Running head: BETTER?

Which is Better?
Antonia Mendoza
Dr. Shanyn Aysta Isaac
PSY 307-02
4/4/15

Abstract
This paper will be discussing how the public education system in the United States operates and
the curriculum that is taught compared to the public education system in the United Kingdom.
The paper will then show that statistics states that the public education system in the United
Kingdom ranks higher in the world in education, compared to the States. With this being said
there are many changes that are needed to improve the education system in the States; however,
with only minimal changes the States will see a huge improvement in their education system as
well as a higher success rating with preparing students for the real world.

Running head: BETTER?

Which is Better?
Laying in bed trying to catch a few more precious moments of sleep, when out of the blue
you find yourself being woken up by two excited children. Pondering to yourself, is it
Christmas? Only to realize that it is no Christmas, but the first day of school. You quickly get
up, get the kids dressed, make breakfast, and pack lunches. As you are driving them to school,
you begin to think to yourself. In no time my children will be graduating high school and then
off to college. Snapping back into reality, you drop your kids off at their first day of school, wish
them luck, tell them you love them, and that you will see them later that day; you slowly drive
away, waving goodbye to your little ones. For the most parents, in any country this would be
considered a typical day. However, once inside the school it is a different story. With that being
said no two countries K-12 public education system are alike, so what are the major differences
between the K-12 public education system in the United States and the United Kingdom, and
which public education system has shown to be the most effective in student success when they
are released into the working world.
The United States, also known as the country of many opportunities, has an education
system that is unlike that in many countries. (Corsi-Bunker, 2015). How is this so? First, when it
comes down to it the federal government, who in most countries controls the education system,
has little involvement with the public education system in the United States; besides a few basic
rules they have set, ultimately leaving the decisions on public education to the state. Due to this,
each individual state has its own department of education. Each individual state decides on how

Running head: BETTER?

much money will be spent, the hiring of the staff, curriculum taught, and the number of years
that a child is required to attend school. Needless to say most states stick to the general practice
that children start kindergarten at the age of five or six, depending on what month they make the
cut off, and graduate school at the age of seventeen or eighteen. (Corsi-Bunker, 2015). Due to the
amount of pressure this puts on the state, most states usually will break down the state into
various school districts, which end up deciding the curriculum taught in the school, how much
staff is paid, who is hired, and ultimately how the schools will be controlled. When it comes
down to it, this causes a large variation among schools regarding courses, subjects, and other
activities. This means that no two schools are alike when learning, which can make it difficult to
transfer schools, especially in different school districts and even states.
Since the federal government has little involvement with how the education system is ran,
they tend to only contribute 9-10% of funds to the states education fund. This being said the
individual states and local school districts are required to provide the rest. (Checkley, 2008). To
determine how much the state and districts will contribute to the education system, they run a
particular formula that will determine how much is contributed to the schools education system.
With that being said each state usually contributes anywhere between 32 to 89% to the public
education funding. However, when the state is short on money they usually tend to turn to
fundraisers and grants to for the rest, which in turn is disturbed to the districts and used to fund
school materials, new computer, etc. The districts then have a distinct formula that allocates how
much money will be given to each public school, grade levels k-12. Items that might be found in
the school districts formula are what area the school is located, the standardized test scores of
each school, the graduation rate to student ratio, the average income of individuals living in that
area, the extracurricular activities being provided at the school, and the achievements of the
school. (Checkley, 2008). This in turn can cause a huge difference in how the curriculum is

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taught from school to school, even when they are located in the same district. Many problems
arise when schools located in an area where individuals are earning an average income of
60,000-200,000 annually have a higher chance of receiving a larger sum of money, compared to
a school which is located in an area that the average income is 20,000-40,000 annually. These
schools tend to have less extracurricular activities, a large staff overturn due to lesser pay, which
in turn usually adds more work onto existing staff members, which can lead to a poor learning
environment, causing lower scores on standardized test and even a lower graduation rate to
student ratio. With that being said the chance that the school will ever grow and hope to receive
more funds are slim.
When it comes to curriculum, all schools in the United States are required to teach the
basic subjects; math, science, English, reading, and writing. With that being said the fine details
with what is taught in these subjects is not regulated. Each individual state and even district can
choose what added classes they would like to include in their core curriculum as well as what is
needed to graduate. All that is asked is that the students are able to pass the state and federal
standardized test that are issued once a year. This though puts a lot of pressure on the teachers, as
there is no regulation with what is taught in schools by the federal government. Since these tests
are created by the federal government, teachers have begun focusing on teaching to test. (Evans,
2013). When it comes to school, students and parents can ulitmently do what they want. The
school is left up to deciding if the student will be punished; whether that is with a lower GPA due
to many unexcused absences, being expelled, or finding a solution to help the child attend
school.
Currently the United Kingdom consist of four countries; Northern Ireland, Scotland,
Wales, and England. However, many individuals in these countries do not always considered
themselves as part of the United Kingdom, as they do not like to be known as being British. With

