A
public high school is a secondary school in the United States
of America that is financed by tax revenues and other government-collected revenues and
administered exclusively by state and local officials. On
the other hand,
private schools are
typically funded by tuition and private donations. Thus, access is
limited to those willing and able to pay. In some areas,
school vouchers programs are bridging the
gap between private and public education.
The modifier "high", as applied to the noun "school", seems to have
been arisen in the popular vocabulary to distinguish secondary
schools from primary or elementary, schools.
Grade levels beginning in 9th grade and ending in 12th grade are
commonly referred to with qualitative, rather than numerical,
names. These are: "
freshman" for 9th grade,
"
sophomore" for 10th grade,
"
junior" for 11th grade and
"
senior" for 12th grade. These terms
are used more often to refer to each successive year in the
university curriculum.
Profile
Public schools may
offer a variety of programs, including
magnet program, which allow students to study
the basics of a given career or career field or
International Baccalaureate
Diploma Program, which is a rigorous academic program. There are
several levels of coursework, including regular or average
coursework (taught on high school level), advanced or
honors coursework (taught on an advanced high
school level),
Advanced Placement
(college-level work offering tests at the end of the academic year
that give high school students the opportunity to earn college
credit),
dual enrollment (college
courses made available to high school students at taxpayer expense)
and remedial classes (for students who need extra attention to meet
benchmarks).
Many public high schools provide both curricular and
extracurricular activities. Some
national clubs and activities available to most schools include:
Conflicting issues
The public purpose of the typical public high school is two-fold:
(1) primarily and mainly to prepare its graduates to enter the
labor force and (2) also to prepare a
segment of its students to continue on to post-secondary education
(i.e.
vocational school or
technical school,
community college or
junior college and
university).
At present it remains unclear whether
social conflicts between elements of these
two groups result in a diminution in overall quality of individual
educational attainment and experience. The presence of such
conflict may be an impetus for the development of and support for
university-preparatory schools, wherein
all, rather than
only a portion, of the students enrolled aspire to attend
university.
Moreover,
racial segregation and
desegregation have become major social
issues.
The Little Rock
Nine, for instance, were forcefully integrated into the
public school
system in Little
Rock
, Arkansas
.
See also
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