The transfer and spread of values, skills, and knowledge from one person to another is education. This helps shape an individual’s character, mind, personality, and physical abilities.
All of this can be experienced in an individual’s daily life. Educational institutions like schools, universities, and colleges are responsible for formal education applications.
Key Takeaways
- Middle schools usually include grades 6-8, while junior high schools typically include grades 7-9.
- Middle schools focus on interdisciplinary learning, while junior high schools may have a more subject-specific curriculum.
- Middle schools are often part of a K-12 system, while junior high schools may be separate institutions.
Middle School vs Junior High
The middle school emphasizes different aspects of a student’s life, including social, physical, mental, emotional, etc., and focuses on exploring. Junior High school focuses on the subjects being taught to the students along with enhancing mental abilities. It focuses on academics.
Want to save this article for later? Click the heart in the bottom right corner to save to your own articles box!
The preschool level is the level at which formal education starts.
It then moves on to the elementary or primary level, then to the secondary level, colleges, and other higher levels. Before reaching the higher levels, an individual must first pass all the lower levels of education.
Some educational institutes require students to complete and pass a middle school or a junior school to attend and proceed to high school
while some institutes do not require such things, and students automatically proceed to high school after completing their elementary education.
Comparison Table
| Parameters of Comparison | Middle School | Junior High School |
|---|---|---|
| Main focus | The middle school focuses more on the broader scope of social, emotional, organizational, and personality development along with the general subjects. | Junior high school focuses more on the subjects taught to the students and also on the mental development of those students. |
| Classes | Middle school provides more exploratory and elective classes. | Junior high school provides subject-based academic classes and also elective classes. |
| Schedule | Middle school has a more flexible schedule. | Junior High school has a traditional six-period or eight-period day. |
| Education | Middle school has student-oriented education. | Junior high school has subject oriented education. |
| Classrooms | Middle school has classrooms that are arranged by grade level. | Junior high school has classrooms that are arranged by subject area. |
What is Middle School?
A school between elementary school and high school is called a middle school. Middle school contains 6, 7, and 8-grade students.
Unlike elementary school, where students are taught by two or three teachers only, in middle school, several teachers teach different subjects to the same group of students. The number of subjects, in general, is six.
Also, students are often given a choice in some subjects, and they can attend whichever subject they want to. It has a broader organizational, emotional, personality, and social development scope.
Middle school teachers work together in groups and teach all the students the subjects they are appointed to teach.
Different teachers are assigned to different grades to teach different subjects to the students. The middle school has a block schedule system.
The classes are divided into periods. Each day may have six periods or eight periods according to the school hours.
What is Junior High School?
Junior high school is also a school that is between elementary school and high school.
The objective of junior high school is the same as middle school, which is to prepare and educate the students for high school studies, but the approach and the main focus differ from middle school. Junior high schools are more subject-oriented rather than student-oriented.
Its main focus is to teach the students all the subjects and develop their mental abilities like application of what they have learned, problem-solving, and other life skills. The teachers appointed to a specific group of students are at random.
They teach the subjects assigned to them to the students. Junior high school also has regular classes with the same classes every day. Junior high school consists of 7 and 8-grade students.
Main Differences Between Middle School and Junior High
- The middle school focuses on social, emotional, organizational, and personality development and all the general subjects. In contrast, Junior high school focuses on the subjects taught to the students and also on the mental development of students.
- Middle school provides more exploratory and elective classes, while Junior high school provides different academic classes based on subjects and elective classes.
- Middle school has classrooms arranged by grade level, while Junior high school has classrooms arranged by subject area.
- Middle school has a more flexible schedule, whereas Junior High school has a six-period or eight-period day.
- Middle school has a student-oriented education, while Junior high school has subject-oriented education.
- https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/caje.12020
- https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00940771.1995.11494421
I’ve put so much effort writing this blog post to provide value to you. It’ll be very helpful for me, if you consider sharing it on social media or with your friends/family. SHARING IS ♥️
Emma Smith holds an MA degree in English from Irvine Valley College. She has been a Journalist since 2002, writing articles on the English language, Sports, and Law. Read more about me on her bio page.
