K-12 EDUCATION                                                 Daniel Zayas 

The K-12 education system, from kindergarten to 12^th grade, is an American expression that includes years of publicly supported primary and secondary education in the United States. K-12 is a shortening of kindergarten for 5–6-year-old through 12^th grade for 17–18-year-old, as the first and last grade.

Education is very essential in life, not only when it comes down to academics, but its social aspects as well. Students need to communicate with others to establish and maintain relationships, and participate in a variety of work, community, and home settings. High school friendships are likely to last a lifetime. These relationships are beneficial later in life. Social aspects of education are to be thanked for when considering future references and opportunities.

Pre-kindergartens differentiate themselves by equally focusing on building a child’s social development, physical development, and cognitive development. In this grade period they commonly follow a set of organization-created teaching standards. Kindergarteners are taught in school classrooms and move from class to class during the day, typically with the same students they had in the previous classes. Students are in school for an average of 7 hours a day.

In middle school, students are given the opportunity to select certain electives to their own liking while still taking the other basic educational subjects needed for graduation. These electives can help prepare students for their careers even persuade some students to switch careers. It gives students the opportunities to try out new things and get out of their comfort zone. Students have different classes with different students almost every single time. This gives students the opportunity to socialize with multiple classmates in each class period.

After middle school comes high school. High school lasts 3-4 years and it introduces students to the GPA system and advanced course classes that can help students receive college credits before college. Middle school has GPA, but it gets reset once students reach high school. “GPA” stands for Grade Point Average, which is used to get into colleges and have a chance of qualifying for college scholarships. In order to graduate from High school students must have at least a 2.0 GPA average and pass all the required classes to fully graduate from high school. Students must have a high school diploma to attend college. This what makes the K-12 system very important in the United States to get a high education on a certain field study. This education system also includes several tests that evaluates a student’s knowledge. This test is widely used by colleges to accept qualified students to their campus. One of these tests is called the “SAT”. The SAT is a standardized test for college in the United States. The SAT is owned, published, and developed by the College Board and claim that the SAT can determine if the person is ready for college or not. There is another standardized test for college admission in the U.S. called the ACT. The ACT test assesses high school student’s general educational development and their ability to complete college level. This test covers English, Math, Reading, and Science.