US school grades: what grade to what age of the student?

[alipali]

Hi,

Can someone enlighten as to US school grades? ie, at 4th grade how old will a kid be.....

.....also when does high school start in terms of age and when does it finish? grades too please

4th......
5th.......
6th.......

Thanks in advance.

Al

[MEH7]

In general terms, a kid would be 9 years old in 4th grade, 10 in 5th grade...on and on...

High School starts when a kid is 14 (again a guideline - some start at 13 some at 15).

At some schools you start as a Freshman - and go through to Senior year.

Other schools call the 14 yo's 9th graders.

It's all the same. Again, in general terms - and in my experience (growing up in Chicago - going to college in the south) you'll sometimes find that the folks in the Northern US use the freshman through senior determination. In the southern states grade 9 - 12 is generally used.

[pconsidine]

Also, there is some variation as to the grouping of students. When I was in school, lo, these many years ago, the elementary schools were grades K-6 (roughly 5 yrs. old to 11). Then there was a Middle School that was grades 7-9 (12-14 yrs. old). Then, High School was 10-12 (15-17 yrs. old).

The year after I graduated, they moved the 6th-graders up to the Middle School and the 9th-graders up to the High School. I have since come to understand that both arrangements are equally common, since they have more to do with the number of students in the school system at any given time.

As far as what we called ourselves, we normally referred to numbered grades until junior and senior years. Seems kinda arbitrary, but there you have it.

[alipali]

Thanks for your help. :)

'preciate it

[MatrixAvenger]

K 5-6 yrs. old (begin at age 5, 6 when finished and get out for summer)
1st 6-7 yrs. old
2nd 7-8 yrs. old
3rd 8-9 yrs. old
4th 9-10
5th 10-11

Middle:
6th 11-12
7th 12-13
8th 13-14

High School:
9th 14-15
10th 15-16
11th 16-17
12th 17-18 yrs. old

[Actor]

In most states a kid has to be six years old before November 1 in order to enroll in the first grade at the beginning of the year. That means a first grader could be five years old for the first couple of months of the school year. Also, in the U.S. a person is considered to be one year old during his second year of life whereas in some other countries (like the U.K., I think) a person is age one up until his first birthday.

[Ravenlocks01]

My elementary school was K-6, middle was 7-8, high school was 9-12.

We used the terms "ninth-graders" and "freshmen" interchangeably, same with all the rest, although as I seem to recall, the freshman/sophomore/junior/senior thing was preferred, esp. as you got higher up. I don't think much of anyone referred to seniors as twelfth-graders. That was in Maryland.

One other note (you may not need this): Seniors got out several weeks before everybody else. Graduation day for each high school was a day off. We got out of school in late May, graduated in early June, but all the lower grades had to keep going to school until mid-June. I'm not sure if this is true for other states.