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Grade school education is normally satisfied in one of two sectors: public education; and private education. Alternatively, it is satisfied via home schooling, with online schooling acting as the bridge between home school and organizationally-run education.

In the United States, public education is funded from three different bodies of government: federal, state, and local. It is typically divided into elementary, secondary (also called “junior” or “middle”), and high school levels. Each of these levels has an established curriculum, funding system, and teaching requisites that are set through locally elected school boards that make up a school district. School districts act separately from other local jurisdictions, handling their own budgets and officials.

To make sure that education remains consistent throughout the United States, educational standards–usually through standardized testing–are set by state governments. This is where state education ranking spurs from.

Students may start K-12 education as early as five and as late as eight years of age; they should typically be finished with grade school by between fourteen and eighteen years of age. Many states require students to continue K-12 education until eighteen years of age or until they receive a high school diploma.

State-certified private schools act separately from the state’s budget, although they still must meet state standards. Approved home school programs in orphanages act under the same approval principle.

After finishing grade school, more and more students are moving on to post-secondary education, or college. This is an entirely different field of education from grade school and is handled by a different body of officials.

Statistics from the year 2000 show that there were 76.6 million students enrolled in K-12 and graduate schools, with 72% of the age 12-17 students considered “on track” for their age category (enrolled in the correct grade or a higher grade level.) Of these “on track” students, 5.2 million (10.4 percent) were attending private schools.

Over 85% of America’s adult population has completed high school and 27% have completed a bachelor degree or higher. The average salary in 2005 for college or university graduates exceeded $51,000,which was $23,000 over workers without a high school diploma.

Education attributes for a 98% literary rate in Americans over the age of 15. Compared to other developed countries, however, Americans rank below average in science and mathematics. Despite that, Americans had a 77% graduation rate from high school in 2008, which is much higher than many other developing countries.

All statistics were provided from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Public and private efforts for K-12 education were firmly pushed by the No Child Left Behind Act. Like the One Laptop Per Child legislation that has vastly improved education in other countries, No Child Left Behind encourages an overall improvement in the performance of American grade school education by providing the necessities needed for children to grow academically. America hopes to increase the average ratio of college-educated adults entering the workforce (33%) to over the mean of other countries (35%) in the future.

Understanding K-12 education and grade schooling can better the chances of success for your child’s future. K-12 Directory of School’s blog hopes to familiarize parents with all the aspects of grade school education in order to ensure a better academic future for the American people.