The Education System Of The Economic Giant

Education is an organized learning process that happens in an institutional manner with the help of an educator, as per the societal norms. It provides an opportunity to learn properly. It plays a vital role in the civilization process of human being.

In the modern day context, education opens the doors of opportunities for pupils who receive proper mentoring. But the US education system is facing a different situation. It is up against many crucial problems that can obstruct its potential to deliver. The major problems include teacher attrition and unequal school funding.

Teacher Attrition

Teaching profession is a bitter-sweet situation. It is a profession that is both demanding and rewarding. It is tied with overwhelming amount of pressure and responsibility as well as satisfaction.

The US education system is facing the problem of attrition of teachers that is increasing in an alarming rate. Teacher attrition creates problems in education budgets and student learning process. In case of education budgets, $7 billion per year is being spent on the recruitment and retention process alone. This amount can be otherwise used to spend on other education resources for the schools and the students.

Teacher attrition also denies students from receiving high quality teaching due to the replacement of experienced teachers with the fresher candidates. This leads to substandard mentoring.

Unequal School Funding System

In the United States, Public schools are being funded by the federal government, state government, and local organizations. As nearly half of the funds are sourced from local property taxes, the system generates large funding differences between the wealthy and the impoverished communities. Such differences exist among states, among school districts within each state, and even among schools within specific districts.

Compared to other countries, United States faces huge difference in the quality of school buildings, facilities, curriculum, equipment for instruction, teacher experience and qualifications, class sizes, access to auxiliary professionals, and other resources. It would surprise most US citizens to learn that disparities such as these are simply not tolerated in other developed countries, where public schools normally receive equal funding for rich and poor communities alike. The funding is usually allocated on the basis of student enrollment numbers.

The above discussed problems cannot facilitate a smooth education process for the welfare of an individual and for the American society. So, the funding and the faculty system should be organized properly for the education system to serve properly for the society.

Source: http://www.getteachered.com/blogs/featured-articles/education-vs-teachers/

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How to apply for higher education in the US?

For domestic and online students

Best move in your career

The decision to pursue higher education is the best move in the current economic and job market scenario. As per the current market trends, the demand for a well qualified individual in any industry in the US, is very high.

Read on to know about how you could apply for higher education degree in the US schools & colleges and get placed in reputed, high-paying jobs.

The US Educational Institutions for Higher Education

The United States of America has 8,990 higher education institutions. Of which 4,495 institutions are included under Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965. Financial aid for students are available for only these colleges covered under the act.

Application and Enrollment Process for Domestic Students:

Students willing to pursue higher education may do their research about the accredited Universities or colleges, area of study, and the degree program.

Admission process starts with getting the right educational qualifications or academic equivalence required by the college one would want to apply for. In the US, about 85% of the colleges require SAT or ACT test scores. 

A domestic student must decide on the colleges to apply by October of the high school senior year and be ready with the paper work and references the college may ask for. 

Early admission process can be opted for the colleges with top priority. Once a student has been accepted in a college, financial aid can be sought through the college itself or through FAFSA.

To get admission in the US colleges, a student should have passed one or more of the following tests based on the program and the college:

• SAT Reasoning Test
• SAT Subject Tests
• ACT + Writing Test
• TOEFL
• IELTS

Application Process

A student should follow these steps diligently to have the application successful:

• Obtain application and financial aid forms 
• Be ready with academic performance transcripts and letters of recommendations
• Be ready with scores of necessary standardized tests
• Send the completed application form, recommendation letter, academic transcripts, and completed financial aid forms to each institution
• Acknowledge letters of acceptance and rejection from the colleges

Financial Aid

Financial contribution for the US studies:

• Family or other personal sources
• College or University Scholarship –  Scholarships are available for highly qualified applicants

• Financial aid from the government – Financial aid is based on the economic background of the student
• Financial assistance for academic merit, proved talent in sports and music
• On-campus employment

Option for Online Studies

In the United States, Online Universities have become fully accredited and increasingly gaining recognition among public and employers. If a student does not want to relocate to the US or quit the job for studies, online degree programs are the best option to consider.

