In my country we do all the subjects and then grade 10-12 we do our chosen subjects. So my question is if theres a similar system in America.
COMPULSORY SUBJECTS
English
Second Language
Life Orientation/ Life Skills
Mathematics (Pure Maths or Maths Literacy)
CHOSEN SUBJECTS (You have to pick three)
Life Science/ Natural Science/ Biology
Physical Science/ Physics and Chemistry
Geography
History
CAT/IT/Technology
Tourism
Accounting
Business Studies
Art
Music
Drama
The subjects offered depends greatly on the school. You pick subjects based on what you’re good at and what job you’re doing and what you’ll be studying in College/University
So my question is whats the system like in America, is it similar or different?
Comments
It’s similar at most schools in the US. There are core classes that everyone has to take. Generally math, language arts, social studies/history, and science. Beyond that there are some choices available.
Not really. In high school you have a choice of higher level or lower level in some classes (based on test scores or previous grades not just choice). In my experience in junior or senior year I could choose a little what history I wanted or which science and maybe one extra class that could be another history or social science or art or something. There wasn’t much choice either, for most classes it was this or that. And for that extra class maybe we had 3 options at best. I also went to a small school (45 students in my graduating class) so they didn’t need to offer a lot of options because it would be pointless if only like 2 students chose it
Entirely depends on the state, specific school district, or specific school.
My experience was K-6 was all compulsory. 7-12 had a few compulsory (like math, English, science, history, etc) as well chosen subjects (wood working, debate, personal finance, Home Ec, etc).
My cousin, who lived thirty minutes away, went to a school where every class was compulsory K-12.
I know where I am everyone has to take English and social studies (either history, government, or economics), their final 12 grade year. All other classes are chosen. The other three high school years have less choice, but you can choose some electives.
Depends on the school and state. An example of how it might look- all states require 4 years of English. However, some school that might look like English 9, English 10, English 11, English 12. But I’ve seen some school have different options for the last year or two. Instead of English 12, students might pick a more specific English class like World Literature, Mythology, Creative Writing, etc. With Math it will be similar- be a few required classes then a choice for later years like Statistics, Pre Calculus, Calculus, etc.
Usually the larger the district the more likely to have options like this.
Speaking with family members currently in high school, they do seem to have a choice in a lot of their classes. This is a town high school. I went to a state technical school for high school (25 years ago) and had no choice in my classes aside from the technical field I chose to study, which was half the school year.
Most have to take core classes, history, science, English, social studies. Then there are electives, foods class, home ec, pottery, drawing, jewelry making, shop class, languages etc.
From K-8th grade, at least when I went to school, you generally all take the same classic, aside from students in advanced or remedial classes on the same subject. Once you get to high school it starts to branch out. You need a certain amount of credits in different categories like math, science, English etc. But you have some discretion in those classes, IE you can choose anatomy/physiology, biology, chemistry etc. Obviously there’s different sports, and then there’s classes that are more elective. I took a typing class and a TV production class in high school. One of my English classes was sci-fi/fiction and one of my science classes was marine science.
It’s similar. Until highschool we didn’t have much choice other than which foreign language (we were required to take Spanish, German and French for 2 years then we could pick which one we wanted to stay with). Then in highschool you get to choose more. We had a certain number of credits required for each basic subject (language arts, math, social studies and sciences) and certain courses are required, for example in science everyone took physical science 9th grade and biology 10th grade. After you fulfill the required credits and classes you can take whatever classes you want.
Elementary school (age 5-11): No choices. Your teacher handles everything.
Middle school (11-14): A few electives. English, math, science, physical education, and history/social studies are mandatory. You can also choose 1 or 2 classes from stuff like art, choir, foreign language, theater…
High school (14-19): Transitions from “a few” to “almost entirely” electives. 1st year requires English, [science of your choice], [math you test into], PE, social studies, and [foreign language of your choice], plus another 1 or 2 electives (art, choir, computers, journalism, psychology, etc.). By the 4th year, the only real requirements are English, math, and social studies, but it’s strongly suggested that you also take a science class, continue pursuing foreign language, etc, as electives. Subjects also come in different levels, from “grade level,” to “Honors/Advanced/Accelerated,” to “AP.” So, you can also choose that aspect, a lot of the time.
