School systems in the US: /Elementary/Junior High/Middle School/High School?

Here's our breakdown -

Elementary - K-5
Junior High - 6th-8th grade
High School - 9th -12th grade

Now, in my town, kids do K-4 in one school, then move onto another for 5th and 6th, then they go to the middle school for 7th and 8th, and finally onto the high school. Nutty, innit? I live in a crazy crowded district and they do call it the middle school instead of junior high. But, AFAIK, each district has its own way of doing it - for example, in the next town over, kids do K-12th in the same school - they just move down the hall. And the school's not quite as big as you might think, either. Other places might call it a junior high, etc. I don't know and since we have over 600 separate school districts in New Jersey, I'm not about to go and find out, either.

From my experience, which may or may not help

In Alaska: Elementary K-6, Junior High 7-8, High school 9-12
In South Carolina: Elementary K-5, Middle school 6-8, High school 9-12

Elementary schools are all single classes, anything above is multiple.

I don't know if it matters, but I was surprised that start/end times can vary wildly. In AK elementary is 9:00-3:30, SC is 7:25-2:15

In Pennsylvania Middle school takes the place of junior high-

elementry- K-5
middle school- 6-8
High school- 9-12

When I went to school it was:

Elementary: K-3
Intermediate: 4-6
Jr High: 7-9
High: 10-12


My daughter (25 years later) had:
Elementary: K-6
Jr High: 7-8
High: 9-10

Both were in Michigan.

Our school district in Texas:

Pre-K-2nd: Elementary
3-5th: Intermediate
6-8: Jr. High
9-12th: High

This is not uniform in TX. It depends on the individual school district.

sheadakota said:

In Pennsylvania Middle school takes the place of junior high-

elementry- K-5
middle school- 6-8
High school- 9-12

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That's mostly how it is in my state, too. OP, I think you're safe calling it either middle school or junior high.

The thing with the US is we have this complicated federal system. Some rules are set by the federal guvmint. Some things are left up to the states. And within the states, how much control the state has vs. city/county/community varies.

Hawaii is centralized, from what I've heard. So when you apply for a teaching job in Hawaii, you get hired by the state and sent to the school where you are needed.

Here in CA, it's up to the local district. And there can be more than one district within a city... I know Salinas has two separate elementary school districts, and one high school district. Santa Cruz County has one really large school district and about 10 smaller ones. And even within those districts, it can vary... My district is divided into 3 "zones" with a pretty darned convoluted history of how those 3 developed. But it's worked out that the "North Zone" has K-6 elementaries, 7-8 junior highs and 9-12 high schools. But the "South" and "Central Zones" have K-5 elementaries, 6-8 middle schools and 9-12 high schools.

Then there's the fact that each state can set its own beginning age--most states, a kid has to be 5 by Sept. 1 to start kindergarten, but California allows you to have a birthday as late as Dec. 1. But that law may be changing soon... Until then, some districts offer a 2-year kinder program for those kids.

And then there are the rural areas, where you still get 1-room schoolhouses. And the experimental/charter schools, where you might have a multi-graded primary. And on and on and on...

The secret to the US system is that there is no conformity. So feel free to create your own version--I guarantee it exists somewhere!

When I went to school in Atlanta elementary was K-7 and high school was 8-12. I went from 7th to 8th grade in 1970. I might have heard of middle school in there somewhere, but not where I was.

I have no idea when it changed, but there's now middle school stuck in-between, I think 6-8. With the education funds from the Georgia Lottery (unlike what I heard about other states where lottery proceeds that were promised for education went instead into the state's general fund, Georgia's Lottery proceeds actually DO go to education, mostly the Hope Scholarship for college), there's been something called "Pre-K" that's funded by it, for the year before kindergarten, and usually held at day care centers.

ETA:

High school 8-12 was of course multi-classroom. In elementary school there was one class/lesson where we went to another classroom and another teacher for about an hour and then went back. This was in the 7th, and maybe the 6th grades. I recall the teacher or principal saying this was to help us get used to high school and all the different class changes. I had the impression it was only that school doing it as some sort of "experiment" but it may have been all the elementary schools.

Also, it was about the end of the 7th grade that I learned the phrase "social promotion" and its meaning.

>> memoir

Wow. All this is making home-schooling look like the easy option. At least for the writer.

frimble3 said:

Wow. All this is making home-schooling look like the easy option. At least for the writer.

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It could for figuring out where the child does school but every state has different laws on reporting and such. And homeschoolers work ahead and behind so the child may not really know what grade they are in.

I put my children in the grade that they would be in if they went to public school. But a lot of parents play with this and put their kids in whatever grade works best for them at the time. For schoolwork they are in one grade, for church or camp another grade level is given, etc.

Just to throw another perspective in. In CT in my district

elementary: K-5 I believe we switched classes for math in 4th and 5th and history in just 5th.
middle school 6-8 where we switched every period.
high school 9-12 switched every period as well.

Hope it helps.

It varies by district/county in Northern Cal. My kids have elemenatry K-6, Jr. High 7-8, and High School 9-12. My friends in the counties around me, have middle schools which are 6-8. From the looks of it, you have free reign! Good luck.

