From 1830 to 1850, great educators such as Horace? Man Horace Mann, Barnard Henry Barnard and others have been running around for the government's management and support for secondary education. Finally, 1852, Massachusetts passed the first compulsory education law for children. At the beginning of the 20th century, the ideal that everyone should receive high school education gained wide support in the United States. After graduating from high school, the number of people applying to enter colleges and universities has greatly increased, and then the number of college students has also greatly increased.
Today, almost all American children have received at least eight years of education, 75% have graduated from high school, and 25% have obtained diplomas from four-year colleges and universities. The huge education program makes the United States one of the countries with the largest number of educated people in the world.
The American education system can be divided into primary schools (1-5 grades), middle schools (6- 12 grades) and junior colleges. Middle school is subdivided into junior high school, junior high school and senior high school.
In the United States, no matter what academic system is adopted in primary and secondary schools, students should be guaranteed to have 12 years of compulsory education, which is equivalent to China's primary school to senior three. Before the university K 12, Americans used to call this educational system.
Primary and secondary education is mainly managed by state education boards and local governments. Schools are divided into public schools and private schools. According to teacher Jin Gillette, public schools can only accept exchange students, and most of the international students are in private schools. The educational system varies from state to state, with six years in primary school, two years in junior high school and four years in senior high school. American middle schools generally have three years of junior high school and four years of high school. There are academic courses to prepare for further studies, vocational courses to prepare for employment, and general courses to learn the basic knowledge of high school.
And some schools will also include the eighth grade in the high school stage. Some schools only have four-year secondary schools, which means that the primary schools in this school district implement eight-year system. Regardless of the classification, students are guaranteed to have 12 years of compulsory education. Middle school teachers teach different subjects. Generally, a teacher is responsible for teaching the same subject in 2-3 classes. American middle schools, like primary schools, have no unified national curriculum and textbooks. However, the curriculum of each state and school must enable students to maintain physical and mental health, master basic learning skills, become effective members of the family, develop employment knowledge and skills, be competent for civic obligations, make good use of leisure time, and cultivate certain moral qualities. American junior high school courses are mainly comprehensive basic courses, while senior high school courses are highly academic. Junior high school courses generally include compulsory Chinese, mathematics, natural science, social science, health and sports, art and music, home economics and technology, and some elective courses: foreign languages, occupations, etc. The boundary between compulsory courses and elective courses in senior high school is more obvious.
1983 USA? National Committee for Quality Education? Suggestions are put forward for the basic compulsory courses in senior high school: Chinese for 4 years, mathematics for 3 years, natural science for 3 years, social science for 3 years, computer for 6 months and foreign language for 2 years. Other compulsory courses vary from school to school. In addition, in order to cope with many social problems, high schools often add some emergency courses, such as sex education, safety education, consumer education, drug abuse education, global education and so on. American high schools and universities adopt the credit system, regardless of arts and sciences. Compulsory courses include mathematics, English, physics, chemistry, history and so on. And the elective courses are very rich, including telecommunications, transportation, industry, agriculture, water conservancy, architecture, driving, commerce, fashion, food, environment, economy, law, secretarial, foreign languages, housekeeping, shipping, maintenance and other fields. There are corresponding courses for students to choose from.
In the United States, although the courses arranged by each middle school are different, the core courses for grades 9 to 12 are as follows:
English: four years (writing, English literature, American literature, etc. History: three years (world history, American history, European history) Mathematics: three years (geometry, algebra I, algebra II) Science: three years (earth/environmental science, biology, chemistry) Art: It varies from school to school.
The academic year system of American high schools is the same as the curriculum, and each school is different. Schools may start in mid-August or the end of August, and some schools will start in mid-September, usually ending in mid-May or the end of June of the following year.
Some private middle schools adopt the semester system: from September to 1 February in autumn, from 1 month to June in spring,1February and1month have three to four weeks' holidays.
Some middle schools adopt three semesters: autumn from August to September, winter from November to March, and spring from April to June. There is a one-week holiday every semester, but the holidays in 1 February and1month are shorter, only one to two weeks.
Examinations, grades, reports
The exams held in each middle school are different, and there will be different tests due to different courses. Teacher Jim Gillett suggested that students should finish every homework and exam carefully, because America is different from schools in Asia and Europe. American teachers don't grade on just one exam or test, but usually grade on students' reports, homework, classroom performance, quizzes and mid-term exams throughout the semester. In the United States, students' compulsory education is until the age of sixteen, and usually students have to pass all the required courses before they can graduate. Students will know the results of each course at the end of each semester. Teachers evaluate students' grades as follows:
A = excellent B = above average C = average D = below average F = failure. If students fail, they must retake the required courses.