Yes, high school is very tailored to what you intend to pursue after high school. If you want to go to trade school and become a mechanic, you probably don’t need to take AP Biology, but it wouldn’t hurt to take grade level chemistry and grade level physics alongside your shop class. If you want to go into medicine, AP Bio and AP Chem are basically mandatory; taking robotics and using your personal statement to talk about how you’d like to get into robot-assisted surgery would be brilliant.
Depends on state requirements. If your state requires 12 years of English courses, you have to take the equivalent number of classes. But, for some schools you might be able to double up on classes depending on your schedule. I took 14 “years” of English courses, 16 classes total because four of them were semester-long instead of year long. I doubled up in 11th and 12th grades. I also took an extra social science class one year. I didn’t take any science classes my final year, and opted for a fine arts class instead.
The USA handles college/university in a very different way than much of the rest of the world. What you study in high school doesn’t determine what you study at university. It can impact what programs you get into and what classes you are placed into (math and English are big ones that colleges and universities usually test you on unless you have taken AP classes or show proficiency on high school transcripts). But, I leaned heavily into literature/English in high school but my college major was Biological Sciences. I ended up also studying philosophy, alongside biology. I took only three Eng/Lit classes the entire time I was in college.
At the high school level in my district, electives were chosen, although a half semester of each PE and Health had to be taken at some point unless exempt. A semester of computer applications was also a state requirement. For the science track, a year of chemistry and physics were each mandatory if I recall.
Core classes didn’t offer any freedom except for AP courses. Given that we also had a community college a few miles away, AP wasn’t exactly a hugely popular program at my high school.
For middle school students who chose to participate in band, we had no free elective choices to work with
By high school, especially the end, your classes vary beyond what’s required depending on level or interest. Foreign languages, music, art, and other non core classes are selected by you..also, more advanced students will take more in depth or higher level classes. Some kids will see things like economics, applied math, or philosophy in high school (that will be the highest funded, competitive, or private high schools).
Every state is different, and sometimes even every school district is different. I live in New York, in which we have something called the Regents diploma, which requires all high school (9-12 grade) students to take four years of English, three years of math, three years of sciences, and some other stuff I don’t recall (see the link).
I think the key difference is that some of the chosen subjects you mention will be mandatory here- you don’t decide whether to take life sciences, for example, you are required to take at least one life science class. Elective schedules are built into this, but mostly for variety within those requirements (for example, you have to take a life science, a physical science, and a life OR physical science for the three years of science, so for that third year you can often decide which additional class you want; there’s also a one year foreign language requirement and you can often pick from different options at your school). So while people do have leeway in choosing their classes and electives, fundamentally they’re not choosing WHETHER to take sciences, they’re choosing WHICH sciences, etc. Students study a core arts and sciences curriculum over the full period of high school rather than choosing more limited subjects to specialize.
schooling in the states is very localized. you have set requirements for each state, but electives and non-core offerings differ district to district.
in my case, I wasn’t able to choose classes until high school and the elective offerings decreased each year as people left the region for jobs (hurray for the rust belt) and decreased property tax money
Yep. We call them electives
So, my husband is from the UK and it was so surprising to me he could opt out of what we would consider core classes. We did not get to choose to opt out of English, social studies, science, and math, though we got to choose what level if we were accepted into honors, and social studies and science we had to do, say chemistry and biology for example but got to choose which science to continue to another level after that. We had to do gym for 3 out of the 4 years. We got to choose I think it was 2 electives each semester in addition.
Here in Massachusetts you choose the high school.
Do you want a Vocational school or a traditional school. Vocational school teaches you the same as traditional plus you learn about different vocations then focus on one.
If you go to a regular school you have mandatory classes and then have electives. After your mandatory English classes you can chose electives like creative writing, film studies, Shakespeare, etc.
You have to take gym but you can choose climbing or outdoor survival or archery, etc.
It varies from state to state but most have required classes (when I was in high school it was something like 4 English, 3 Math, 3 Science, 3 History, 2 Foreign Language, 1 Health, 1 Social Sciences (like Economics), and either a Family and Consumer Sciences, an Agricultural Sciences, or a Technology Sciences class. Then everything else was elective (I think they’ve since switched to 4 English, 4 Math, 4 Science, and 4 History plus the rest). But having to do 4 English meant that you had compulsory subjects every year.
I chose like 50% of my classes in middle school and then like 80% in high school. There were credit goals you had to hit so like at least one type of PE semester at least one year of some type of math etc. I didn’t have any choice in elementary school but some of th kids I babysat did have electives even at that age.