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that being said, all four of these countries are currently governed from Westminster. (Sheppard,
1998). At this time the public schools are fully funded government, but ran by the local council.
Even though the local council has many laws that they are required to abide by that have been set
by the British government, the local council still has a lot of say on how the public schools are
ran. Children begin school around the age five, the September after their fourth birthday, and
usually finish around the age of sixteen. Unlike, America where school is divided into grades, the
schooling in the United Kingdom is divided into age groups. (Understanding The British School
System, 2014). This is ensures that all students starting school are close to the same age as their
peers. Children who are not of age to attend fulltime public school, which are between the ages
of three and four, will attend early years/nursery school, or known as preschool in America, a
few days week. Nursery schools are fully funded by the state and are free to parents, unless they
choose to enroll their children in private nursery schools. Unlike the United States where
preschool has become a form of child care for parents who work. Nursery school is a place
parents take their children for early learning, and as well as a way for their young children to
become accustom to being in school.
Once children have become of age they will begin attending Primary school, or also
known as elementary school in the states. Primary school is broken down into two age ranges;
Key Stage One, which ranges in ages from five- seven or eight, and Key Stage Two, which goes
up to the age of eleven or twelve. These stages are then broken down into years, such as year
one, year two, year three, etc. As the child ages, they will progress in the years; which is
equivalent to grades in the public schools in America. During these two stages the national
curriculum subjects are English, math, science, design and technology, history, geography, art
and design, music, physical education (swimming included), information and communication
technology, ancient and modern foreign languages, personal, social and health educations, and

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citizenship. At the end of year one students will have a phonics screening, which is completed by
the teacher. If the teacher deems that the student did not do well they will be rescreened in year
two. At the end of Key Stage One, the teacher will then assess the students reading, writing,
speaking and listening, math, and sciences though a series of written and verbal test; the results
are then used to gauge the students level of knowledge and is rarely seen by the parents.
However, parents can request to see the evaluation.When students finish Key Stage Two they are
once again tested on English reading, grammar, punctuation and spelling, and math, including
mental arithmetic. Key Stage Two test takes a total of five hours and thirty minutes to complete
and the results are given to the parents, as well as the school. (www.gov.uk, 2012).
Once children have finished primary school, they then will move onto secondary school,
which occurs between the ages of eleven and sixteen. Secondary schools, just like primary
schools are required to follow the national curriculum; which included English, math, science,
history, geography, modern foreign languages, design and technology, art and design, music,
physical education, citizenship, information and communication technology, religious education,
and lastly sex education. Unlike primary school, students are being prepared to take a range of
external examinations at the end of secondary school. These examinations are commonly known
as the GCSE or General Certificate of Secondary Education. (www.gov.uk, 2012). Once
graduated from secondary school, the individual can then decide to attend a further education
school. This form of education is provided to individuals over the age of 16, and is considered a
higher form of education the secondary school, but a lesser form of education from the university
level. Much of the curriculum taught is skill base, which would be considered a vocational
school in the states. (www.gov.uk, 2012).
During the course of the childs schooling parents are required to participate. Parents
have strict rules and regulations to follow by, one of which is on absences. When children are

Running head: BETTER?

