Quote:
Originally Posted by Snaqwells
That's how it is here, too, I just thought the semantics were arbitrary. Interesting.
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Here in Connecticut, for many years most towns had elementary schools (K-6), junior high schools (7-9), and high schools (10-12). About twenty plus years ago, based on educational research available at the time, towns started to convert junior high schools to middle schools (6-8). They figured that sixth graders were ready to move out of the self contained elementary classroom setting, where one teacher taught, for the most part, all subjects, to a setting where specialized teachers taught different subjects (science, English, mathematics, French, Spanish, geography, history, etc.). They also figured that since ninth graders were receiving high school credits toward high school graduation that they might as well be in the same building with the other "high school" kids. Junior high schools, for the most part, actually changed the name on the school building, i.e. John F. Kennedy Junior High School became John F. Kennedy Middle School.
As far as I know, there is only two "real" junior high schools remaining in Connecticut. They are part of a regional school district involving three different small towns. All three towns send their kids to one regional high school. The two smaller towns send their kids to one junior high school, located in one of those very small towns. The largest town sends it's kids to the other junior high school, located in that town. There have been several attempts to switch to a middle school format, but the largest town refuses to give up local control (like they have over their elementary schools) over their ninth graders and turn control of said ninth graders over to a regional district.