Most schools make broad subjects like science, math, and English compulsory for your whole school life but let you choose what specific type (like statistics vs calculus, etc.) I went to a very unique school which is the oldest in the country (1635) which forces us to do this and learn Latin for 4 years straight. 4 terrible years of my life lmao
Yep
Keep in mind that education at all levels is legally the domain of the states. Many states then delegate these powers to local governments, after passing some regulations and providing oversight. There is no “American education system”. It’s a bit like asking what the EU education system is like.
I went to a Catholic school, so it was slightly different from public. We had compulsory classes through eighth grade, and then in ninth we began to be able to choose electives. However, since theology was a required class we had one fewer slots for electives than public schools and thus couldn’t have as many electives. I believe we had two free slots each year. Compulsory was English, Math, Social Studies (history/civics/goverment), Theology, and PE. Then you had required classes that you could choose between, which were Fine Arts and Foreign Language. You had to do two semesters of arts (I did Theater and Public Speaking. The choices were Theater, Public speaking, technical theater, band, choir, and art), and three years of foreign language (I did four years of Latin. The choices were Latin, German, French, and Spanish). Then you had one more free class to choose from a variety of options such as a study hall, programming, personal finance (you had to take this one at some point in your four years but it was only one semester), weightlifting, and study skills.
In my experience, we started in middle school (grade 7). There were some mandatory classes and then we had a choice of electives to fill out the schedule. You could also apply for higher difficulty classes
In high school there was even more choice
My high school had some choice. My state required three years of math, science, and foreign language, two years of world history, one year of American history, 1/2 year of government/civics and 1/2 year of economics, 3.5 years of physical education, 1/2 year of health, three years of English, 1/2 year of art and 1/2 year of music.
I was in advanced classes in middle school so I took high school proficiency exams in science, math, and foreign language and started a year ahead in those three classes.
We also took one elective every semester, but I was in chorus so that was mine.
My high school didn’t allow you to drop any subjects until your final year so I also took an extra year of math and foreign language. The school also did not allow you to drop both math and science so I took AP science classes (college proficiency) in my last two years.
It was typical in my city to apply to specific programs and I applied to a law program in high school. As a result, I took three two extra classes and an internship.
By the end of high school, I had a grand total of five classes in my last semester. One of them was yoga and one of them was chorus. We had 11 periods per day in order to have a staggered schedule and I went to school from 8:12-12:06 with a free period.
Honestly, it was pretty sweet. I had plenty of time to get home, have lunch, get my work done, then go to my after school job from 3-9. My paycheck had me living the life of luxury for a teen in 2001-2002. I had a cell phone, car, nails always done, and whatever new things I wanted thanks to be able to work about 30 hours a week.
Tl;dr- It paid to get all my work done in my first few years so I could do fuck all my senior year.
All schools require curtain courses in order to graduate and ” electives” are courses you choose to take as well. They can be any course that’s offered.
In my state, there are rules about minimum classes to graduate. But a lot of high schools are “college prep” high schools, so functionally the “requirements” are “Whatever the flagship state U requires for admission.”
Like you’re not required to take foreign language to graduate but you need at least three years of it to get into university. The default assumption our local high school makes is that you want to go to university and plan courses accordingly. Its actually a bit of a pain to opt out of the college track and prep for trade school instead.
In high school, I was able to choose some of my classes, especially my last year when there were fewer required courses.
I graduated from the U.S. school system many years ago and even then there were standard classes that were musts that you had to take, and then there were some classes that you could choose from. Even the mandated classes though there were options depending on the track you were on. For example math was a mandated class but there were choices of what math track to take depending of whether you intended to pursue college or your track was to go straight into the workforce.
As with most things in the US, this varies from state to state and locality to locality. In my high school, English/Literature was required every year, three years of history (a year of world history, 1.5 of American History, .5 of civics and government) were compulsory, we had to take three years of math and two of science, but they could be any of a number of science classes (e.g. I took two years of biology and then one of chemistry, while most people took biology, chemistry, then physics or biology and then Earth sciences). We also had to have at least a year’s worth of art/tech classes, but it didn’t have to be sequential. Foreign language was not required, but most people took at least a few years of it. We were also required to have PE every year by state law, though during my time, we had special dispensation to not have it in 12th grade due to space concerns.
