High school (North America)

The High School, and the related junior high schools and senior high schools are primarily found in the United States. They are secondary schools that deliver phase two and three of the ISCED model of education, to pupils between the ages of 12 and 18. The high school usually takes pupils from 14 to 18 (but sometimes through 21) and prepares them for college. The name high school is applied in other countries, but no generalisation can be made as to the age range, financial status or ability level of the pupils accepted.

The term "high school" originated in Scotland, with the world's oldest high school being Edinburgh's Royal High School from 1505. The Royal High School was used as a model for the first public high school in the United States, Boston Latin School founded in Boston, Massachusetts.

The first schools in the North American colonies opened in the seventeen century to prepare boys to read the Bible. The Boston Latin School opened in 1635. This contrasts with schools in the Old World, where King's school in Canterbury opened in 597, and King's School, Rochester was founded on 604 and re-founded in 1415. The Boston school was then a private school, but the school in Dedham, Massachusetts (1641) was the first school to be supported by public taxation. The schools prepared boys for law or the church. The length of the school day varied with the seasons but there was a shortage of Latin speakers available to become teachers, the job was low status and pay made the job unattractive. The colony ordered in the English Protestant Tutor retitled as The New England Primer to be used as a text book, and the tuition was by rote, and Calvinist in tone. This was the start of a secondary education system.

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