USA Education Reader. High School and college culture. Книга для чтения

leading to an associate degree or professional certification; remedial programs; and adult education and welfare-to-work programs, which may or may not lead to an associate degree or certificate. Many community colleges have vocational education programs with local industries, whereby the college and a local company or companies join to provide a “total” integrated vocational education package. The college provides most of the necessary classroom education, often pays company personnel as adjunct instructors, and the company provides students with paid,on-jobtraining.Othercommunitycollegeshavetheso-calledtwo- plus-two, or tech-prep programs, which offer students a four-year vocational education program that begins in the student’s junior year of high school and continuous through communitycollege.They allow students to attend part-time and keep their jobs while continuing their education. They usually set no time limit to complete the work for a degree or certificate, and students may enroll in a few or as many courses as they wish.Americanstudentsapplytocommunitycollegeswithdifferentobjectives: to obtain basic higher education and then to continue studying for a Bachelor’s degree at other colleges and universities; or to develop some professional skills. Community colleges typically offer the first two years of general undergraduate education. The students in the academic track complete the first two years of their college education in these institutions and then transfer their credits to a four-year college. Other community college students pursue vocational, technical, and other pre-professional programs. The most popular programs tend to be in health services (registered nurse, dental hygiene, physical therapist), business, telecommunications and mechanical fields. Because community colleges typically have lower tuition rates than four-year colleges and universities, they offer significant advantages to many students, drawing poorer, minority immigrants and working students rather than the pool of elite liberal arts students or other four-year course students

Source: Parkland College 2004–2005 Catalog

COMMUNITY SERVICE: an elementary or secondary school activity for students to serve in any school-approved volunteer organizations which serve the community. Some public and private second-

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ary school students are required to complete a certain amount of unpaid hours of community service during the year to graduate – usually 60 hours, or the equivalent of a one-semester course.Also, an increasing number of college and university programs require students to take part in a community service project as part of their degree program. To fulfill this requirement, students may assist in clinics, participate in reading programs at local schools, or volunteer at homeless shelters. Colleges and universities that require these programs consider community service an essential part of a well-rounded education

Reference: Gerald L. Gutek. Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009

CUM LAUDE (with praise): a mark of distinction added to a degree of Bachelor ofArts (B.A.) or a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) granted to those students who have achieved especially high academic standing at U.S. colleges and universities

D: a barely acceptable grade of a student’s achievements, 40-49 points according to the 100 percent scale, 1.0 points according to the GPAsystem of grade calculation

(See: Grading system.)

DEAN: chief executive and/or administrator of colleges or other academic divisions of an institution. For example, at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign campus, each of the eighteen colleges and professional schools has a dean who is appointed by the president or the academicvicepresident.Frequently,deanshavehadexperienceaschairpersonsofacademicdepartmentsintheinstitution.Theresponsibilitiesof a dean typically include implementing policies established by the Board of Trustees and the president: preparing the budgets and overseeing the spending of funds within the academic division; supervising the faculty; recommending faculty in their college or school to the academic vice president for appointment, promotion, tenure, or termination; and maintaining or increasing student enrollment in their college or university.

Reference: Gerald L. Gutek. Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009

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DEBUTANTE BALL: a social event where young women are introduced into society for the first time.

DEGREE,ACADEMIC: a title granted to a student by a college or university after completing an established course of study. There are also honorary degrees conferred as marks of distinction, such as D.Litt. (Doctor of Letters). The most common degrees are B.A. and B.S., both given generally after the completion of a four-year course of study and sometimes followed by a mark of excellence, such as cum laude (with praise); magna cum laude (with great praise); or summa cum laude (with highest praise). The master’s degree is granted after one or two years of post-graduate work and may require the writing of a theses or dissertation. The doctoral degree requires two to five years of post-graduate work, the writing of a dissertation, and the passing of oral and written examinations

DEPARTMENT (ACADEMIC): Most colleges and universities are organized into academic divisions called departments. For example, the faculty members who teach English as a second language or history are organized into the department of ESL or history department. These departments have a chairperson who is appointed by the academic vice president upon the recommendation of the dean of the college or school, usually in consultation with the department’s faculty members. Chairpersons are generally senior professors in the department. Among the chairperson’s responsibilities are organizing the schedules of courses offered by the department and assigning faculty to teach them; appointing new faculty members to the department, usually based upon recommendations of faculty search committees; evaluating faculty within the department on their teaching, research, and service for promotion, tenure, or termination; implementing university or college-wide policies within the department; and presiding over meetings of the faculty members of the department

DIPLOMA: a document given upon completion of a specified amount of work in an educational institution. In public schools, diplo-

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mas are most commonly given after a student completes elementary school, junior high school (middle school), and senior high school. In colleges, diplomas are granted to those undergraduate students who have earned an associate’s or bachelor’s degree. In graduate or professional schools they are granted on completion of the work required for the graduate or professional degree. In the case of professional degrees, the diploma may also serve as the authority to practice the profession

