The Study on Graduation Credits, Required Courses and Subjects: Focusing on California and Korean High Schools

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to compare the curriculum between California, USA and Korea. Research as a basis for curriculum revision needs to clarify its scope and purpose in comparison with a brief introduction of educational trends abroad. Therefore, this study compared high school graduation class hours to compare curriculum in two countries. Materials used for the study are Korean national curriculum documents, California education law documents, and some documents provided by educational districts of the State. In particular, the US curriculum was reconstructed according to the simple graduation requirements proposed by the State of California, USA, to compare the documents of the two countries. The research results are as follows. First, South Korea, due to some differences, required more credits to complete the high school curriculum. Second, although the names of required courses in the US curriculum are similar, the required percentage of courses is slightly different from that in Korea.