Through grade 6 we were in a single classroom with a single teacher most of the day. In grades 7 and 8 we had dedicated teachers for each subject, most of which were required but we got 2 electives. In grades 9-12 there were still some requirements (4 years of English, 3 of science, social studies, and math, 2 of PE) but you had a lot more freedom to choose electives.
In my home school district, you can start picking electives in middle school but your core subjects (math, science, English, social studies) are fixed. Then in high school you start having multiple choices for your main subjects (e.g. physics, chemistry, or biology instead of just “science”) and can basically choose your entire schedule.
Our high school (grades 9-12) required:
You could pick from a variety of electives, including advanced versions of the classes listed above. Many classes had a prerequisite class requirements, so you couldn’t take just any advanced class.
Band, drama, computer applications, art, chorus, physical education, health, and study hall were also available classes.
You may have some choice in high school- trades or college prep on in between.
It also depends on size of school. A class size of 50 may have few choices compared to 1000.
Just to add to what others have said – generally in secondary school we had core, compulsory subjects, with some chosen subjects to fill out our schedule – in some districts like mine, we have programs in schools or whole schools which are often called magnet programs and magnet schools that offered specialized curriculums in a wide range of subjects that students can elect to go to. Our district had magnet programs in everything from health and medicine, science and tech, military, aviation, to business to whole schools that were college preps, trade schools, and for the arts. Every student still had to take the compulsory subjects mandated by the state for graduation, but they often had a great deal of choice in classes in their field of interest in these programs.
We had (in high school, early 90s), some required, that everyone had to take, and others that were electives. You had to take a certain number of electives to graduate (so you couldnt do study hall for half the day). Some chose electives they thought would be ‘easy’, like agriculture and cooking.
Before high school there was no electives with the exception of band (choir was required). This was in the 80s.
Idk why people are saying it’s similar here. It’s really not. Most of our high school classes from beginning to end are classes in required subject areas like math, science, and English. My school also required all four years of a foreign language class, though you could pick among Spanish, French, and German.
Each year we had 7 or 8 classes, and we only got to choose 1-2 of them as “electives.” Most electives were visual art, music, or drama classes, but there was also a Creative writing class, a healthcare sciences class for people who wanted to be nurses or other healthcare assistants, a shop class (learn to build stuff), and an electronics class.
You have core classes that you are required to take and you have elective courses. Most courses are core classes.
There are chosen subjects, but not the way you describe. I may have some outdated terminology here since I graduated in the early 2000s but I don’t think it’s changed that much.
In the Alabama school system, you do things by credits. One class equals one credit.
There are things called “core classes” which are math, English/literature, history/social science, and science. To graduate from high school (which is four years long) you need four credits in each of these. What that usually equates to is one each year, because many of them have prerequisites (you have to take algebra before you can take geometry and you have to take biology one before you take biology two, etc.) so that keeps them spaced out across all four years. You also needed two credits in a foreign language and one credit in a physical activity (which could be gym class like you see in TV or a whole host of other activities like dance, marching band, or a sport).
Every year you had seven classes so you had your four core classes, and then three electives. These electives included your physical activity, your foreign language, and a bunch of other things like psychology, home economics, shop, fine art, theater, choir, band, and so forth.
You also got to choose which core classes you took. In math and science, there were a lot of options, depending on how advanced you were. Math had everything from pre-algebra all the way up to college level calculus and theoretical math. Science had everything from basic biology and earth science all the way out to specialized things like human anatomy and physiology, advanced physics, etc. English and history were pretty cut and dry, ninth grade was a basic literature and grammar class, 10th grade was American literature, 11th grade was British literature, and 12th grade was global literature. And history was world history, two years of American history split just before World War I, and American government for the last year. But there were choices of which section to take… regular, advanced, or advanced placement, which was basically a college course.
Some people would pick their classes with an eye towards what they planned to study in college and some really ambitious people would take a lot of advanced placement courses such that they were already a year ahead in college when they graduated high school because they taking so many collegiate level classes. There were also vocational programs at my school so a lot of people would bust out to the local community college to take vocational classes and trade school so they popped out with not only a diploma but certifications in a trade.
I didn’t really do this too much. I did take human anatomy and physiology because I was thinking about nursing or med school. But I didn’t take any of the advanced placement classes. They were so much work (more work than their college level counterparts I eventually discovered) and I was already super busy with marching band. I had friends who did some vocational stuff, and I knew a lot of people who took the advanced level maths and sciences in order to get a jumpstart on engineering. But the school didn’t really care what you were taking so long as you fulfilled your credit credits. If you were doing any advanced work, it was going to be between you and the college you eventually were accepted to. And all it really did was let you skip early level classes in college.
