1)Characteristics of American education:

①formal education in the US consistes of elementary, secondary and higher education.②Elementary and secondary education,which forms public education, is free and compulsory③public and private schools:Public schools are created, financially supported and governed by states or communities, and private ones by religious groups, or nonreligious private organizations or individuals.④the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution said education was included among the responsibilities which were "reserved to the states or the people", This makes it clear that education is a function of the state, not the federal government.⑤diversity and sameness in educational policy and practice.

1.正式教育包括初等、中等、高等教育2.構(gòu)成公共教育的初、中等教育是免費(fèi)和義務(wù)的；3.公立和私立學(xué)校：公立學(xué)校由州或社區(qū)創(chuàng)建、資助和管理，私立由宗教團(tuán)體、或非宗教性質(zhì)的個(gè)人或組織來(lái)創(chuàng)建；4.《憲法第十修正案》把教育包括在‘只屬于州和人民’的職責(zé)中，這清晰表明教育是州的職能，并非聯(lián)邦政府的；5.教育政策和教學(xué)實(shí)踐的多樣性和類(lèi)同性

2）Elementary and secondary educationin the US

Elementary schools: In some states the elementary school covers grades 1-8, but in some other states it covers grades 1-5 or 6. so it takes 5,6or 8 years to finish the elementary school in the United Stetes. The elementary school curriculum mainly consists of mastery of the "basics"(基礎(chǔ)課) ， such as reading, writing, and arithmetic or mathematics.

一些州小學(xué)包括1-8年級(jí)，但另一些是1-5或6年級(jí)。所以在美國(guó)小學(xué)要花5，6或8年完成。小學(xué)的課程重要包括‘基本知識(shí)’的掌握，比如閱讀，寫(xiě)作，和算術(shù)或數(shù)學(xué)。

Secondary Schools: Secondary schools are also called high schools in the United Stetes, covering grades 9-12,the junior high school 6or 7-9,and the high school 10-12. High schools are made up of comprehensive, academic, vocational and technical schools with somewhat different tasks. There are 21000 public secondary schools and a number of private secondary schools in the US.

中學(xué)包括9-12年級(jí)或初中6或7到9，高中10-12。中學(xué)包括不同教學(xué)任務(wù)的綜合性學(xué)校，普通文化課學(xué)校和職業(yè)和技術(shù)學(xué)校。共有21000所公立中學(xué)和一些私立中學(xué)。

3)Different types of colleges and universities:

①research universities②doctoral universities ③master's comprehensive colleges and universities.④Liberal arts colleges ⑤junior colleges ⑥specialized institutions.

學(xué)院和大學(xué)的區(qū)別：1.研究性大學(xué)；2.博士學(xué)位大學(xué)；3.碩士學(xué)位綜合大學(xué)和學(xué)院；4.文科學(xué)院；5.兩年專(zhuān)科學(xué)院；6.專(zhuān)科學(xué)院

Famous universities:Harvard,Yale,Princeton,Columbia and MIT（Massachusetts Institute of Technology）,Stanford,Berkeley.

哈佛，耶魯，普林斯頓，哥倫比亞，麻省理工學(xué)院，斯坦福，伯克利。