Secondary education in the United States

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Secondary education is the last six or seven years of statutory formal education in the United States. It culminates with twelfth grade (age 17–18). Whether it begins with sixth grade (age 11–12) or seventh grade (age 12–13) varies by state and sometimes by school district.^[1]

Secondary education in the United States occurs in two phases. The first. as classified by the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED), is the lower secondary phase, either called a middle school or junior high school. A middle school is for students sixth grade, seventh grade and eighth grade and a junior high school is only for students in seventh and eighth grade.

The second is the ISCED upper secondary phase, a high school or senior high school for students ninth grade through twelfth grade.^[2] There is some debate over the optimum age of transfer, and variation in some states; also, middle school often includes grades that are almost always considered primary school.^[1]