Education in the United States is highly decentralised with funding and curriculum decisions taking place mostly at the local level through school boards. Educational standards are generally set by state agencies. The Federal government through the United States Department of Education is involved with funding programs.
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2 Contemporary issues in the United States 3 History 4 See also |
School Grades
Primary education and secondary education in the United States together are sometimes referred to as K-12 (kindergarten through twelfth grade). It should be noted that practice can vary from this general picture.
Level / Grade, Age (Years old)
"Middle school" or "Junior high school" may refer to schools that begin in 7th grade and end in either 8th or 9th grade, where 6th grade is the final grade in elementary school, and in the case ending in 9th grade, only grades 10, 11, and 12 are in high school. The term "junior high school" and the arrangement beginning with 7th grade is now much less common.
"High school" runs from grades 9 through 12.
- College or University Undergraduate grades are also called Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, and Senior years.
- Undergraduate
- College or university
- Four years leading to a a Bachelor or Arts (BA) or a Bachelor of Science (BS) degree.
- Community college
- Lower division, two years leading to an Associate of Arts (AA) degree.
- Upper division, two years leading to B.A. or B.S.
- College or university
- Postgraduate
- Two years leading to a Master of Arts (MA) degree.
- Four or more years leading to a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree or two or more years after earning a Masters.
- Undergraduate
Contemporary issues in the United States
Major educational issues in the United States center on curriculum, funding, and control.
Each state government provides free schools for residents, funded by taxes (often on real estate).
Curriculum issues
Funding
Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you gain at one end you lose at the other. It's like feeding a dog on his own tail. It won't fatten the dog.- Speech 11/23/1900Control
There are some facts.
In U.S. law parents have the ultimate responsibility for, and authority over their children's education.
The crucial tests of this legal doctrine occurred in attempts to sue public school officials for malpractice, in cases where, for example, illiterate young people graduated from high-school.
The U.S. Supreme Court (Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205 (1972)) defined the proper goal for education as "literacy and self-sufficiency," that is, an educated, not a socialized child was recognized as the essential goal for the U.S.'s democratic republic.
This decision is now interpreted as court recognition that parents have a fundamental right to choose the method to achieve literacy and self-sufficiency, that is to educate their children. History
Expansion of American education during the late 1800s
In 1870, only 2% of 17 year olds graduated from high school. By 1900, however, 31 states required 8-14 year olds to attend school. As a result, by 1910, 72 percent of American children attended school and half of the nation's children attended one-room schools. Lessons consisted of students reading aloud from their texts such as the McGuffey Readers, and emphasis was placed on rote memorization. Teachers often used physical punishments, such as hitting students on the knuckles with birch switches, for incorrect answers. Because the public schools focused on assimilation, many immigrants, who resisted Americanization, sent their children to private religious schoools.
Higher Education
Between 1880 and 1885, more than 150 new colleges and universities were opened in America. Philantrhopists endowed these institutions. Leland Stanford, one of The Big Four, for example, established Stanford University in 1885.
See also