It is going to vary a little from state to state (We have 50 different
systems and each of those have multiple subsystems (local districts)that
will have different procedures) At the beginning of the year most kids
in a grade will be the age listed.
PK3 or EC 3 year olds (usually reserved for high risk, or disabled
students)
PK4 sometimes called K4 - 4 years olds (usually reserved for high risk,
or disabled students)
K 5 year olds (Not required in most states I think)
PK stands for Pre-kindergarten K for kindergarten
Child must be in some type of educational setting public, private, or
homeschool after age 6
Grade 1 - 6 years
Grade 2 - 7 years
Grade 3 - 8 years
Through Grade 12 - 17 years
Some schools experiment with multiage grouping at the lower grades or
have multiage groups because of lack of teachers (5th grade team leader
at my school has a 4th and 5th grade split bilingual/English as a second
language group because none of the 4th grade teachers are qualified to
teach ESL (4 of the 5 4th grade teachers are alt. Certification
candidates which means they have a Bachelors Degree in something other
than education and are currently taking a series of classes and test to
become certified at the end of the year.))
We don't have the equivalent of your Levels like O Levels. (I don't
understand your system, just hear about cousins in England who have
passed X level) In Texas we do have an Exit Level TAAS students have to
take and pass to get their diplomas (10th grade I believe but I'm still
trying to get all the elementary stuff by the tail but not to hard
because we are changing to TAKS next year) and the SAT and ACT are
Nation Wide tests given by private companies to help Universities
compare students from different systems. The TAAS has a writing part,
but most is multiple guessing, SAT is multiple guessing test and I never
took the ACT.
AP - Is advance placement - Collage level courses during High School
again with a Nation Wide Test administered by someone outside of
government control
CLEPT (not sure of initials on this one) is another test HS seniors/
College freshman can take to test out of freshman level courses. You
don't get a grade get to take higher level course in same subject (I
clepted (SP) out of Freshman Sociology without ever taking a course in
it. So I was allowed to take Sophomore level course in that subject
area. Again this is a multiple guess test.
(In case you haven't noticed I have NO FAITH in Multiple choice tests.
If it is in English (not math or science) I can pass most of these jokes
with my background knowledge and logic. It doesn't mean I know anything
about the material. I have a cousin who can know the material backwards
and forwards but still chokes on the test)