unexpectedly missing from school the local council will be contacting the parent. If parents do
not seek advance permission from the school regarding vacations, or notifying the school of
illness, they are likely to receive a fine. With that being said, if too much school is missed that
does not deem acceptable by the local council, parents have a chance of being prosecuted.
Prosecution is the last step, as usually the local council will give multiple warnings and offer
help to get your child to school before the lead to prosecution. Lastly, all schools in the United
Kingdom require that students wear uniforms. However, each school will decide on its uniform,
but they are not allowed to discriminate based on gender, race, disability, sexual orientation or
belief. (www.gov.uk, 2012). If a child attends school not in uniform, the child will be punished.
If it becomes a consistent problem, the child can be suspended or expelled; however, this is up to
the head teacher on what form of consequence will take place. (www.gov.uk, 2012).
As you can see there are many differences and few similarities between the two countries
regarding educations. Now the real question is what school system has had the most success. It
has been a well known fact that for many years, Americans have not been the highest performing
students in the world. When looking on the scores across the board, currently the United States is
outranked by the United Kingdom. However, when breaking down the education system state by
state, there are some states that are in the same ranking or even higher than the United Kingdom.
(Carey, 2009). Sadly, though America has much to learn from the United Kingdom education
system. Since 1988, much of the United Kingdom has spent a considerable time and energy on
how to make the education system better. Leaders asked valuable questions such as, what do we
want for them (the students)? What outcomes do we want? With these changes the United
Kingdom has transformed their formal education to have a heavy emphasis on vocational focus
in their national curriculum at an early age. This has helped students decide what they want to
do, as well as be able to jump into the real world once school has finished. The school system in

Running head: BETTER?

the United Kingdom also wants to give children a positive outlook to education. (Downing J.,
1996). In the journal What American Elementary School Counselors Can Learn From European
Educational Systems they state that the United Kingdom government goal is also to teach the
child a skill, acknowledge the childs exhibition of that skill, and talk with the child about the
ideas and feeling engendered when the child demonstrates that skill. So in theory the child
develops a good self-concept by exhibiting competence in academic skills. (Downing J., 1996).
Where as the American Education System for many years has been focusing on teaching children
a skill that is applied to next learning experience, ultimately leading up to college. This in turn
has caused major behavior problems in schools across the States. With little emphasize on
training on skills that pertain to when children are released into the real world, it cause a vast
majority of individuals under educationed and unskilled to perform the tasks at hand. (Downing
J., 1996). With all this being said, it is evident that the United Kingdoms school system is much
more successful compared to the American Education System.
It is apparent that the only way to make the American Education System successful is
first have a form of national curriculum that is required in all states. This way we eliminate the
problem of different subjects and required curriculum at schools. Second, instead of focusing on
teaching the students curriculum that can only be applied to the next learning experience, in
hopes that all students will attend some sort of higher education; the curriculum should be altered
to teach students skills that pertain to the real world.(Downing J, 1996). This way America can
start to eliminate the problems of releasing under educationed and unskilled workers into the
world, and hopefully begin scoring higher on the education system across the world.
In conclusion, there are many differences between the American education system and
the United Kingdom education system, and very few similarities. Currently, the American public
education system for students K-12 is disorganized and uniformed. Much of the schooling

Running head: BETTER?

purpose is to teach children to either pass standardized test and to attend a higher education
institution to learn the knowledge that is needed to survive in the real world. Whereas the United
Kingdom public education system for students K-12 focuses on training the students to be able to
start their lives once leaving school, without having to attend a higher education school unless
wanting to. In turn the United Kingdom expects parents to be fully invested in their childrens
education and are punished when they do not participate; whereas, America is very relaxed in
their rules and ultimately leave everything up to the school. Currently, America ranks in the
middle of education system in the world, but with few changes to make the curriculum
uniformed, we potentially become one of the top education systems in the world.

References
Carey, K. (2009, June 18). USA vs. the World. Retrieved April 13, 2015, from
http://chronicle.com.ozone.nsc.edu:8080/blogs/brainstorm/usa-vs-the-world/6966
Checkley, K. (2008, July 10). Money matters: At a glance. Retrieved April 3, 2015, from Center
for Public Educaion | National School Boards Association:
www.centerforpubliceducation.org/main-menu/Policies/moeny-matters-At-a-glance
Corsi-Bunker, A. (2015). Guide to the Education System In the United States. Retrieved April 2,
2015, from www.isss.umn.edu/publications/useducation/2.pdf

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10

Downing, J., & D'Andrea, L. M. (1996). What American elementary school counselors can learn
from European educational systems. Elementary School Guidance & Counseling, 31(2),
114-121.
Evans, J. (2013, November 4). Problems With Standardized Testing. Retrieved April 10, 2015,
from education.com: www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_Test_Problems_Seven/
Sheppard, J., & Dawson, M. M. (1998). Educational and school psychology in the United
Kingdom and the United States: An introduction. School Psychology Review, 27(1), 7.
Understanding The British School System. (2014). Retrieved April 5, 2015, from
www.422abs.com/rafc/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=Rw8YrHUPTTw
%3D&tabid=82&mid=467
www.gov.uk. (2012). Education System In The UK. Retrieved April 8, 2015, from
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/219167/v0
1-2012ukes.pdf