Education in the USA

In the American educational system children are required to attend school from the age of five or six. Students typically graduate from high school at age eighteen although many states allow students to drop out at age sixteen. The public education systems vary from one state to another but generally are organized as follows:Age 5: Kindergarten,Ages 6-11: Elementary school. Children start in grade 1 and advance to grade 5 or 6,Ages 11-14 or 12-14: Junior high school or middle school (usually grades 6 or 7 through grade 8 or 9),Ages 14-18: High school (usually grades 9-12 or 10-12).A system also becoming more popular is 4-year schooling segments. Such as:Ages 6-9 (Grades 1-4) Elementary,Ages 10-13 (Grades 5-8) Middle,Ages 14-17 (Grades 9-12) High/secondary.The entire span of primary and secondary education, from Kindergarten to grade 12, is often abbreviated in the US as K-12 or K12, which spoken in American English is rendered as "K through 12" or "K 12." Additionally, many children attend schools before they reach the age of five. These preschools are often private and not part of the public educational system although some public school systems include preschools. Public education is provided by the individual states, not by the federal government (except in the limited circumstances of public schools on military bases, provided for the dependents of members of the armed services). All states provide public school education from kindergarten through Senior year of high school (12th grade) free of charge (except for 15 school districts in New Hampshire which do not offer kindergarten); further, the federal government does not establish a standard nationwide curriculum. Rather, the curriculum is typically established by state educational departments or local school districts, and teachers in many districts may have wide discretion to determine what is taught in the classroom.Most states have adopted reforms based on the Outcome-based education movement. Rather than the traditional approach that all students would be expected to achieve at different levels, the focus of education would be to increase achievement, and insure through testing that all graduates must achieve one high standard, though some critics argue such a goal is not realistic. As of 2005, there is increasing state and federal pressure to quantify teaching efficacy using results from standards-based tests ,which tends to lead to a more uniform curriculum. This trend toward educational standardization, which has been attributed with a concomitant decline in flexibility in teaching, and other reforms—such as the use of whole language methodology for teaching reading in primary school, instead of the more traditional phonics-based approach—promoted in recent years have been controversial. Another controversy has arisen over the adoption of new math standards which many critics charge has largely omitted the teaching of basic arithmetic as it has been understood over history rather than merely improve understanding. Other criticisms of recent educational trends include an increasing lack of post-secondary scholarships and subsidies.Funding of the public school systems is most often provided primarily at the local level, with money obtained from county or city property taxes used to fund the public schools (in conjunction with additional funds from the state and federal governments). Private education at the primary and secondary levels generally receives little or no governmental support in the form of direct funding or subsidies, although non-profit bodies running private schools may receive favorable tax status. Conversely, because of the constitutional prohibition regarding governmental establishment of religion, most private religious schools are in fact barred from such direct governmental support.Most of the private institutions have traditionally been religious institutions funded by, for example, Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish communities. Some private secular schools, military schools, and multi-lingual schools also exist. Private secular and multi-lingual elementary and secondary education may cost $10,000 to $20,000 per year^[ per student in large metropolitan areas, placing these schools out of reach of all but the wealthiest of middle- and upper-class families. However, many of these schools provide academic scholarships and need-based assistance. Religious schools vary in price, from nearly free to costs on par with private secular schools. Poorer families may send their children to these lower-priced schools for a religious education, or because they consider the schools better than the available public schools. Homeschooling is allowed in all states (with varying degrees of regulation) and is an alternative for a small minority of households. The motivation for home schooling is often religious or political. Many times, home schooling is used because of particular sports.

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