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.
Famous quotes containing the words high and/or school:
“Processions that lack high stilts have nothing that catches the eye.
What if my great-granddad had a pair that were twenty foot high,
And mine were but fifteen foot, no modern stalks upon higher,
Some rogue of the world stole them to patch up a fence or a fire.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“I’m not making light of prayers here, but of so-called school prayer, which bears as much resemblance to real spiritual experience as that freeze-dried astronaut food bears to a nice standing rib roast. From what I remember of praying in school, it was almost an insult to God, a rote exercise in moving your mouth while daydreaming or checking out the cutest boy in the seventh grade that was a far, far cry from soul-searching.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)