DOCTOR OFPHILOSOPHY, PH.D.: the highest academic degree conferred by U.S. universities, although recipients of this degree may have studied any number of academic fields other than philosophy. Admission to doctoral programs requires completion of an undergraduate degree program and usually, but not always, of a master’s degree program. Students pursuing a doctorate must take a specific number of advanced graduate level courses, requiring at least two or three years of study beyond the master’s degree. Upon passing a written or oral examination, or a combination of both, doctoral students are granted the status of doctoral candidates. At that point they must research and write a dissertation on an original topic, and then successfully defend it before a committee of professors in the field

DROP-OUT: a person who leaves school, college, or university before finishing his/her studies

DORMITORY (DORM): a residence hall providing sleeping and residential quarters for college or university students. Almost all freshmen and sophomores are required to live in the dorm and have a meal plan. Students at boarding schools also live in the dorm

DRAMA CLASS: an elective in high school, a branch of the performingartsconcernedwithactingoutstoriesinfrontofanaudienceusing combinations of speech, gesture, music, dance, sound and spectacle

DRAMA DEPARTMENT: a division or department at a college or university which specializes in pre-professional training in drama

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and theatre arts, such as acting, design and technical theatre, arts administration and related subjects

DRUGGIES, THE: a social group in US high schools, students (or one could say “a group of people, young or older”) who are involved in drug and alcohol abuse

ELECTIVE CLASSES (ELECTIVES): classes that may be chosen or selected by a student, not compulsory.

In American high schools, students have more individual control of their education. Freshman students usually have 4 or 5 compulsory subjects, with perhaps one elective, while senior students may have only 2 compulsory courses, with the rest chosen by students themselves in consultation with their guidance counselors. Common types of electives include the following:

–Visual arts (drawing, sculpture, painting, photography, film studies, and art history)

–Performing arts (choir, drama, band, orchestra, dance)

–Vocational education (woodworking, metal working, comput- er-aid drafting, automobile repair, agriculture, cosmetology)

–Computer science / business education / information techno­ logy / media technologies (word processing, programming, graphic design, computer club, Web design and web programming, video game design, music production, film production)

–Journalism/publishing (school newspaper, yearbook, television production)

–Foreign languages (the most common — French, German, Italian and Spanish; less common — Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Greek, Latin, Korean, Dutch, Portuguese, and American Sign Language)

–Business Education (Accounting, Data processing, Entrepreneurship, Finance, General Business, Information and Communication Technology, Management, Marketing, Secretarial

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–Family and Consumer Science / Health (nutrition, nursing, culinary, child development, and additional physical education, and weight training classes);

–Junior Reserve Officers’Training Corps ( JROTC may replace a credit of Health or Physical Education);

–Drivers’ Education (In some schools it is a credit course, in others it’s only available after school).

Note, that among the electives listed above, many would be offered only in large city high schools

ELEMENTARYSCHOOL: the first 4 to 8 years of a child’s formal education. The number of years of instruction in the elementary school varies from community to community depending on the size of the school population. At the present time, most elementary schools enroll children of ages 5 to 12, kindergarten through fifth or sixth grade. (This depends on whether the elementary school is followed by a “middle school” (6–8) or a “junior high” (7–8). Some elementary schools include pre-school. Taxpayers pay for school buildings, teachers’salaries and school supplies and equipment. The elementary school curriculum includes language arts, mathematics, social studies, science, music and art. Elementary school students typically remain in one or two classrooms during the school day, with the exception of physical education, (P.E. or gym), library, music and art classes

ESSAY QUESTION: a difficult type of test both to take and to evaluate, as each individual student is required to compose a complete answer. The essay question requires students to demonstrate critical thinking as well as a wide range of knowledge and accurate recall of figures and facts. For teachers, the essay test can present scoring problems because of the subjective nature of answers. Accurate scoring includes four basic procedures: submission of papers without students’ names, the listing, in advance, of specific facts or answers that are expected from the students and their point value each, dual grading (for content and language, evaluation of tests by two or more teachers)

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EXAM(INATION):tests, usually in written form in mostAmerican schools, elementary through university level. The exams may be multiple choice, true-false, fill-in-the-blank, short answer, or essay, devised by qualified educators, which are graded by the teacher or professor. Graduate school master’s and doctoral programs are commonly finalized with an oral comprehensive exam

FACULTY: entire teaching staff of a high school, college or university

FEE: moneys charged by a college or university for their educational and other services. The entire cost of college education consists of tuition, room and board, books, and student service fees which may include counseling, campus transportation, health insurance, recreational sports, discounted tickets for intercollegiate sports competitions on campus.