Advantages of Online Programs:

1. Study from anywhere and at any time
2. Fix personalized class schedule
3. Take advantage of student-centric teaching approach
4. Easily access study materials round the clock
5. Share thoughts by classroom discussion available online
6. Enjoy the financial reasonability
7. Interact with experts worldwide
8. Experience working with modern technology-based learning tools
9. Use chat room facility
10. Share knowledge across the globe
11. Start a discussion anytime
12. Learn life-long
13. Become self-disciplined

Application Process for Online Programs

The application process for online programs is simpler than on-campus process. The whole admission process can be completed via online or a phone.
Online Universities are specifically designed for students who wish to pursue higher education to move a step ahead in their careers without having to relocate.
For online degree programs, a student must take into account, all the aspects mentioned for earlier stages of any on-campus application process. This includes:

• Choosing the Accredited University
• Filling out the Online application
• Submitting the required documents
• Applying for Financial Aid and Scholarship

Students opting for online studies should remember that professional advice and assistance is available throughout the admission process and during the whole degree program. Time flexibility of the online programs makes the learners take these courses for granted, at times. A student must strictly stick to the online class schedule and try to be self-disciplined, once he or she gets enrolled in a program.


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The Prevailing Education System in the USA

The current status of education in the US has a lot of scope of improvement. Most of the teachers in the US do not undergo any teacher training other than holding their degrees. They just focus on the students’ assessment and teach in a simple manner without following standardized teaching practices and procedures. Moreover, students undergo their education programs under such teachers with the intention of just passing the exam and with lack of encouragement & enthusiasm to gain knowledge of the subject. This makes the overall quality of the schools not up to the standards in the US.

The teaching quality, just like in any other nation, needs improvement and this cannot happen just by compelling students to get prepared for their exams, but actually making them learn and improve their understanding and knowledge of the subject. There is a major need of focusing on further education for teachers in the US.

Level of Education System

The existing education system in the US includes school education, community college education (both Associate’s and Academic degree), University education, and technical education. Performance tests in high schools and others, rate the level of learning and the overall school performance, excluding other factors. These tests hold high impacts on the performance of teachers and the students. Hence, teachers focus more on retaining their positions rather than nurturing the minds of the learners.

"The statistical data ranks the United States 12th in the countries, based on the marks scored by students in Mathematics and Science (data belongs to the year 2008–2010). Presently, school dropouts account for about 40% in the African-American communities and 27% in the natives. About 54% of the US students end their educational life with school education itself. Furthermore, dropouts are on a great rise Y-o-Y."

In general, people in the US are said to be fragile in general academic skills, especially in a subject like mathematics and the same thought has alarmingly vibrated to the educators of the country, who, now, are working towards changing this perception of the world by offering higher education online. Teachers are now molding their students through improved teaching methodologies to ensure successful outcome from students, not only in terms of academics, but also to bring them out as globally recognized graduates who would come forward as future-ready renowned academicians, knowledge specialists and educationalists.

Quality of teaching

The quality of teaching in America is on rise and improving every year. The strategy behind this improvement is development of proper job prospects in teaching. Most of the teachers in the US hold their graduation degrees or diplomas than a Ph.D required. The level of teaching recorded so far in the US is not up to the mark. This leads to a situation where teachers utilize this little knowledge of theirs and focus on just holding their jobs somehow. However, looking at the current trends we get to understand that qualified staff inspiring students are in high demand in the US education industry.

Certain key points have been devised to focus on improving the job prospects in teaching:

• The diploma holders amongst the teachers can undergo further teaching courses
  
  
• They can also take online teacher education while teaching at schools. This improves the way of specializing on how to improve teaching skills


• Teachers can go for a Masters degree or some technical course for the further specialization of their subjects
 

Merits of further education of teachers are:

• Teachers will establish a professional way of teaching


• They would be able to focus on students since they would be relieved of stress about their own education


• They would be able to encourage and enhance students’ creativity


• Teachers will be able to inculcate this amazing sense of critical thinking into the students


• All of this would benefit them so much that they would become passionate about enhancing their knowledge through their own teaching experience


• Teachers would be able to handle students in an effective and productive way


• Students would get a new dimension to their pace of learning through this paradigm shift in teaching

And most importantly, teachers and students will become more confident and knowledgeable that they could not have been without proper teaching mechanism

All of this would eventually lead to a fall in the number of school dropouts and additionally would help cleaning off the low IQ image of students in the US. For teachers too this would be of great benefit. However, the public schools should not reject them on the basis of over-qualification and look basically for their interest level in teaching. Schools should also give aspirants positions in their academies and help them find a permanent position as well.

Improving teaching

Teaching in the US can be improved not only with further education but also by informing the teachers to implement some standardized teaching procedures. Teachers should take up teaching with a student-centric approach. They should instruct students not to elicit the concepts only to produce them in exams but to focus majorly on learning.

Students too should develop a broader perspective towards creative learning. The grading tests should be conducted in the US schools for realizing the level of learning based on inspiration, thinking and acquaintance of concepts.

The current US education market seems to be at risk. However, further education for teachers, job prospects in teaching and online teaching education come out as few important points of improving the education system prevailing in the United States of America.

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