Curriculum and Structure
One major difference between the education systems in the United States and the UK is that all of the UK are under one National Curriculum. The United States, however, have differing curriculums depending on the location. School boards in America have been around since local control of public education began in 1647 and have progressed to nearly 14,000 public school districts in the country today, each with its own overview of the curriculum (Bauld 2023). Despite this distinction, subjects covered in both countries are vaguely similar. English, maths and the sciences are all compulsory through most of the education system (Jones 2022). In addition, both countries share the freedom for students to choose their studies after reaching their teen years. The big difference of the structures, shown in the following table, shows a contrast in the starting age for primary/elementary schools as well as the year groups title:
The US curriculum tends to have a national focus while relying heavily on text books while the British curriculum tends to have a broader view and uses a variety of sources and authentic texts (Anglia 2023). There is also another difference between the two systems regarding secondary subjects. In the United States, students are relocated at the secondary level and subjects such as math and science are taught sequentially while those same subjects are taught simultaneously in Britain (Shafiq 2018)
