West Bloomfield High School Michigan

West Bloomfield School District
www.westbloomfield.k12.mi.us
www.westbloomfield.k12.mi.us/wbsd/District/News/School-Videos-478.html

From the WBHS website you can see the CURRIULUM requirements and a brief video on WBHS Band practicing (one of the extracurricular activity choices). My daughter is there briefly towards the end with the color guards, flag bears.

Some points are:

1. The state Education Department has a educational policy for all schools in Michigan or each state of its own in the US. They run independently from each state. And, the US education department has national standards of educational level at each stage of education. They have certain guidelines to be followed. But, how you implement is the responsibility of each state and its school districts.

2. There is a core curriculum requirement for English, Math, Science, Social Studies (4 subjects) and two electives (1 foreign language and another hands on subject, such as art subject, music, painting, drama, sports, etc.) are compulsory from Kindergarten to 12th grade. The complexity of the courses increases as the grade increases. Then, there are optional subjects such as cooking, physical exercise, computer skills, video and movie making, etc.). Each school district curriculum committee decides what text books to be used and how much materials should be included keeping in mind the competitive nature of education in the US and the global education system. There is no generalized text books - imposed from MEELAL or the state or the Government of India.

3. The school district pays attention to 3 groups of student categories - 1. High achievers, 2. Middle achievers, and 3. Low achievers. If you socialize education or curriculum equally to all these 3 student groups, you will kill one or the other group. For example, if you think of only the higher achievers, then you loose the middle and lower groups. They can't cope up with the level of higher achievers, they will drop out of the school. On the other hand, if you focus on the lower achievers, then the higher achievers get shunted, they get bored and become low achievers. So, three sets of opportunities are provided for each level of achiever, and they can try to improve on their own levels themselves. For higher achievers, there are honors courses beyond their grade such as English horors, maths honors, physics honors, chemistry honors, alegrebra honors, etc. Toucher classes and if one keeps up, he or she get extra credits. Every course has a credit worthiness. The more the course is difficult, the higher the credit point. You accumulate enough credits required to pass the high school in 4 years for general students, and in 2-3 years for super smarts. If someone is very good at grade 9 then he or she can also take grade 10 courses and the credit for those courses will be added to his or her 4 year high school grade. And if she or he get enough credits at 11 and 12 grade for the college level, it is also added to college credit scores. For instant, some smart high school students can finish the first year college credit while in high school itself and take it to the college. Then the student can finish college in 3 years instead of 4 years. Saves a lot of tuition and boarding expenses and come out of college ahead of others. Similarly, high school can be finished in 3 years instead of 4 years (high school is 9-12 grade). There is no Arts and Science sections up to 12th grade. Everyone has to learn the core English, Math, Science, Social studies and 2 more electives.

4. There are state level tests at 5th and 8th grades. These tests are just to find out which school districts are keeping up with the required knowledge and achievement of the students in school districts, so that they can pay attention to failing schools. This is to evaluate the teachers and school administrations, not for failing or passing the students. If a school district fails to educate the students up to the mark continuously for 3 years, they will abolish the school and merge with other schools in the  district or remove the officials and replace them with a completely new set of teachers, administrators and board members. Three years are given for a turn around.

5. Going from the high school to college requires to appear for ACT or SAT tests (ACT is for admission with your own state while SAT is for going to any college in the US). Good colleges have a certain cut off mark for qualifying in their admission criteria, using within 90-100 percent score. You can take both the tests or one of them depending on your preference whether you want to go outside the state or not. High school degrees are given directly by the School district with accumulated grade points (9-12 grade at 4.0 scale). There is no matric or higher secondary examination in the US. Tuition fees for outside state is twice that of the instate students in the college unless the students get scholarship or stipends, but not easy. Private colleges do not have any difference for instate or outside state students, they charge the same fees but the tuition fees are much higher than state Universities. 

6. The Indian education system is a socialized education that kills the spirit of higher achievers while discouraging the lower achievers. It is just a book knowledge, the education does not prepare the young adults for the real world. No hands on application of the book knowledge to the real world scene. So, when they become adults, they sit only in chairs and the work habit is only from the table. They do not go out to the field and see what is going on in the real work place. For example, an engineer passes the completion of a bride from his office at Imphal, but the real bridge is not there at Kumbi.

Anyway, these are some aspects of education in the US. No system is perfect but we can do the best according to our available resources and knowledge. Nonetheless, now it is a global world and rightly so a global village. We can learn and adopt ideas from various parts of the world. Kakching parents and guardians need to pay attention to local schools and their functioning. I am sure you will not be giving money to someone else or your relatives without questioning the purpose and also what is the return from it (with interest). Similarly, Education is an investment to our kids and the society for future. So, leaving education to teachers and schools alone is not right. Parents need to get involved and see whether their investment is getting the return - the worth. We need to pay attention to each level of achiever in students and try to improve at their individual level for every student. Experienced counselors for each student is needed to guide them to the right path. Each child has its own GOD given talent, recognizing and promoting it is the challenge for the parents and the society. At this stage, the teachers are the most important GURUS for the students. Parents can do so much at this stage.