Secondary Education
Middle schools, junior high schools, and high schools
Comprehensive High School
An educational institution that evolved during the first half of the twentieth century, offering a varied curriculum and designed to meet the needs of a diverse population of adolescents
Social Promotion
The practice of promoting students from one grade to the next automatically, regardless of their school performance
Critical thinking
Thinking that involves analyzing, evaluating, and interpreting information, rather than simply memorizing it
Charter schools
Public schools that have been given the autonomy to establish their own curricula and teaching practices
Vouchers
Government-subsidized vouchers that can be used for private school tuition
Junior high schools
An educational institution designed during the early era of public secondary education in which young adolescents are schooled separately from older adolescents
Middle school
An educational institution, housing 7th- and 8th-grade students along with adolescents who are 1 or 2 years younger
Tracking
The practice of separating students into ability groups, so that they take classes with peers at the same skill level
Gifted students
Students who are unusually talented in some aspect of intellectual performance
Learning disability
A difficulty with academic tasks that cannot be traced to an emotional problem or sensory dysfunction
Dyslexia
Impaired ability in reading or spelling
Dysgraphia
Impaired ability in handwriting
Dyscalculia
Impaired ability in arithmetic
Mainstreaming
The integration of adolescents who have educational handicaps into regular classrooms
Big fish-little pond effect
The reason that individuals who attend high school with high-achieving peers feel worse about themselves than comparably successful individuals with lower-achieving peers
ADHD
A biologically based psychological disorder characterized by impulsivity, inattentiveness, and restlessness, often in school situations
Student engagement
The extent to which students are psychologically committed to learning and mastering the material rather than simply completing the assigned work
Zero tolerance
A get tough approach to adolescent misbehavior that responds seriously or excessively to the first infraction
