User:MacGyverMagic/Discussions/School

American school system

What grade would a 10 year old American kid be in and what would a regular curriculum look like? [[User:MacGyverMagic|Mgm|^(talk)]] 21:33, Nov 16, 2004 (UTC)

A 10 year old will typically be in 4th grade. As for the curriculum, it will vary depending on the federal, state, and local decisions. To give you a general idea you can look at the California Department of Education site which has fourth grade content recommendations for math, english, history, and science. --Cvaneg 21:59, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)

To clarify, 10 is the age of most children starting fourth grade. (You are generally supposed to be five years old in order to start kindergarten.) Unless they have been held back, the oldest in the class will be nearly 11 and the youngest might be just a little short of 10. Most 4th-graders will turn 11 sometime during the school year.

So technically, there will be some 10-year olds in third grade, especially toward the end of the school year, and possibly a very few in fifth grade (at the very beginning of the year), depending on the rules in that area for starting kindergarten (which is the year before 1st grade). -[[User:Aranel|Aranel ("Sarah")]] 22:39, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I think for the most part you are correct, but with the ages shifted one year. I agree that most children start Kindergarten at 5, but that would make kids starting 4th grade 9. (K=5, 1st=6, 2nd=7, 3rd=8, 4th=9, 5th=10). --Cvaneg 22:54, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Er, right. That would be right. (I don't pretend to be able to count.) But in that case, I would say that the more typical grade for a 10-year-old would be fifth, wouldn't it? -[[User:Aranel|Aranel ("Sarah")]] 22:58, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Well, not to bring counting back into this, but to answer that question, you would have to calculate the probability that a child has a birthday within the first half of the school year (approximately Sept-Feb) rather than the second half of the school year (March-June) :P I'm going to go ahead and call it a uniform distribution and say that it is equally likely that a child spend the majority of his or her 10th year in 4th grade as it is that they spend the majority of it in 5th. --Cvaneg 23:12, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Okay, I thought about it. Your assumption is a good first appproximation. However, a better approximation would be to start by saying that children born from June-October will probably be 9 for nearly the entirety of their 4th-grade years. (June/July/August because their birthday will be after the school year is over and September/October because of regulations that one must turn 5 by, say, mid-October during kindergarten). That's 5/12. Of the remaining 7 months, say that students are equally likely to be either 9 or 10 for the majority of the year. You still have 5/12 + 3.5/12 = 8.5/12 of students who are 9 for the greater part of their 4th grade year. You can adjust the first approximation, but as long as it is > 0, the result will be the same. This is an effect of the existence of summer vacation. If school were in session year-round, the probabilities would, indeed, be equal.

It might help to know the reason for the question. If you're trying to compare different education systems, it would probably be best to look at the start of the school year. -[[User:Aranel|Aranel ("Sarah")]] 20:06, 17 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Thanks for all the info, if you have any more, keep it coming :-) [[User:MacGyverMagic|Mgm|^(talk)]] 09:38, Nov 17, 2004 (UTC)

In terms of curriculum, there are a number of US organizations that develop so-called national standards -- essentially recommendations for where students should be at a given grade level. A list of the various national centers can be found here, and an overview of the standards is available here. Beyond that it's hard to say what a typical 4th/5th grade American education looks like since states have their own standards that almost always eclipse national standards in terms of determining the curriculum.

My own Californian 4th/5th grade education (before the No Child Left Behind nonsense) was essentially math (multiplying/dividing, simple algebra, order of operations), early US history (Columbus, colonization, etc.), English/language arts (parts of speech, short compositions, book reports), physical education (stretching and running), fine arts (band and chorus with a hint of musical history), geography (what's a strait?), and sex education (what's a nocturnal emission?). Of course, that was some 15-odd years ago, so your mileage may vary. --David Iberri | Talk 18:11, Nov 17, 2004 (UTC)