DR Academic Education Assessment

NoMoreSnow

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I would like to find out what is the equivalent DR education level to the Canadian High School Diploma (Grade 12)? and ...

Where in the DR can some have their academic credentials assessed...


Please ... keep on topic ... post all superfluous information to that new category in the "Open Forum" ..... soon to be comming!!
 

Hillbilly

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Here it is called the "Bachillerato"

The student is referred to as Bachiller So and So.

Theoretically, a bachelor's degree, but that is the biggest joke since God made Little Green Apples.

I estimate that fully 95% of all high school graduates (and I use that term very loosely) are incapable of reading an Op Ed page in any of the local daily papers. Is this harsh? Perhaps. Is it true? You betcha!

So, while the Canadian H.S. degree will look like a lesser academic achievement, it is in fact, far, far superior to what we get here.

The sad part is that the ruse is carried on at the university level, where the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo hands out degrees as Doctors when the educational level of the student is hardly at the B.A. level. This is why there are so many Doctors in the DR. The lawyers are all Doctors, as well as the M.D.s...

Before the onset of private higher education in 1962 there were only four degrees granted at the "University" of Santo Domingo: Law Doctors, Medical Doctors. Civil Engineers and Arquitects.

And the cruelest joke is that that "University" claims to be the oldest in the Western Hemisphere! Even when it didn't exist for centuries! Oh, but never say that out loud! Like Apple Pie and Momma....

HB, on a rant

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Ken

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As HB indicated, the education level of someone who graduated from a Canadian high school would be considerably above the majority of high school graduates in the DR. Most comparable would be the graduates of the good private schools in Santo Domingo. They employ certified teachers and administrators from the US, use texts and teaching methods like those in the US and Canada and prepare their students to enter American/Canadian colleges and universities.

If you want to pursue the idea of an evaluation, I would suggest you contact one of those administrators and see how you compare with graduates of his school. He should also be able to tell you how you compare with the graduate of a Dominican public school since he will know how his curriculum/faculty compare.

Someone living in Santo Domingo should be able to point you toward the best school to contact. Or perhaps HB knows of a private school in Santiago that is equal to those in the US and Canada.
 

NoMoreSnow

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clarification of the question ...

If a graduate of a DR high school wishes to attend college or university in Canada/USA they will have to have their grade reports and copies of course discriptions translated into English and them assessed by a COMPETENT body in the DR... my question is that I need to know who that body is...
 

NoMoreSnow

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HillBilly & Ken

Are you saying that a DR University Degree (Doctorate), is not equivalent to a Canadian/USA high school diploma ...

Hillbilly what is the "Op Ed" part of the paper ...
 

Ken

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As I indicated in my post, I believe the best person for you to contact is the administrator of a good private school, an American school. These schools send students to the US and Canada to attend the universities. Very, very few graduates of the public high schools make it to universities other than Dominican.

I believe you will find that the good private schools have some sort of link to accreditation sources in the US and that they have met the requirements of these sources with respect to curriculum, faculty qualifications, etc. I do not think the accreditation comes from a Dominican body.

Additionally, the students from these schools that want to enter American institutions of higher learning take the SAT examination, which gives them a score that college admission people can use as a measure. Additionally, these schools have acquired a reputation over the years based on scores of students on SAT, percentage of students going on to higher education in the US and Canada, performance of these students in these colleges and universities, etc.

Again, I don't think there is a better person for you to contact than the administrator of one of these schools. I believe, as indicated above, that the accreditation of students will come from outside the DR.

I know of doctors that graduated from Dominican schools of medicine that went on to the US for further training. But they had to pass the appropriate examinations to be admitted.

I don't think a blanket statement can be made that a DR University Degree is not equivalent to a Canadian/US high school diploma. But it can be said that a degree from a DR university is not equivalent to a degree from a US/Canadian institution of higher learning.
 

Hillbilly

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Wrong on a couple of pounts

NO MORE SNOW: The Op Ed page is the page next to the Editorial page where people express opinions...at least in US or DR papers

As for a DR high schooler applying to a US or Canadian College..

There is no assessment body here. what can be done is to certify that the grades and curriculum is what it says it is and that the signitures are valid. This can be done at the SEC ED, in Santo Domingo.. It is called "Certificaci?n".

The student will have to take TOEFL exams at the Dominican-American Cultural Center as per each college's requirements.

Some colleges might even require the SATs...

HB, factotum

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Hillbilly

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Sorry Ken that has to be qualified

I'll put up any of our grads against any of the grads in US universities( Okey, maybe not Cal Tech or MIT but some are damn close!)