FINANCIAL AID: financial help to pay tuition and other costs of attending college. The chief sources of financial aid are federal programs, state grant programs, private grants, and institutional sources at the college or university.These could include income from a variety of part-time job opportunities on campus, such as employment in a library, cafeteria, or office.Aid may be either a grant based on financial need, a merit-based scholarship, or a loan that the student must repay with interest in the future. More of the financial aid that most students now receive comes in the form of a loan rather than a grant or an award. For example, in 2007 the typical total grant size coming from different federal, state, institutional sources was about 43.7 percent, while loan size had increased to 56.3 percent

Source: The college board. Trends in student aid 2007. Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009

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FINANCIALAID OFFICE: an official division of a college or university in charge of processing financial aid to students. Its staff of financial aid advisers gives assistance to the students who apply

FINANCIALAID FORM: documented confidential information required of applicants for financial aid to a college or university which includes family financial status. With this information the college can evaluate the family’s ability to meet the college expenses, enabling the college to adjust the amount of financial aid according to need

FINAL EXAM: the examination that takes place at the end of a course of study or studies for a professional degree. It is a longer and harder exam than periodic course tests, and accounts heavily in the final course grade. Students informally call this exam a “final” or “finals”

FRATERNITY:a Greek letter social society for men who are students at a college or university with a name consisting of individually pronounced Greek letters.

The word fraternity comes from the Latin word frater meaning “brother.” There are four types of Greek-letter organizations: social, professional, academic or honorary, and service. Social Greek-letter organizations are the best known and most numerous. The first fraternity, Phi Beta Kappa, was founded at the college of William and Mary on December 5, 1776. The largest academic fraternities include Phi Kappa Phi, which limits membership to college juniors and seniors who have excelled academically; Phi Beta Sigma, a national honor society for college freshmen; and Phi Beta Kappa, which honors students graduating at the top of their college class.

Originally, the main goals of the society stated in many fraternity chapters were these: a sense of community, a system of honor, the courage to live one’s ideals, and a respect for academic life of the mind and the benefits of exercise. But after reaching record membership levels of about 400,000 in 1990, fraternity membership began decreasing as the number of students on financial aid increased and fewer students were able or willing to afford the hundreds of dollars in annual membership

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costs, as well as increasing alcohol and drug abuse and even deaths due to fraternity initiation rituals. By 2000, there were about 150 men’s and women’s residential and social fraternities, of which 25 were all women sororities that were not associated with the dangerous traditions of men’s fraternities. In addition to the more than 150 fraternities and sororities, there were nearly 90 professional fraternities, 40 recognition and honor societies for students who achieved distinction in scholarship, social contributions or academic achievements

(See also sorority)

Reference:TheHazingReadered.byHankNuwer(2004).Bloomington. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press;

Roger B. Winston Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009.

FRESHMAN: A student in the first year of high school or college

GRADE POINTAVERAGE (GPA): an indication of a student’s academic achievement at a college or university, calculated as the total number of grade points received over a given period divided by the total number of credits awarded

GRADE: 1) a single division of a school classified usually by year according to the age or progress of the pupils of such a division. 2) a letter, number, or other symbol indicating the relative quality of the student’s work

GRADE OF ZERO: an F/E, 0 points, in other words to fail a subject

GRADE SCHOOL: elementary school

GRADING SYSTEM: form of five letter grades used in American academic grading system.

Historically, the grades wereA, B, C, D, and F,Abeing the highest and F, denoting failure, the lowest. In the mid-twentieth century, many

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American educational institutions, especially in the Midwest (particularly the state of Michigan) began to use the letters A, B, C, D, and E, the only difference being that failure is denoted by E instead of F, which is not used by these schools. The A–F/A–E quality index is typically quantified by correlation to a five-point numerical scale as follows:

A= 4.0

B = 3.0

C = 2.0

D = 1.0

E/F = 0.0

Like all prototypes, the A–F/E system admits many variations. These often take the form of plusses and minuses, thereby producing a scale having the possibility of fifteen distinct units: A+, A, A–, B+, B, B–. and so forth. In actual practice A+ is seldom used, the same is true for D+ and D– an F/ E+ and F/E– to denote degrees of a very low score or no score at all (F/E), thereby forming a scale of between eight to ten units. The grade A+ is used frequently to denote 100% in American education.The minority of institutions that use it may quantify the grade as 4.3 or 4.5, but many of them quantifyA+ as 4.0 on the theory that a 4.0 scale cannot go higher than 4.0. Though inAdvanced Placement (AP) classes students receiving A or A+ are given higher grade than 4.0 and many times when a senior’s grades are averaged, it is found that they have achieved college credits already, before they have even begun their freshman year.

American high schools typically require a 1.0 grade point average to qualify to take a diploma. The industry standard for undergraduate institutions is a minimum of 2.0 average. Most graduate schools have required a 3.0 grade point average since 1975 (the transition began two decades earlier), but some schools still have 2.75 as their pass standard.

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