In this post I want to give you an introduction to the American Educational System. We’ll start off with some general information.

The United States has compulsory education. This means that children are obligated to attend school for a certain number of years, for a specific age range. The actual ages depends on which state you live in. Generally, children in Illinois must attend school from the ages of 7 to 17. The school may be public or private.

Some children attend a pre-school (nursery school) prior to attending Kindergarten. The pre-school format varies greatly, but generally is only a few hours a day, a couple days a week, since the children are as young as 3 or 4 years old. Pre-school is not mandatory, although some states are considering adopting “universal pre-school” legislation. This would make pre-school available for all children, but it would not necessarily mean that all children would be required to attend.

Most children begin attending school by entering Kindergarten at age 5 or 6. Like pre-school, Kindergarten not mandatory, and is not full-time. Kindergarten is generally only a half-day of school; some children attend in the morning, while others attend in the afternoon. The subjects that children learn in kindergarten vary, but the emphasis tends to be on social skills and reading readiness.

More formal education starts with First Grade. It is in the First Grade that children are required to attend school full-time – typically, about six hours a day, five days a week. Grades 1 – 5 are variously called primary grades or elementary grades, and a school that teaches these grades is typically called a grade school or an elementary school.

Children in Grades 6 – 8 are said to attend junior high school, or middle school. The term “middle school” is becoming increasingly more common. Junior high can be thought of as a transition from the lower grades to high school. In grade school, children stay in one classroom and are taught nearly all subjects by the same teacher. In high school, children move from classroom to classroom to take different subjects taught by different teachers. By contrast, in junior high, children move from classroom to classroom similar to high school, but the children all move together and take the same subjects.

High school represents the final stage of compulsory education. There are four grades in high school: Grades 9 – 12, with the students in each year (or class) designated according to which grade they are in. Ninth graders are in their first year of high school, and are called “freshmen.” Tenth graders, or second-year students, are called “sophomores.” Together, freshmen and sophomores are known as “underclassmen.” Students in their last two years of high school have the status of “upperclassmen”: third-year students are “juniors,” and fourth-year students are “seniors.”

Once a child has completed high school, or attained the age set forth in compulsory education laws (17 years old in Illinois), the child has satisfied the compulsory education requirements and is free. Many students, however, choose to continue their education by attending college or university.

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