Taxonomy of schools


Educational institutions are often categorised along several dimensions. The most important is perhaps the age or level of the students in the institution, but funding source, affiliation, and gender, racial, or ethnic exclusivity are also commonly used.

By age

Infants and toddlers

This level of education is for children up to about age 5. In most places, it is still optional, with some students staying home with parents until the next stage. Schools of this type are often not part of any formal education system, and many are not free of charge even where the school system as a whole is.
The first years of the formal educational system are known most generally as "primary school", although they also have the following names in some areas :
Many jurisdictions have no formal "middle" level between primary school and secondary school, but in those that do, "middle school" is a generic term for it. Some areas treat "junior high" as an interchangeable synonym for "middle school", but others maintain a distinction as to level or style. Some jurisdictions have both, in which case the middle school is typically grades 5–6 and the junior high grades 7–8. Some also use "intermediate" school.
In some areas, there is no formal middle school, but the secondary schools have a "junior division". This is more common among private schools.
In England, a "preparatory school" is a specific type of middle school.

Secondary school

can start at different ages. They usually educate children up to the ages of 18 or 19. They go by a variety of now-mostly-synonymous names:
There is no truly generic term for all post-secondary education. Some types of post-secondary education include:
A special note about the term "college": in North American and especially US usage, this is a truly generic term for all post-secondary education, right up to and including university, but can also be understood to mean a smaller, four-year, baccalaureate institution. Elsewhere, it is more commonly understood to mean only the junior colleges and vocational schools. An older usage still persists in the proper names of some secondary schools. Generally, the term is not suitable for an international audience without further definition.

Postgraduate education

Schools that offer postgraduate education are often, but not always, one unit of a larger university. Categories include:
Another major classifier is whether the institution is state-funded or not. This is complicated by contradictory international usage.
Note : While full public funding generally denotes a public school in North America, technically this isn't always the case, and isn't the literal definition of a public school. A government may provide full funding for a student to go to a private school, such as school vouchers, even paying for all students at such a school, but it remains private, as a private organization owns and controls the school. Conversely, a "public" school may charge high fees, and seek other private funding sources, but be "public" by virtue of the "public" owning and controlling the school.

By gender

Historically, most schools were segregated by gender. The modern norm is for schools to be coeducational; the vast majority of publicly funded schools in the English-speaking world are so, although this is not universal worldwide. Many private schools, both religious and secular, remain single-sex schools.

By race, language, ethnicity

Until the mid-20th century, schools in much of the US were explicitly racially segregated. This is no longer the case, although a number of institutions of higher learning still call themselves historically black colleges.
In many areas of the world where different ethnicities coexist, especially when different languages are spoken in those communities, parallel school systems are often organised to serve them. Motivations for this can vary; such a system can be oppressive if one of the parallel systems is inferior to the other, but it can be empowering if it enables a minority community to perpetuate its languages, traditions, and norms.

By living arrangements