Elementary school is a school for children from age 5 or 6 to age 12 or 14. Most elementary schools have six grades, though some have eight. Many include a kindergarten. Some elementary schools end with grade four, five, or six, and the students then enter a two-, three-, or four-year middle school or junior high school. Other elementary schools, called primary schools, cover only the first three grades. Increasingly, many are being reformed to focus on early childhood (pre-kindergarten to grade 1), lower elementary (grades 1-3), and upper elementary (grades 4-6). Elementary schools are sometimes called grade schools or grammar schools.
This article discusses types of elementary schools and how students are taught. For information on the history of elementary schools, see School.
Kinds of elementary schools.
United States elementary schools may be public, private, parochial, or charter. Public schools are free and are supported by taxes. Private schools charge tuition and receive additional support from donations and gifts. Parochial schools are private schools operated by religious groups. Charter schools are public schools that operate independently of local school boards by agreement with the state.
Most elementary schools are organized as graded schools, where pupils of the same age study together. But some communities have nongraded or ungraded schools. Students in these schools are grouped according to ability and interest, and they advance in each subject at their own rate.
Elementary school instruction
emphasizes three major areas of study: (1) communication, including reading, writing, listening, and speaking; (2) computation, which involves understanding and using numbers; and (3) character development, which deals with children’s relationships with one another and their surroundings. In addition, teachers instruct students in such subjects as art, computers, health, music, science, and social studies.
Elementary schools seek to help children expand their knowledge of the world around them. The curriculum in many schools is based on a theme of expanding environments. In the first grade, pupils learn about the home and the family. Second-graders study the school and the neighborhood. In the third grade, teachers introduce information about one’s own community in comparison with others. The fourth-grade program deals with the state. Fifth-graders study the nation, and sixth-graders, the world. In all grades, teachers help children develop social skills and help them learn to get along as members of a group.
Most elementary schools are divided into rooms in which one teacher instructs about 25 children, though many states have passed laws to reduce the student-to-teacher ratio. Such rooms are called self-contained classrooms. But some elementary schools have open space classrooms, sometimes called open classrooms. These classrooms have no walls separating them, or they have movable walls. Several classes may work together in one large area, or small groups may work separately. Both types of classrooms may have learning centers, where many kinds of instructional materials are available for students.
In lower or primary elementary grades, students may spend all or most of the day with one teacher. In the upper or intermediate grades, pupils may have special teachers for such subjects as art, music, physical education, and science. Some elementary schools use team teaching, in which a team of several teachers and teacher aides is responsible for 100 or more pupils.
See also Alternative school; Early childhood education; Education (Elementary education); Parochial school; Private school.