I graduated in 1983 from a large Midwestern high school in the US in a school district that had an excellent academic reputation. Something like 98% of my class of around 650 students at least went to college. The state graduation standard was 2 years of HS math (Algebra I & geometry), 3 years of English, and 1 year of science.
The matriculation standard for the state universities was higher, 3 years of math (thru Algebra II), 2 years of sciences (usually biology & chemistry), and some required a year of a foreign language.
We had a marvelous variety of electives, too. From auto shop and woodworking to Business Law, photography, drama, and instrumental & vocal music.
I was very lucky to get the HS education I did. It really showed up freshman year at uni, in my English 101 class. We had about 20 or 25 students in the class, most of them from small, rural towns. After returning the papers from our first assignment, the TA excused me and one other student who’d also attended HS in my district, then had the rest of the class stay and work together on fixing the myriad issues with their papers. Shawnee Mission schools FTW! I was also ahead of the game in other basic/gen ed/intro courses like Chem I, General Biology, and Intro to Psychology.
When I was in school, in elementary school ( 5 to 10 ) years old, the classes are all the same, but there are tracks. Some kids may get “gifted” classes, or remedial classes, but the subjects are the same. (No choice)
Then in 6th grade (middle school) you have one semester of “wheel” where you could try some languages and music classes, the next semester you could pick one. This was your elective. Your classes vary a bit based on your track, but it’s all basically the same. (So 1 choice)
High school starts at 9th grade, (14/15 to 18 year old) this is my experience, this not only varies by state, but sometimes township. This is where you have more electives. Your grades determine what is open to you. You have to take certain core classes that are set, but you can opt to take photography or band ( No idea if those corses still exist)
Some schools have done away with language and music.
Courses at the high school I went to.
The ones labeled “courses” are classes you have to take some version of to graduate (like for each of the four years of high school you have to take an English I, II, III, IV class) the ones labeled “electives” have more flexibility, but you have to have a minimum number of credits that include some of them.
Starting in 6th grade (age 11-12), most schools allow a student to choose electives outside of the required core curriculum. So a 6th grader might have seven periods in a day, 6 of those would be occupied by required core curriculum, and one period would be the student’s choice, like art, choir, drama, band or orchestra. After 6th grade the number of electives often goes up to two or three.
And increasingly, especially at the high school level, there is choice even among the required core classes. For instance, a student is usually required to take at least 4 year-long science classes in order to graduate, and one of them must be Biology I, one must be Chemistry I, and one must be Physics I, but once they get those classes out of the way, they get to pick which upper level science they take for their 4th science – someone who liked their first year of biology might take Biology II, or if they liked chemistry, Chem II, and so on. And some schools offer other sciences besides the Biology-Chemistry-Physics core sciences, like Environmental Science. Similar in math, a student who needs another math credit but is afraid of calculus might take statistics instead. And also while at least two years of a foreign language is required, the students get to pick which language. In my high school the choices were Spanish, French, German, and Latin.
A big one is a language. Most students have to take a language course (i think mu college requires it), but you pick. My school offered Spanish, French, Japanese and maybe German? I took Japanese.
The answers are going to vary widely because this kind of policy is generally set at the school district (city or county) level, not federally.
In my case, my state (Georgia) required that everyone have four credits in English and math and three credits in science and social studies (each semester counted as 0.5 credits). But you did have some choice in what you wanted to take, especially when it came to AP classes.
Everything beyond that was pretty much elective I think, aside from a required health class. I used most of my electives on marching/concert band.
We had some required classes, some recommended if we were planning to go to college (which was like 99% of my high school) and there were the traditional classes for applying to highly selective colleges (which was like 1/3 of class).
We had choice of tracks (regular, honors, AP, etc) and had some ability to choose specific classes, especially in junior and senior year. We also got to choose our own schedules from sophomore year on — so we could decide if we wanted AP European history first period with Mr. Smith or 4th period with Ms. Jones and such.
I could choose electives in high school but there were also classes that you had to take.
The problem is each state does it differently. Even within states, each school district has some degree of autonomy, especially around the elective subjects. But generally speaking, each state will have required core classes and some degree of electives students can choose.
