Elementary Education in USA

American education system is significantly different from any other country. Schools and education system are highly sophisticated and flexible. Classroom environment is quite open and friendly. Sports and other curricular activities are given equal importance. Children are not pressurized with a lot of home work.

The complete USA education system can be listed as follows:

US Education System

Below are the levels of education in US School system. Children can either go to Private Schools or Public Schools. Unlike Private Schools where the legal guardians have to pay for the tuition Public Schools are free. The areas with good Public Schools have high real estate prices ie the price of the houses and rent are high.

Preschool
Pre-K
Kindergarten (K.G.)/Pre School
Elementary School
Middle School or Junior High School
High School
Under Graduate College
Graduate College

Nursery: 3 years old child can be admitted in a Nursery. Child has to be toilet/potty trained. Normally nursery education is very expensive.

Pre-Kindergarten (Pre-K): Child can be admitted in pre-K when he/she is 4 yrs old.

Kindergarten: In order to be eligible for admission to kindergarten the child must be 5 years of age by a specific date/month, which is decided by the school.

At the end of this one year period, the child has to go through an assessment test to get admission in 1st grade. The child will not be promoted if he/she is found unfit for the 1st grade.

Elementary School

1st to 5th grade education is known as "Elementary School".

Normally there is a school bus service available. However, parents residing within 2 miles zone, need to pick-up and drop their children on their own.
Unlike India here children are not given much home work. Most of it will be completed in the school itself, and very little will be given for home. However a proper homework practice does start from 4th grade onwards.
The examination system is also very relaxed. Tests and weekly quiz are conducted on regular basis, but no grades are given. The child's performance in the exam is categorized as "Excellent", "Good", "Satisfactory", and "Need Improvement". In some places alphabetic grades viz. A, B, C, D might start in 4th grade.
Unless there is an extreme exception a child is not failed in elementary school.
A kid's performance is tested by conducting the IOWA or CAT test depending on the state. A 3rd grade kid can appear for such tests.
Normally, elementary students stay with one group of classmates and one main teacher during the day. However different teachers may take classes in art, music and physical education.

Middle School

6th to 8th grade education is known as "Middle school".

In few schools 5th grade or 9th grade may also be included in the Middle School. On the other hand in some places only 7th and 8th grade constitute the Middle School. These rules vary from school to school.

The admission criterion is based on the records in the previous grades.
In some places there may be assessment tests for admissions.
Normally there is a school bus service available. However, students residing within 2 miles zone need to come to school on their own.
Children do get a lot of homework in middle school.
Tests are conducted in every 3 months, or 6 months basis. Final exams are conducted at the end of the year. There may be a regular quiz conducted for each subject. Grades are given according to the performance.
Students are provided with private lockers in the school to keep their stuff as they have to change classes throughout the day. A middle school student usually has to change classes in every 45 minutes.
Lunch duration varies from 30 minutes to 1 hour.