Secondary education in the United States
[1] Today "Academy" is a general term referring to post-secondary education, especially the most elite or liberal arts part of it.
The religious revival known as the Second Great Awakening stimulated Protestant denominations to open academies and colleges.
[3] The academy incorporated in 1816,[4] and eventually counted among its students Emily Dickinson, Sylvester Graham, and Mary Lyon (founder of Mount Holyoke College).
Besides religion, the academy movement arose from a public sense that education in the classic disciplines needed to be extended into the western states.
The first public secondary schools started around the 1830s and 40s within the wealthier areas of similar income levels and greatly expanded after 1865 into the 1890s.
Rejecting suggestions that high schools should divide students into college-bound and working-trades groups from the start, and in some cases also by race or ethnic background, they unanimously recommended that "every subject which is taught at all in a secondary school should be taught in the same way and to the same extent to every pupil so long as he pursues it, no matter what the probable destination of the pupil may be, or at what point his education is to cease.
The open enrollment nature and relatively relaxed standards, such as ease of repeating a grade, also contributed to the boom in secondary schooling.
There was an increase in educational attainment, primarily from the grass-roots movement of building and staffing public high schools.
In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court case, Brown v. Board of Education, made desegregation of elementary and high schools mandatory, although private Christian schools expanded rapidly following this ruling to accommodate white families attempting to avoid desegregation.
[citation needed] In 1965, the far-reaching Elementary and Secondary Education Act ('ESEA'), passed as a part of President Lyndon B. Johnson's War on Poverty, provided funds for primary and secondary education known as Title I funding while explicitly forbidding the establishment of a national curriculum.
[18] Under the education reform movement started in the early 1990s by many state legislatures and the federal government, about two-thirds of the nation's public high school students are required to pass a graduation exam, usually at the 10th and higher grade levels, though no new states had adopted a new requirement in 2006.
Pressure to allow people and organizations to create new Charter schools developed during the 1980s and were embraced by the American Federation of Teachers in 1988.
These would be legally and financially autonomous public school free from many state laws and district regulations, and accountable more for student outcomes rather than for processes or inputs.
In 2001, the No Child Left Behind Act required all public schools receiving federal funding to administer a statewide standardized test annually to all students.
Many states require courses in the "core" areas of English (or Language Arts), Science, Social Studies (or History), and Mathematics every year although others allow more choice after 10th grade.
Other science courses offered at high schools include geology, ecology, astronomy, health, and forensic.
The class typically covers basic anatomy, nutrition, first aid, sexual education, and how to make responsible decisions regarding illegal drugs, tobacco, and alcohol.
If students earn a good score on a test given later in the school year, they are given college credit at participating universities.
Public high schools offer a wide variety of elective courses, which are classes that don't fall under any of the 'core' categories.
At the end of a semester (halfway through the school year), the student earns 0.5 credits for each class they have a passing grade in (usually above 50%).
On the contrary, students with extenuating circumstances (for example, the COVID-19 pandemic) that negatively impacted or interrupted their learning may receive a modified diploma.
[citation needed] Some students also start taking a foreign language or advanced math and science classes in middle school.
In addition to Pre-Algebra and other high school mathematics prep courses, Algebra I and Geometry are both commonly taught.
Physical education classes (also called "PE", "phys ed", Kinesiology, or "gym") are usually mandatory for various periods.
International schools offering programs of study in line with foreign systems of Education, such as those of Britain and France, are also available.
However, a policy can also have exceptions to these regulations based on the private school characteristics, such as religious beliefs that the law would be defying or being involved in military development.
[citation needed] At the secondary level, students transition from the American primary education system of remaining with one class in one classroom with one teacher for the entire school day to taking multiple courses taught by different teachers in different classrooms.
Alternatively, some states certify teachers in various curricular areas (such as math or history) to teach secondary education.
[citation needed] Compulsory education laws refer to "legislative mandates that school-aged children [shall] attend public, nonpublic, or homeschools until reaching specified ages.
[44] The law required that all children eight to fourteen to attend school for three months out of the year, and of these twelve weeks, six of them had to be consecutive.
