American school system

[Zapmeintheback]

Could someone please help?

I'm a Brit writing a Hollywood script and there are some scenes set in high school. The kids are 14 years old, and as America has a different school system to England, I don't have a clue what grade that puts them in. I went on the Net to look it up and waded through tons of crap but couldn't get a straight answer. I found this on one site:

Elementary school (grades 1-8)
High school (grades 9-12)

But it didn't give me the age range. Could anyone please tell me what the grades mean in terms of age?

Thank you very much.

[Zapmeintheback]

The emoticon should read: 8.

Don't know what it's doing there.

[sppeterson]

Around 8th grade for age 14. This puts a lot of kids in junior high school, which ran from 7th to 9th for me but varies a bit. Junior high school is kinda like high school only more fart jokes.

[Supersquid191]

I can't speak for everywhere in the US, but in the midwest we have...

Elementary School k-5
Middle School 6-8
High School 9-12

A fourteen year-old would probably be in 8th grade.

[Zapmeintheback]

Thanks both.

[Pandoraisme]

Or 9th grade. I was 13 when I entered 9th grade, and turned
14 later in the year. So if you wanted the character to be in High School, it wouldn't be unheard of.

[CulverCityCraig]

In the U.S. it's:

Age = Grade + 5

Now of course this doesn't work 100% if you're born in the middle of the school year, left back, or skip grades. But for the average student born between school years, it's works perfectly.

[Zapmeintheback]

Wow. Appreciate the feedback. Really.

One more question...

Is it true that if you fail a year you have to re-take it? In my script, one of the characters is 16 but I want him to be in the same grade as the 14-year-olds. Is that believable?

Thanks all.
Sorry, that's two.

[OkeyDokey]

In generally, we Yanks graduate high school as seniors (grade 12) at age 18, so count backwards. High school is grades 9-12.

Age 14 would equal grade 8 (middle school or junior high, same thing).

As far as being held back, yes, it certainly happens. You gotta be pretty dumb, though. I suppose depending on birthdays, a 16 year old could end up with 14 year olds, although that sounds like he was sent back two years, not one.

[Deus Ex Machine]

He could be 16 because he started late or missed a year for some reason and in some places they still do fail you and make you repeat, though that is typically only done in high school if ever. Today most places try to keep a child with their peer group and will pass them regardless of their academic performance up to high school. Then in high school there is the problem of brilliant politicians tying funding to tests scores and graduation rates so teachers in many districts are under intense pressure to pass students who can't even read just so the school can receive enough funding to keep the lights on.

Having said all that -- the reality of the story is what you make it out to be. Holes is hardly a realistic look at juvenile courts or rehabilitation centers but it is realistic in the context of the story. If you make it real we will believe it is real.

My 2 cents.

[Zapmeintheback]

After tinkering with the idea (and not liking it) I've reverted his age to 14.

But anyway, thanks again, all.

[Ravenlocks01]

Um... obviously there are no straight answers to this one. I'd say age 14 means 9th grade.

A K-8 elementary school is less common than a division such as:

Elementary school: K-6 (K=kindergarten)
Middle school: 7-8
High school: 9-12

OR

Elementary school: K-6
Junior high school: 7-9
High school: 10-12

[Steve]

The middle school vs high school thing gives you a good choice to make re: your character. If you make him a middle school 8th grader, he's at the top of the ladder (the other grades in the school are all younger). If you make him a 9th grader in high school he's at the bottom of the ladder -- a freshman. So it all depends on what works best for your story.

If you want to emphasize a 16 year old being held back then put him in middle school where the other kids will be 10-14 years old. If you put him in high school he's with kids his age even if he isn't in classes with them

[kahaokamoku]

consider a person graduates normally at 18

substract each grade backward from 12 and minus a year from age. You get the age they finish each grade at.

You have to be pretty dumb to fail (or lazy or not there) to fail school. I mean in some cases if you can read the school menu, you'll graduate.

I don't want to paint a poor picture because on the other hand the opportunities do not pass you by if you were the worst student coming out of high school.

I live in germany. Opportunity starts to diminish starting in the 4th grade. For many, the idea of college is gone going into the 5th. I have a problem with it. In the long run, they loose to much talent and creativity.

[TotalNobody]

I like the Grade = Age - 5 rule. Wish I had it a while back.


My approach to this problem was to determine what state/city the school was in, find a school in that area on the internet, and post an email to the school. They respond really very quickly.



Nobody.

[commandomonkey]

Writing from Canada, but from what I gather US systems are broadly similar.

Remember also that in high schools, you take different classes/subjects with different people, so a 16 year old who does fine or gets by in most subjects, but has a really hard time with math (or with the math teacher) might have to take grade 9 math with the 14 year olds, but take the rest of his subjects with the 16 year olds.

And a 14 year old might take a grade ten subject if their ahead of the curve on something.

[moorea01]

It truly does vary from county to county within each state (and then private schools all have their own systems).

There are some small towns where there is just one school that houses K-12.

I started school in a county where it was K-6:elementary, 7-8: junior high, 9-12: high school.

Then we moved and I lived in a county where it's K-5: elementary, 6-8: middle school (junior high and middle school are the same thing, but one county will call it one, one the other), 9-12: high school.

I also lived for a time in another school district where it was: K-5: elementary, 6-7: middle six and middle seven (literally, they were called that and although on the same campus, the grades were kept completely separate), 8-9: junior high, 10-12: high school. That district has since changed to k-5: elementary, 6-8: middle school, 9 - a school unto itself, 10-12: high school.

There is no consistency!

But, I can tell you I was in 9th as a 14 year old and two of my nieces/nephews are currently 14 - and in 9th grade. One is in high school. The other one won't be in high school till next year. Go figure!

[Fortean]

Student cohorts are based upon the year of their birth. If your character was born in 1988, he'd be placed in the same class as other students, who were born from January to December of 1988, with the exceptions of students moved ahead or back. Some students, born from September to December, would start grade 9 at 14-years-old, along with students, born from January to September, who are already 15-years-old. If a student, born in January to September of 1987, was held back a grade, he'd be 16-years-old in grade 9, with some 14-year-old students. The division of grades between middle school, (of junior high school), and high school varies considerably. Some high schools include grade 9; and, the most notable change occurs at the start of the school year, when short grade 9 freshman mix with older, and taller, students.

[Augie Kestrel]

Back when I was in school, the grades were "1" thru "6" for grade school (called "elementary school" when I was going there). Junior-high school was 7, 8, and 9, and high school was 10, 11, and 12. At that same time, other parts of the country divided the schools into 1-5, 6-8, and 9-12.

While I was in 9th grade I shared a journalism class with a girl who was 17. (I didn't turn 15 until the summer between 9th and 10th grade). This girl was incredibly wild (and gorgeous). Boyfriends in their late 20s would pick her up after school and drop her off the next day. She smoked in their cars before she got out to come into class, and didn't give a damn who saw it. I think the reason she was so far behind wasn't because she was dumb. I think she had basically been a truant for two years (I didn't even know of her before 9th grade). Since she hadn't bothered to attend class (which apparently was no concern to her parents at all), the county couldn't justifiably pass her to the next grade. I suspect a judge had to threaten her slacker parents in order to compel her back to school, but she probably dropped out of school once she hit eighteen.

Also of small note: we were seldom referred to as "freshmen" in 9th grade, since in our corner of the world we hadn't yet started high school. The true freshmen were those in other parts of the country who began high school in the 9th grade, their high school being grades 9-12, instead of my 10-12.