Education in the United States is mainly provided by the public sector, with control and funding coming from three levels: federal, state, and local. Child education is compulsory.Public education is universally available. School curricula, funding, teaching, employment, and other policies are set through locally elected school boards with jurisdiction over school districts with many directives from state legislatures. School districts are usually separate from other local jurisdictions, with independent officials and budgets. Educational standards and testing controls are usually made by state governments.
The ages for compulsory education vary by state. It begins from ages five to eight and ends from ages fourteen to eighteen, in one of three forms: educating children in public schools, state-certified private schools, or an approved home school program. In most public and private schools, education is divided into three levels: elementary school, middle school, and high school. Children are divided by age groups into grades, ranging from kindergarten in primary school, up to twelfth grade, or the final year of high school. The exact age range of students however varies from area to area.
In the year 2000, there were 76.6 million students enrolled in schools from kindergarten through graduate schools. Of these, 72 percent aged 12 to 17 were judged academically "on track" for their age (enrolled in school at or above grade level). Of those enrolled in compulsory education, 5.2 million (10.4 percent) were attending private schools.
Among the country's adult population, over 85 percent have completed high school and 27 percent have received a bachelor's degree or higher. The average salary for college or university graduates is greater than $51,000, exceeding the national average of those without a high school diploma by more than $23,000, according to a 2005 study by the U.S. Census Bureau. The 2010 unemployment rate for high school graduates was 10.8%; the rate for college graduates was 4.9%.
The country has a reading literacy rate at 99% of the population over age 15,[6] while ranking below average in science and mathematics understanding compared to other developed countries. In 2008, there was a 77% graduation rate from high school, below that of most developed countries.
The poor performance has pushed public and private efforts such as the No Child Left Behind Act. In addition, the ratio of college-educated adults entering the workforce to general population (33%) is slightly lower than other developed countries (35%) and rate of participation of the labor force in continuing education is high. A study by Michigan State University concluded that "a slightly higher proportion of American adults qualify as more scientifically literate than European or Japanese adults".
Most children enter the public education system around ages five or six. The American school year traditionally begins in August or September, after the traditional summer recess. Children are assigned into year groups known as grades, beginning with preschool, followed by kindergarten and culminating in twelfth grade. Children customarily advance together from one grade to the next as a single cohort or "class" upon reaching the end of each school year in May or June, although developmentally disabled children may be held back a grade and gifted children may skip ahead early to the next grade.
The American educational system comprises 12 grades of study over 12 calendar years of primary and secondary education before graduating and becoming eligible for college admission. After kindergarten there are five years in elementary school. After completing five grades, the student will enter junior high or middle school and then high school to get the high school diploma.
The U.S. uses ordinal numbers for naming grades, unlike Canada and Australia where cardinal numbers are preferred. Thus, Americans are more likely to say "First Grade" rather than "Grade One". Typical ages and grade groupings in public and private schools may be found through the U.S. Department of Education. Many different variations exist across the country.
Students completing high school may apply to attend an undergraduate school. This may be a community college which offers two-year degrees (usually to prepare students to transfer to state universities), a liberal arts colleges that concentrate on undergraduate education, or part of a larger research university.The course of study is called the "major", which comprises the main or special subjects. However, students are not locked into a major upon admission—usually, a major is chosen by the second year of college, and changing majors is frequently possibleunlike in British tertiary education. Universities are either public, such as Ohio State Uni, or private such as Harvard.
Students may choose to continue onto graduate school for a master's or Ph.D, or to a first professional degree program. A master's degree requires an additional two years of specialized study; a doctoral degree (Ph.D.) usually takes some years, although exactly how long depends on the time required to prepare the doctoral dissertation. First professional degrees have a more structured program than the typical Ph.D. program. The standard time required for a first professional degree is three or four years; for example, law school is a three-year program, while medical, dental, and veterinary schools are four-year programs.