I know that our Med school grads from my university are far better equipped to handle Residency than most med school grads in the US! Fact! Why? They have absolutely TONS of experience by the time they graduate, something no US MEd school grad can have because of liability claims...However, we are not producing doctors for the US but for the DR.....
What we are comparing are Highschools here and there. My stand is that the US and Canadian High schools are far better-with obvious exceptions, than Dominican high schools.

gotta go

HB
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bob saunders

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certification

My wife will soon be sending off her papers to the British Columbian Teachers Federation and I'll let everyone know if her UASD Degrees are worth anything here. She has a Education Degree with a speciality in Mathematics and Physics and a Degree in Statictics.
 

Ken

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HB,

We are agreement that the public high schools in the US and Canada are much better than those in the DR. It is also agreed that graduates of the Dominican med and vet schools have had considerably more hands-on experience than their counterparts to the north.

Ken
 

Hillbilly

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Bob Saunders

I would suppose that her papers have been translated by a legal translator( ie., one that is certified by the Judiciary) and that her degree has been certified by CONES-The Higher Education Council.

These are general requirements.

As for the degree, I would imagine that it is to be respected, although there will probably be some certification course work required in order to teach.

I have taught in that program for teacher's ed and generally speaking the students were hard working and had a desire to get ahead---not that I taught at the UASD, my politics prohibit me from being a candidate to teach there...

And please, do let us know what happens...be interesting and informative.

HB
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Meredith

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There is a grade system, but usually not a specific age to be in a grade, it can have a large range at the public schools. Depending on the area in which one lives, a grade 8 student can be 13 years or 21 years.
 

MommC

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Sorry NoMoreSnow......

I really can't help with this having no experience.
I do know that some private schools are better than any public school.
Listen to HB ---he's been here and had children that went through their school years here. I also think Mainer has a good idea to "home School" altho' I think a combination of "private" school and home schooling would be the ideal. I did have a gifted child and a "special needs" child at school in Canada and we had to "home" school both to a certain degree in order to give them the "enriched" schooling that they needed. IMHO (in my humble opinion) public Dominican schooling is definitely out of the question (even my maid didn't want her children going to the public schools and paid for them to attend a private school as soon as she could!). I have heard some stories about the "Lack" of education in public schools and teacher indifference.
 

NoMoreSnow

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Please confine your answers to the questions ...

Does the DR have a "Ministry of Education"? and is there a standard cirriculum set for each grade in the DR public school ... regardless of the quality (good/bad etc) I just need to know if there is a standard ..

Does High School in the DR finish at grade 12? or higher?

I need to know specifically what a student who has completed GR 12 (or high school) in the DR would have learned over all their years of schooling ... this is not about foreign students who are studying in the DR but about DR STUDENTS who cannot afford PRIVATE SCHOOLS and must rely solely on the DR PUBIC SCHOOL SYSTEM for their education ... please do not read anything else into the question ....


This information is very important to me and I appreciate anyone who can provide me with these answers..
 

Hillbilly

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Besides the fact that these are really dumb questions

Yes, of course there is a Ministry of Education
Yes, of course there is a standard curriculum.
Yes, it goes up to the 12th grade.
And, yes, it sucks!

Now what other idiot things do you want to know. Oh yes, yes they have come down from the tree, jeez almost two years ago!!

Talk about ignorant!!
HB , pissed!

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There is no assessment body here. what can be done is to certify that the grades and curriculum is what it says it is and that the signitures are valid. This can be done at the SEC ED, in Santo Domingo.. It is called "Certificaci?n".

I am sorry, I committed the error of presuming that you would understand "SEC ED" as the Secretary of Education, but I had very stupidly forgotten that you didn't know what the Op Ed page was, so you don't read much, do you??
 
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Ken

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NoMoreSnow wrote:

"I need to know specifically what a student who has completed GR 12 (or high school) in the DR would have learned over all their years of schooling"


I think what you are asking for is beyond the scope of this board, whether you are asking what a student "should" have learned or "would" have learned. The latter is impossible to answer, and the former can be answered by your getting copies of the curriculum guides.

I hope that all your questions in this thread haven't been with the goal of getting others to do your term paper, or something similar.
 

MommC

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Can't blame HB for being P****d!

What he's telling you NoMoreSnow is that there really is nom way to compare a public school education here with one in Canada or the US. There are just too many variables........
It depends on what age the person starts school, how interested their teachers are,How regularly they attend school,what supplies and materials the teachers/students have available,how much the parents are able to "home" school,How much the student is interested in learning and how much the teacher is able to teach.
Most school graduates can read at a basic level,can write almost legibly,can add,subtract,multiply and divide at a basic level and know some history and geography of the DR.
If I absolutely HAD to make a comparison based on my limited knowledge of the public schools system I would be forced to say that adults I have met who completed ONLY public school have an education roughly on par with a grade 8 or 9 Canadian pupil. This is why there are so many "private" and trade schools in the DR. If a person wishes to be well educated here they attend a "pay for" program of some type.
 

NoMoreSnow

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Thanks MommC

Thanks this information is very helpful ... specific .. to the point .. and fact driven ... now I have the information that I need to continue working with ...