K–12 education in the United States
Historically, in the United States, local public control (and private alternatives) have allowed for some variation in the organization of schools.
The school district selects curriculum guides and textbooks that reflect a state's learning standards and benchmarks for a given grade level.
[9] Learning Standards are the goals by which states and school districts must meet adequate yearly progress (AYP) as mandated by No Child Left Behind (NCLB).
Teachers and advisory administrators form committees to develop supplemental materials to support learning for diverse learners and to identify enrichment for textbooks.
Learning standards are identified for all areas of a curriculum by individual States, including those for mathematics, social studies, science, physical development, the fine arts, and reading.
High school grades normally are included in a student's official transcript for purposes such as college applications.
High schools provide vocational education, Honors, Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) courses.
These are special forms of honors classes where the curriculum is more challenging and lessons more aggressively paced than standard courses.
[15] Tracking is the practice of dividing students at the primary or secondary school level into classes on the basis of ability or achievement.
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, most Colleges and Universities were flooded with petitions proposing pass or fail options for students considering the difficulties with transitioning and managing during a state of emergency.
Under the No Child Left Behind Act and Every Student Succeeds Acts, all American states must test students in public schools statewide to ensure that they are achieving the desired level of minimum education,[23] such as on the New York Regents Examinations, the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) and the Florida Standards Assessments (FSA) or the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS); students being educated at home or in private schools are not included.
On December 10, 2015, President Barack Obama signed legislation replacing NCLB with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).
Rural schools fare better than their urban counterparts in two key areas: test scores and drop-out rate.
[28] During high school, students (usually in 11th grade) may take one or more standardized tests depending on their post-secondary education preferences and their local graduation requirements.
However, all these tests serve little to no purpose for students who do not move on to post-secondary education, so they can usually be skipped without affecting one's ability to graduate.
In recent years, grade point averages (particularly in suburban schools) have been rising while SAT scores have been falling.
These extracurricular activities and clubs can be sponsored by fundraising, or by the donation of parents who give towards the program in order for it to keep running.
Student participation in sports programs, drill teams, bands, and spirit groups can amount to hours of practices and performances.
In addition to sports, numerous non-athletic extracurricular activities are available in American schools, both public and private.
[45] The incarceration rate for African-American male high school dropouts was about 50 times the national average as of 2010[update].
[49] On January 25, 2013, the Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education issued guidance, clarifying school districts' existing legal obligations to give disabled students an equal chance to compete in extracurricular sports alongside their able-bodied classmates.
Schools meet with the parents or guardians to develop an Individualized Education Program that determines best placement for the child.
Some research has refuted this assertion, and has suggested this approach increases the academic and behavioral skills of the entire student population.
The Center for American Progress commends Florida and Texas as the only two states that provide annual school-level productivity evaluations which report to the public how well school funds are being spent at the local level.
Curriculum decisions in public schools are made largely at the local and state levels; the federal government has limited influence.
Local property taxes for public school funding may have disadvantages depending on how wealthy or poor these cities may be.
[66][better source needed] The charter school movement began in 1990 and has spread rapidly in the United States, members, parents, teachers, and students to allow for the "expression of diverse teaching philosophies and cultural and social life styles.
[68] This is a parent-led type of schooling that takes place at home and is now boarding a mainstream form of education in the United States.
The Demography for homeschoolers has a variety of people; these are atheists, Christians, and Mormons; conservatives, libertarians, and liberals; low-, middle-, and high-income families; black, Hispanic, and white; parents with PhDs, GEDs, and no high-school diplomas.
[71] Opponents' stated concerns fall into several broad categories, including fears of poor academic quality, and lack of socialization with others.
