The American High School

Cultural references related to rules, expectations, and related controversies at American high schools have come up when I'm working with advanced English Language Learners (ELLs) who are also teacher candidates: Example terms are curfew, eligibility, and dress code. 

To give you an idea of the vocabulary and references that you might come across, I'm posting sections of a 2011 student welcome packet. "Eligibility" refers to meeting a minimum academic standard, as measured by letter grades in classes, which allows a student to be eligible to participate in sports competitions with other schools. Instead of school uniforms, most public schools have a "dress code" to promote a respectful learning environment. "Curfew for minors," which is the time that those under 18 years old have to be home so that their parents are not called into court, is not covered here. 

The National Center for Education Statistics  allows you to look up typical names of American schools. The Washington Post mentioned the site in a cute 2014 review, How many schools are still named after John F. Kennedy?   Here's the link that gives you an answer, except that the first page has mostly schools named for other Kennedys. There's even a school named for JFK's widow, which is  the Jacqueline Kennedy-onassis High School .

This page has glimpses of what my children brought home back in 2011, which was long enough ago that IPODs--meaning iPods-- are forbidden on campus. Yes. This kid was a student at one of the 187 schools named for a Kennedy!

URLs

1. http://nces.ed.gov/ccd/schoolsearch/
2. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2014/11/22/how-many-schools-are-still-named-after-john-f-kennedy/
3. https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/schoolsearch/school_detail.asp?https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/schoolsearch/school_list.asp?Search=1&InstName=Kennedy&SchoolType=1&SchoolType=2&SchoolType=3&SchoolType=4&SpecificSchlTypes=all&IncGrade=-1&LoGrade=-1&HiGrade=-1&SchoolPageNum=2 (Archived)
4. https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/schoolsearch/school_detail.asp?Search=1&InstName=Kennedy&SchoolType=1&SchoolType=2&SchoolType=3&SchoolType=4&SpecificSchlTypes=all&IncGrade=-1&LoGrade=-1&HiGrade=-1&SchoolPageNum=2&ID=360007701299 (Archived)
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPod