll make a pre out of u and me.