The Education System in the USA
In the USA, children start school when they are five or six years old. Depending on the state, schooling is compulsory until the age of 16 or 18. Children younger than five can go to a nursery school or preschool.
At the age of five or six, the children attend elementary school (also known as grade school or grammar school), which last six years. The fist year at elementary school is called kindergarten.
After elementary school, students attend middle school (also known as junior high school) for three years. Then they continue at high school. In some states, students have to stay in school until they are 18 years old. In other states they may leave school at 16 or 17 with parental permission.
Each year of schooling after kindergarten is referred to as a grade. To say what grade they’re in, students in the USA use ordinal numbers ( first grade, second grade… twelfth grade, etc)
At elementary school pupils primarily learn how to read, write and count. At junior and senior high school, mandatory subjects are English, math, biology, chemistry, physics, physical education and history. In high school, classes are divided by level. Gifted and talented students can take advanced courses and gain university credits.
COMPREHENSION:
A/ Complete the chart about the education system in the USA:
Type of school Student’s age
………………………
………………………
Junior school
……………………… 3 or 4 5 to 11 ……………. ……………
B/ Complete the sentences with information from the text:
1/ In the USA, students must go to school until the age of ………..
2/ In the USA, a class is called a …………….
3/ Another name for Junior school is ………………