1 . During the industrial age, when high school was key to the American dream, public-school systems covered the costs of earning a diploma. Today, however, ns college degrees have replaced high-school diplomas as the ticket into the middle class, families are forced to cover the costs of higher education and more. If the information-age economy demands a workforce with higher education, the US government needs to make the same deal with students and their families: Anyone willing to work hard and earn the degree should be able to attend college—for free.

With that basic bargain in mind, Michigan has lately joined Oregon, Rhode Island and Tennessee in experimenting with ways to make community college free. Under the terms of the Chicago Star Scholarship, a program that has already enrolled more than 6,000 students, if a student at a public high school in Michigan maintains a B average, the state will provide a free degree at a local community college. Then, through another program Chicago Star Plus, students who have scored 3.0 GPA are qualified to receive a tuition discount at 18 of the four-year colleges located in Michigan.

Chicago Star Scholarship and Chicago Star Plus are already changing young lives. Its high-school graduation rate grew from 56.9 percent in 2011 to 78.2 percent in 2022. And Chicago Star Plus’ college attending rate is 86 percent, well above the national average of 62.7 percent.

More than a century ago, America achieved an explosion of social mobility by creating a supportive public school system that runs to 12th grade. By adding community colleges to the nation’s public-school systems and educational requirements, we can strengthen the belief in the American dream again.

2 . I heard about a high school in Chicago where students had to pass a certain number of courses to graduate, and if they didn’t pass a course, they got the grade “Not Yet”. I thought that was fantastic.     1     But if they got the grade “Not Yet”, they understood that they were on a learning curve.

“Not Yet” also gave me more insight. I wanted to see how children coped with challenge and difficulty, so I gave 10-year-olds problems that were slightly too hard for them. Some of them reacted in a shockingly positive way.     2     They understood that their abilities could be developed. They had what I call a growth mindset. But other students felt it was tragic. From their more fixed mindset perspective, their intelligence had been up for judgment and they failed.

I’ll tell you what they do next. In one study, they told us they would probably cheat then next time instead of studying more if they failed a test.     3     For the fixed mindset students, there was hardly any. They ran from error. They didn’t engage with it. But the students with the growth mindset engaged deeply, exhibiting increased electrical activity in their brains. They processed the error and learned from it.

    4     First of all, we can praise wisely. Praise the process that kids engage in: their effort, their strategies, their focus, their perseverance, their improvement. We can also change students’ mindsets. Research found that students who were not taught growth mindset continued to show declining grades.     5    

While engagement has never been more challenging for schools to achieve, it’s also     1    (critical) than ever. Engagement is more than just ensuring that lessons are fun. Upon deeper examination, engagement and motivation     2     (drive) by several factors. Do students get an opportunity to help shape their goals and the process by which they are learning to achieve them? Does every student feel     3     (support) at school? Do students understand the value of     4     they’re learning and believe that this value outweighs the cost of effort? When these things are true, learning happens.

5 . According to a study by the U. S. Department of Education, families choose homeschooling over public schools for three primary reasons. Nearly half of homeschooling parents said they could give their children a better education at home. Thirty-eight percent cited religious reasons.    1    

Like many homeschool parents, Certain and her husband, Randy, are college graduates. They said they did not have the money to send their children to private school in the Los Angeles area where they lived.    2     And Certain also wanted her children to learn to read using phonics (拼读法).

    3    She began homeschooling her three children because she felt they weren’t learning what she thought they should learn. “I remember helping our daughter, Danielle, with her homework when I realized that she wasn’t reading any of the classics in literature,” said Certain. “It was breaking my heart to see that she was missing out on some very important elements that should have been in her education.”

Certain said it takes more than good intentions to homeschool. “Homeschooling is a    4    For Certain’s family, homeschooling meant Certain had spiritual calling,” she said, to quit her job.

In addition to teaching her children at home, Certain joined other parents in a homeschooling support group and attended conferences and other homeschooling events. “People say that homeschooled children are not learning how to relate socially with their peers (同龄人) but that is just not true,” she said. “    5    ”

9 . Young adults often have a lot to learn in school. However, occasionally, the life skills needed for them to become successful outside of school aren’t learned. This may be why the years after high school can sometimes be the most uneasy and tense times for young adults.

Some may say that life skills are to be taught by their household rather than school, but that’s not exactly true. Some students don’t have a parent figure to teach them the necessary moral lessons needed and habitually rely on school to propound them with this essential knowledge. This is why courses of life skills should be set up in schools.

Over the course of history, students generally go to an educational institution of some sort to find themselves spending their entire time learning math and science, instead of what is required for real world-communication, which is through behaviors and manners. Manners are important when having a conversation with family, friends, teachers perhaps or even employers. Schools should find a way to teach manners as a way for students to have respect and be open-minded when it comes to other individuals.

In addition, the handling of finances is one of the major life skills for students. For people, especially young people, to survive in today⁵s financial environment, knowledge of personal finance is a necessity. For example, schools educating students about building credit scores and keeping up with a credit card is helpful. However, Educational Institutions does not spend a good amount of time talking about the topic of money managing ： paying taxes, mortgage, bills, insurance, etc. It is time to extend financial knowledge by making personal finance a required course at US colleges and universities.

With the essential instructions of communication and financial management provided to the young adults, they will be more successful in their future life.

A “White Box” Digital Transition Model for Education

Liu Xinsheng, a student in a rural school in Zibo, Shandong province,     1     the English teaching resources are limited, has been learning English through a small terminal (终端机) on a     2     (day) basis.     3     textbook-sized smart terminal, nicknamed “white box”, has become the most important tool for improving Liu’s English-speaking skills.

Technology enhances education and     4     (bridge) the gap effectively in educational resources between rural and urban areas. Students in the school can not only correct their     5     (pronounce) but also receive real-time feedback. Additionally, after submitting assignments through the device, they immediately receive corrections for certain tasks.

The AI-enabled rural education in Linzi district is just an example of how Zibo is     6     (true) promoting a digital transition in its education sector. By the end of last year, 97 percent of primary and secondary schools in Zibo     7     (complete) the digital transformation, with 295 schools establishing smart campuses     8     (equip) with multimedia classrooms.

Sun Yingtao, head of the Zibo Bureau of Education, said that     9     (ensure) that children enjoy high-quality education is the original intention of promoting digital education. “Digital education in Zibo has just begun and there are still many new situations, problems and challenges to deal     10    . In the future, we will accelerate the innovation of digital education application prospects and make every effort to strengthen the city’s digital education ecosystem,” Sun said.