What are K-12 Schools?

The K-12 school system is the one that most Americans are familiar with. It is comprised of 13 grades (kindergarten-12th grade), and K-12 schools are found in the US, Canada, Britain, and some parts of Europe. This article will tell you more about K-12 schools in the United States.

In the US, K-12 education is compulsory. Education can be had from either a public or a private school, and all children once they reach the age of at least six must attend. The compulsory education system in the US got its start over a century and a half ago, when Horace Mann established an education system for the state of Massachusetts. By 1918, children all over America were required to go to school.

As we mentioned, kindergarten is the first step in the K-12 school process. The word "kindergarten" is from the German for "children's garden", and it was the idea of Friedrich Froebel, who wanted children to have a place to learn and play. The first kindergarten class was in the UK in 1852, and the first in the US was established in 1856. Though education was required in many states, kindergarten was not.

At the beginning, most schools did not require children to stay past a certain grade; compulsory education only applied to children of elementary age. In a lot of places, children were allowed to miss part of the school year because they were needed to help with farming chores during the fall harvest. Over the years, every state developed its own K-12 school system, and compulsory attendance was expanded to include children from kindergarten through age 16. Funding came from local, state and federal sources. By 1950, compulsory education was established, but K-12 schools were in their very beginnings. Since the US Department of Education was formed in 1979 until today, K-12 schools have been largely the same.

Today, funding for K-12 schools' funding is tied to their performance on standardized tests, via the No Child Left Behind act. The act requires that states test students at particular grade levels in order to keep getting federal funding. There is a great emphasis on achievement in reading, and the act was intended to hold schools to a higher standard of accountability. Currently, the K-12 school system provides an education to all students, free of charge. American families have the choice to send their children to private schools, at their own expense. K-12 education has gone through a lot of changes in the past, and in the future, it may grow to include options for students beyond the 12th grade.