In Arizona:

Elementary: K - 6
Junior High: 7 - 8
High School: 9 - 12

In western NY:
Primary: K - 2
Elementary: 3 - 5
Middle School: 6 - 8
High School: 9 - 12

In my experience school districts, following any state mandates, can divide up the grades however they choose to. So you can probably do whatever serves your story best, so long as you don't contradict the real school district set-up in a real setting.

Maryn, all schoolified

Sorry, but you're wrong.

Freshman = 9th grade
Sophomore = 10th grade
Junior = 11th grade
Senior = 12th grade

Angela_785 said:

Okay, thanks Smish! Forgot about Sophomore

So generally speaking, are all of these in one school? (I'm wondering about middle schoolsjr high schools that end at gr 9)

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Yes, generally high school is grades 9-12. There may be isolated exceptions, but for the most part, high school is always 9-12.

Some middle schools are 7-9, with the high schools starting with grade 10.

A lot of the time, these decisions have nothing to do with education and everything to do with the cost of building facilities. A city will have a population boom and suddenly the high school will be overcrowded. So they'll add 9th to the middle school until they can raise funds to build another high school. Then if the voters don't pass the bond measure, the new high school never gets built, and after a few generations nobody remembers why they do things that way.

California facilities get even crazier... Back in the 70s, the population dropped, the tax base tanked and districts had to sell off buildings. So somebody at the state level passed a rule that new schools built in the state have to be portable and easily dismantled. The law is still on the books, even though the state has seen nothing but exponential growth for the last 2 decades. We have schools now that look permanent, but only the cafeteria/gym/office space is really stick-built, ground-up, on-a-foundation buildings. The rest are connected portables finished to look real and joined together at the roof.

My old school was built that way in 1990. One whole wing could be dismantled overnight. However... by the time the campus was finished, the population had outgrown the rooms. There have been additional portables classrooms on site for 20 years now.

Smish said:

Sorry, but you're wrong.

Freshman = 9th grade
Sophomore = 10th grade
Junior = 11th grade
Senior = 12th grade

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And of course these, the names of the last four years of high school (or the only four, nowadays) are also the names of the first four years of college, followed by either a "graduate" who goes out into the real world, or a "graduate student" who does not.

Smish said:

Yes, generally high school is grades 9-12. There may be isolated exceptions, but for the most part, high school is always 9-12.

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Back when I was in 8-12 high school, 8th graders were "nothing" and of course looked down on by everyone else Too bad there's apparently few if any 8-12 high schools any more, as being in the 8th grade without even the "Freshman" label provides an extra level of drama.

On the other hand private schools are totally different, and as far as I know, free to organize what grade is on what campus any way they want.

At my high school, upperclassmen (juniors and seniors) could go off campus for lunch. They had an "off-campus pass" that they had to show to a narc on the way out.

In both middle school and high school, if you bought lunch on campus, you would just pay as you go. A lot of high schools have so many students, that there is an A lunch and a B lunch.

We had four (I think) lunch periods - each about 20-25 minutes long (if memory serves). If it was nice out, seniors could go out into the senior courtyard. They were the only ones allowed (though we did sneak out there as underclassmen on occasion.)

When you turned 18, you signed your Right of Majority - which meant the school recognized you as an adult. All correspondence came to you instead of your parents and you could sign yourself in and out of school whenever you wanted.

We also had an absence rule. For a semester long class (2 marking periods - either from the 1st day of school to end of January, or end of January to end of the school year), you were allowed 9 unexcused absences. After that, you better have a doctor's note or a death in the family because the school would pull credit. If you lost too many credits, or didn't pass a required course, you wouldn't move up to the next grade, or wouldn't graduate with your class. I went to school with a guy who didn't know whether or not he was graduating with us until the day of graduation. You never saw a happier dude than Larry that day.

If the class you had ran the entire school year (like English or gym. Yes, gym is a required course for all 4 years in high school in NJ) you were allowed 18 unexcused absences.

This was all only high school. In middle school, there were 4 lunch periods (I think) and you didn't leave unless a parent was there to pick you up.

If memory serves - lunches were set menus. You could pick A or B, and there was always the PB&J option (which has since been done away with because of so many nut allergies. Now it's the tuna fish sammich option). Each cost x amount. By high school, there were a lot more choices and I remember soda fountain-type juice machines that dispensed Kool-Aid. No soda machines in the cafeteria, but they were right outside it.

My school district is kinda nutty (because we've had lots and lots of kids move in over the past 10 years).

So now we've got 6 (or 7) K-4 elementary schools
Then we have the 5-6 center
Then we have the 7th grade center
And the 8th grade center
And the 9th grade center
And the senior high 10-12.

So, uh...yeah

Public schools have to offer a hot lunch to all the kids who qualify for the free/reduced lunch program. Lots of middle and high schools also offer alternative lunches for sale. My son's junior high offered Domino's pizza daily. Guess what he ate every day for 2 years? Middle school/junior high: absolutely no going off-campus without an adult. High school: depends. My district has 3 high schools. 2 are sort of rural, and no one leaves for lunch. The other is more downtown and its campus is open. Which leads to some discipline problems, so...