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What are the American analogs of "grammar schools" and "comprehensive schools"? In the U.S. there are academic high schools, which a majority of students attend

What are the American analogs of "grammar schools" and "comprehensive schools"? In the U.S. there are academic high schools, which a majority of students attend, and a few vocational high schools. Our academic high schools are similar to UK comprehensives?

bediger4000 3y ago
Came to ask the same question, but I got the impression a UK "grammar school" is analogous to a USA "charter school" or private school.
- PaulHoule 3y ago
  They have some really weird terminology in the UK. A "public school" is not like US public schools at all but rather is an exclusive private school: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_school_(United_Kingdom) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_school_(United_Kingdom) George Orwell went to one, maybe that is how he got some of the ideas about language that are in that essay at the end of 1984... For the definition of "grammar school" see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammar_school https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammar_school
  - bediger4000 3y ago
    Thanks for the link. I'm going to have to go with equivalent to a private high school in the USA
    - NikkiA 3y ago
      If such schools have scholarships, then it would be pretty close - the whole point of a grammar school was/is that it's largely private, with 10-25% of the students non-paying, and chosen from the highest scoring state school students.
devilbunny 3y ago
AIUI, we don't have perfect analogs. The closest for grammar schools would be a larger version of the selective high schools some areas have (e.g. Boston Latin, Bronx Science, Thomas Jefferson High in Fairfax County, VA). A comprehensive or secondary modern is designed to teach all students not in a vocational track. So you do have to test into them, but IIRC it's not quite as rough as the competition to get into the specific ones I mentioned above. My experience here is from reading books that touch on the matter; those are not new books, and they were not new experiences at the time they were written. Mostly reflecting how they were perceived in the 1960s-70s. No doubt some things have changed, but that's a broad comparison.

bediger4000 3y ago

Came to ask the same question, but I got the impression a UK "grammar school" is analogous to a USA "charter school" or private school.

PaulHoule 3y ago
They have some really weird terminology in the UK. A "public school" is not like US public schools at all but rather is an exclusive private school: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_school_(United_Kingdom) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_school_(United_Kingdom) George Orwell went to one, maybe that is how he got some of the ideas about language that are in that essay at the end of 1984... For the definition of "grammar school" see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammar_school https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammar_school
- bediger4000 3y ago
  Thanks for the link. I'm going to have to go with equivalent to a private high school in the USA
  - NikkiA 3y ago
    If such schools have scholarships, then it would be pretty close - the whole point of a grammar school was/is that it's largely private, with 10-25% of the students non-paying, and chosen from the highest scoring state school students.

devilbunny 3y ago

AIUI, we don't have perfect analogs. The closest for grammar schools would be a larger version of the selective high schools some areas have (e.g. Boston Latin, Bronx Science, Thomas Jefferson High in Fairfax County, VA). A comprehensive or secondary modern is designed to teach all students not in a vocational track. So you do have to test into them, but IIRC it's not quite as rough as the competition to get into the specific ones I mentioned above. My experience here is from reading books that touch on the matter; those are not new books, and they were not new experiences at the time they were written. Mostly reflecting how they were perceived in the 1960s-70s. No doubt some things have changed, but that's a broad comparison.