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With a seemingly intense focus on standardized tests and rote memorization, are public schools effectively preparing kids for the "real world" beyond high school boundaries? The answers may be troubling.

In fact, nearly 82 percent of college students report that if their secondary educational experiences had established higher standards, they would have happily exerted more rigorous efforts as students. Additionally, as the National Governors Association reveals, approximately 65 percent of current high school students desire more demanding and interesting courses.

As schools struggle to meet academic expectations while simultaneously adjusting to budget cuts, are public school students currently lacking a sound preparedness for life after graduation?

Are Tests Helping Students Gain Relevant Experience?

In an attempt to boost the performance of all public schools, federal legislation implemented the No Child Left Behind act. This act, established nearly a decade ago, mandated increased student testing in order to verify the effectiveness of each individual public school's progress and instructional practices. While this act had ideal intentions, many have realized that the initiative merely distracted students from learning, while emphasizing a new focus on testing and progress scores.

An American Diploma Project, is one of the leading programs striving to foster real-world readiness among public school students. As Achieve reveals, "To close the expectations gap and better prepare students for college and the workplace, states must first ensure that high school standards reflect the real-world skills and knowledge students need to be successful after

With increasingly demanding standards, competitive college acceptance expectations, and more rigorous educational guidelines, many public school students are striving for higher grades than ever before. Recent studies assert that the key to boosting a child's GPA involves providing students with more consistent educational opportunities. Fundamentally, more consistent opportunities are best achieved by providing students with year-round public instruction.

In fact, according to , Specialists in Time and Learning, educational studies prove that nearly all students experience various forms of summer learning loss during the longer seasonal time away from school. In further detail, a team of psychology experts at the University of Missouri thoroughly evaluated the impact of summer vacation on students' test scores. As a result of these investigations, The study found that summer learning loss is a reality, that all students (including the best) lose in math and spelling skills, and many, though not all, lose reading skills over the traditional summer.

As a result of these and other expert findings, many educators and parents support new propositions for year-round public school classes. These initiatives are forcing many community members to question: will students earn higher grades without a summer vacation? This video from PBS gives an overview of the issue.

The Year-Round Educational Model

With new plans for year-round programs, public schools have individually, and often uniquely, created their own modified instructional calendars. An

While the first summer days always begin with excitement and anticipation, nearly all parents eventually start to worry about their child's summertime video game, television, and computer gaming habits. Many parents want to find ways to help children find an appropriate balance between leisure and learning.

Similarly, teachers actively strive to boost children's educational interests over the summer, as many teachers argue that engaging in summertime learning activities helps improve a child's progress throughout his or her formative years. Studies show that by the time a student reaches middle school, a loss of summer reading can potentially account for a two-year setback in reading achievement! Fortunately, to offer parents guidance and support, public schools nationwide have developed new agendas and programs to keep a child's mind active while away from school on summer vacation.

Summer Assignments

While all public school teachers presumably encourage students to engage in educational endeavors over the summer, some school leaders have taken this hope to the next level with required public school summer assignments. Summer assignments in the past have typically been reserved only for the highly ambitious Advanced Placement kids, but schools are now gradually extending various tasks for all students.

As The Chicago Sun-Times reports, over 170,000 public school students, ranging from kindergarten to 7^th, are being provided with workbooks, lesson plans, and reading assignments for their summer vacations. With a new program to avoid students' historical patterns of education-free summers, Chicago Public Schools have dedicated $2.7 million towards helping

Paying for academic performance has become a consistent debate surrounding public schools. Should children be monetarily rewarded for their grades? What are the pros and cons of financially rewarding teachers for their students’ performance?

Amidst all of these questions, a new theory has entered the ring. Some believe that parents should also be financially remunerated for their child’s public school success. To explore this possibility, some public schools across the country are experimenting with controversial cash incentives for parents, hoping that the “bribe” will help parents take on a more active and much-needed role in their child’s learning.

Will Paying Parents Boost Student Performance?

According to investigations from , programs providing cash motivation to parents have been seen in public school districts in nearly every state. While the moral and ethical appropriateness of such agendas continues to be clouded with controversy, recent studies show that these tactics work!

Specifically, a non-partisan social-policy research group, MDRC, found that cash incentives helped increase lower-income students’ performance and retention rates. In their study, MDRC discovered that families offered financial incentives for positive performance earned both increased grade point averages and enhanced feelings of confidence.

Adding to the reports of Time Magazine and MDRC, CNN also examined the potential advantages of financial rewards. Teachers of various public schools in Des Moines, Iowa, were fed up watching students passively fail through each class and semester.

While many public school classrooms have traditionally taught all children using the same lessons and techniques, recent studies show that a child’s unique learning style should also be taken into consideration. Considering that each child has his or her own learning style, public schools are now experimenting with programs to accommodate the individual needs of every student, gifted, normal, or special.

The Various Styles of Learning

According to , a program devoted to helping each learner understand more about his or her own unique cognitive processes, there is no “right” or “wrong” way to engage in an optimal pattern or routine of learning. As each individual has his or her own intellectual strengths, educators and parents should utilize a child’s strengths in order to teach him or her to succeed.

The various styles of learning are typically referred to as “multiple intelligences.” Although a very recent and often debated theory, many educators and public school leaders are slowly recognizing the potential benefits of incorporating the multiple intelligences approach. As many experts support, by allowing students to recognize and understand their own unique methods of learning, teachers can more appropriately use a variety of techniques to adapt lessons for a range of individuals. Additionally, understanding and accepting the various types of learning most often helps to improve the speed and quality of each child’s comprehension and learning. Currently, there are seven identified basic modes/styles of learning:

• Visual – Visual learners prefer learning with