Comprehensive high schools are the most common form of public high schools in the United States and are meant to serve the needs of all students, as compared to the common practice in other nations in which examinations are used to sort students into different high schools for different populations. Some high schools specialize in University-preparatory school academic preparation, some in remedial instruction, and some in vocational instruction. A typical comprehensive high school offers more than one course of specialization in its program. Comprehensive high schools usually have a college preparatory course and one or more scientific or vocational courses.
Many school districts in the US also have schools tailored to high-performing students and other students who do not succeed best in a comprehensive environment. However, these schools may also have varying numbers of high-performing student classes. This can lead to unpreparedness in post-secondary education.
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“Tobacco and opium have broad backs, and will cheerfully carry the load of armies, if you choose to make them pay high for such joy as they give and such harm as they do.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“What a wise and good parent will desire for his own children a nation must desire for all children.”
—Consultative Committee On The Prima. Report of the Consultative Committee on the Primary School (HADOW)