Lincoln Education Act
An Act to specify the education standards and requirements in the region of Lincoln
SECTION I: Organization
1. School attendance in a certified school in Atlasia shall be mandatory for all residents of Lincoln between 6 and 16 years old. The practice of homeschooling is hereby banned, except with a proven major reason as approved by the school district. Homeschooled students shall be required to attend standardized tests every 2 years to check their development.
2. School lessons in the region of Lincoln shall last for 50 minutes. Schools and school districts may shorten or lengthen them by up to 5 minutes each way
3a. School days in the region of Lincoln shall run as follows:
i) Between 8:30 and 14:50 for primary school students
ii) Between 9:00 and 15:20 for middle school students
iii) Between 8:00 and 14:20 for high school students
3b. School districts and states may delay or anticipate these times by up to 30 minutes each way.
4. A 30 minute recess period shall be mandatory in all schools in the region of Lincoln.
5. The government of Lincoln shall offer free school lunches for all students belonging to a household below 150% of the poverty line.
6. School years in the region of Lincoln shall run between the 2nd week of September and the 3rd week of June. States may delay or anticipate these times by up to 2 weeks each way.
7. Education in the region of Lincoln shall be organized into 4 stages:
a) Kindergarten and pre-Kindergarten, intended for children up to 6 years old
b) Primary School, intended for children between the ages of 6 and 11
c) Middle School, intended for children between the ages of 11 and 14
d) High School, intended for children between the ages of 14 and 18
8. Students shall be allowed to proceed to the next school year with up to this many failed subjects:
a) Kindergarten and pre-Kindergarten: Not applicable
b) Primary School: Up to 1 failed subject
c) Middle School: Up to 2 failed subjects
d) High School: Up to 2 failed subjects, but passing all subjects in all years of high school shall be a requirement to graduate
SECTION II: Subjects
1. Kindergarten shall not be composed of subjects. Instead, educators will have general guidelines on how to treat children and what to teach them
2. Primary school shall be composed of the following subjects, with the following amount of lessons per week:
i) Natural Sciences (3.5 lessons/week)
ii) Social Sciences (3.5 lessons/week)
iii) Art (3.5 lessons/week)
iv) Physical Education (3 lessons/week)
v) English Language and Literature (7.5 lessons/week)
vi) Foreign language & culture (3.5 lessons/week)
vii) Mathematics (7.5 lessons/week)
viii) Civic and Social values (1 lesson/week)
ix) Emotional education (1 lesson/week)
x) General class meetings (1 lesson/week)
3. Middle school shall be composed of the following subjects, with the following amount of hours per week:
i) Biology and Geology (2.5 lessons/week)
ii) Physics and Chemistry (2.5 lessons/week)
iii) Physical Education (2 lessons/week)
iv) English Language and Literature (6 lessons/week)
v) First foreign language (3 lessons/week)
vi) Mathematics (6 lessons/week)
vii) Plastic and Visual Education (2 lessons/week)
viii) Music (2 lessons/week)
ix) General class meetings (1 lesson/week)
x) Second foreign language (2 lessons/week)
xi) Civic and Ethic values (2 lessons/week)
xii) Social Sciences, Geography and History (2 lessons/week)
xiii) Technology and Computer Science (2 lessons/week)
4. High school shall be divided into 3 branches: the Sciences branch, the Humanities branch and the Arts branch. Students must pick one of these 3 branches; with the following configurations of subjects. Students make these selections during January of their 8th grade years. All students and their parent(s) and/or guardian(s) will be advised by their middle school academic advisor(s) and the chair(s) of prospective branches at the high school where they will matriculate in the fall.
4.1: For years 9 and 10
a) The following subjects shall be mandatory for all students:
i) Geography and History (4 lessons/week)
ii) Physical Education (3 lessons/week)
iii) English Language and Literature (5 lessons/week)
iv) First Foreign language (4 lessons/week)
v) General class meetings (1 lesson/week)
b) The following subjects shall be mandatory for students of the Sciences branch
i) Mathematics (4 lessons/week)
ii) Biology & Geology (4 lessons/week)
iii) Physics & Chemistry (4 lessons/week)
c) The following subjects shall be mandatory for students of the Humanities branch:
i) Mathematics applied to Social Sciences (4 lessons/week)
ii) Latin (4 lessons/week)
iii) Economics (4 lessons/week)
d) The following subjects shall be mandatory for students of the Arts branch:
i) Plastic and Visual education (4 lessons/week)
ii) Music (4 lessons/week)
iii) Scenic Arts and Dance (4 lessons/week)
e) Students shall pick 3 subjects from the following list, but mandatory subjects for their branch can't be picked again:
i) Laboratory classes and Scientific Culture (2 lessons/week)
ii) Scenic Arts and Dance (2 lessons/week)
iii) Philosophy (2 lessons/week)
iv) Music (2 lessons/week)
v) Technology and Computer Science (2 lessons/week)
vi) Second Foreign Language (2 lessons/week)
vii) Plastic and Visual education (2 lessons/week)
viii) Classic Culture (2 lessons/week)
x) One subject from another branch's mandatory subject list (4 lessons/week). This shall count as 2 subjects from the list
4.2: For years 11 and 12:
a) The following subjects shall be mandatory for all students:
i) Atlasian History (4 lessons/week)
ii) Philosophy (3 lessons/week)
iii) English language and literature (4 lessons/week)
iv) First foreign language (4 lessons/week)
b) Students of the Sciences branch must pick 3 subjects from the following:
i) Physics (4 lessons/week)
ii) Mathematics (4 lessons/week)
iii) Earth and Environmental Science (4 lessons/week)
iv) Biology (4 lessons/week)
v) Chemistry (4 lessons/week)
vi) Technical Drawing (4 lessons/week)
vii) Industrial Technology (4 lessons/week)
c) Students of the Humanities branch must pick 3 subjects from the following:
i) Latin (4 lessons/week)
ii) Classical Greek (4 lessons/week)
iii) World literature (4 lessons/week)
iv) Art History (4 lessons/week)
v) Geography (4 lessons/week)
vi) Business management (4 lessons/week)
vii) Mathematics applied to social sciences (4 lessons/week)
d) Students of the Arts branch must pick 3 subjects from the following list:
i) Artistic Drawing (4 lessons/week)
ii) Technical Drawing (4 lessons/week)
iii) Design (4 lessons/week)
iv) Art History (4 lessons/week)
v) Graphic Expression Techniques (4 lessons/week)
vi) Musical Analysis (4 lessons/week)
vii) Musical Language and Practice (4 lessons/week)
viii) History of Music and Dance (4 lessons/week)
ix) Universal Literature (4 lessons/week)
e) Students of all branches must pick 2 subjects from the following list (all with 4 lessons/week):
i) Second foreign Language
ii) Economics
iii) Psychology and Sociology
iv) Physical Education
v) Computer Science
vi) General Science Education
vii) Any subjects from another branch's list of subjects
SECTION III: Choices
1. All schools in the region of Lincoln shall offer the following languages for the foreign language subjects, with students choosing between them. Schools may offer additional languages:
a) First foreign language: French and Spanish
b) Second foreign language: Both French and Spanish, plus one of German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese, Japanese
2. Schools may partially nullify the requirements of section III.1 for reasons of low demand, but at least one First Foreign Language and a different Second Foreign language must be taught at all times.
3. High school students shall be allowed to change branches between school years with no penalties or academic delays for doing so.
4. All Lincoln schools must offer summer programs for students who wish to switch between the courses after grade 9 and before grade 10 to catch up on the requisite coursework differences for their new program. Lincoln will also provide a list of schools offering catch-up programs between grades 10 and 11 as well as free transportation. For students who wish to switch after grade 11, alternate accommodations will be made when possible, but in order to meet the requirements of their academic programs, students may have to enroll for an additional summer and fall, to complete graduation the following January. All programs mentioned in this section include free instruction, lunches and supplies (as appropriate).
SECTION IV: Curriculums
1. The governor shall appoint an eleven-member board consisting of faculty at major Lincoln universities comprised of at least three members each from mathematics and english language/literature departments, and exactly one member from computer science and economics departments. All members selected must have experience teaching first- and second-year students at Lincoln universities, as well as experience in admissions and advising students.
2. This board will have one year (academic year 2019-20) to establish new curricula for K-8 students, with the goal being to modernize school standards to meet the challenges of the 21st century in Atlasian society. Textbooks with writers who are both educators and noted academics in their field will be identified for technical coursework, and pools of novels, prose, and poetry will be identified for selection by individual schools. Individual programs will be written for each year. Standards are intended to be purposeful, challenging and relevant. In addition, supplemental materials will be identified for the instruction of struggling students in need of extra help and gifted students desiring enrichment.
3. One percent of Lincoln public school districts will be identified to take part in the pilot program. This subset of schools will resemble Lincoln demographically, in terms of proportionality by state, distribution by income and race/ethnicity, and division by rural/suburban/urban characteristic. Each school will have enrichment programs. No more than two grades per district will be selected, and if two are selected, they must not be consecutive years.
4. Over the course of the next year (academic year 2020-21), teachers from the selected district will be trained using the new curricula, texts, and standards. All participating teachers will be evaluated and must be approved by the eleven-member board in order to participate in the pilot program.
5. During the third year and fourth year (academic years 2021-22 and 2022-23), the pilot program will be implemented at the above schools. Teachers will write regular progress reports for submission to the board.
6. After the 2022-23 school year, the board will present its findings to the Lincoln Council during public hearings. After these hearings are complete, the pilot program will either be extended, dissolved, or the Council will vote on full implementation based on the board's and public's recommendations.
SECTION V: Implementation
1. This bill, except for the parts that specify otherwise, shall go into effect in time for the 2020/2021 school year
This is an awesome bill. I am confident our children and our future will be all the better due to it, and I am very proud to sign it. Also very much looking forward to an Atlasian History textbook!