Larger school districts tend to have more options. For example, a small, rural school district may have only English I, II, III & IV and everyone takes the same. A larger district could have something like English I & II that everyone takes, but higher level grades could have the option of English III, Creative Writing or Literature that will all meet the requirements for that grade’s English requirement.
Louisiana,
we have requirements we have to hit for graduation, and we get to choose in what order we take them in the 9-12th grade years.
4 classes in each of the 4 core subjects (math, science, english, history), 2 art, 1.5 PE, 0.5 health, 3 electives
we also have to get a credit in a foreign language 2 (French, German, Spanish, or Latin; to name a few) but foreign 1 isn’t technically required to graduate, so bilingual students can test into foreign 2.
The core subjects are also broken down into required subcatigories, but I don’t remember the requirements.
lastly, we are required to be full time until 12th grade year. Smarter people than I only had 1 or 2 classes that last year
when I was in high school ( grades 9-12) we had graduation requirements.
1 yr math
2 yr science
3 yr social studies/ history
4 yr English
4 yrs gym/ physical education
health class
you had 7 classes a day. I don’t recall the minimum full year credits you needed
the classes after me the next 5 or so years requirements changed
the gym/ physical education class was not every day but during the years 4 quarters it alternated between 3 days gym/ 2 days of study hall or 2 days of gym/ 3 days of study hall.
they sometimes offered other classes around this study hall like the health class was half a year class. drivers education was another half year class. I did my health class in summer.
a group of suburban schools had a combined technical education school they were affiliated with so the kids in this was do the required English and gym the first 2 periods then they would take a bus to the te hnical education school that taught career focused classes like nursing, electrician, construction, manufacturing, repair work, administrative support. my school had some metals p/ wood working and automotive class but these were also offered stvthevtech school. innthe large city school district they had magnet schools for specialties like sciences/engineering, visual and performing arts, and a tech education school.
when I was a senior I took a vast majority of AP/ pre- college classes. thrn thst was the only time you could take them. today you can in 10 or 11 grade too.
Back in my day, you had core classes and elective classes, however the way the schools worked restricted the choices you had.
Meaning something like 10th grade English Lit and 10 grade geometry were only available at 3 and 4 Both classes you had to take to stay on track to be promoted.
The few truly interesting classes would be at the same time, and you could not take them.
Most of my electives were made up of extra Math classes, a few art classes and weightlifting classes.
Al
*US schools
It’s similar. For me, grades K-6 (age 5-11 or so) had set subjects, a few electives (shop, home-economics, some science classes) were introduced in grades 7-8, and high school (grades 9-12) allowed you to choose most of your classes, but you had to take a certain number of “credits” in certain areas. For example, you had to take six credits in English classes, but you could choose English, Literature, Essay Writing, Debate, etc. A lot of the Math and Science classes required earlier classes, so if you wanted to take Biology, you had to have taken Chemistry, and to take Chemistry, you had to have taken Physics.
The school counselor (there were three, and they were each assigned to about 1/3 of the students) would help you pick out classes that would prepare you for whatever you planned to do after graduation. (Or, in some cases, classes you’d be able to pass.)
At my school you basically chose everything like you were at college—but also like college had to have a specific amount of credits in various subjects (4years English, 4 years math, 3 years science, 4 years foreign language, etc.)
All schools have the same requirements in a state, but the availability is different. It depends on the school, but even at small schools, there is usually a more difficult path and an easier path. Rural/small schools may have College English or English. Large schools/well-funded schools have a requirement for 4 credits of English and will have a list of English classes that meet the requirement and it could be anything from English I to American Poets or some AP (advanced placement) course.
We do all get the same classes in grade school, and sometimes through middle school. Grades 9-12 get options.
It varies by state and district, I’m sure. At my district, we were able to make some class choices in jr. high (7th and 8th grade) and we had more choices from 9th grade onwards. But there were still many classes that were required. Required classes were “core” classes, chosen classes were “electives”.
So at my school we had the core subjects: math, science, social sciences, and English. Within each subject, we had classes we had to take. Other classes were an either/or choice, and other classes we had to choose from to fulfill the degree requirements. So for example: Earth/Space Science and Biology were required classes. Everyone had to take them. However, we could choose either Chemistry or Physics. Only had to take one. I needed another science class so I ended up also taking Astronomy. I don’t remember all of the choices I had.
Note: we actually made our own schedules to a degree. I remember sitting down with a counselor before my freshman year and planning out the next four years. I chose what classes to take and to an extent when I’d take them. I think I stuck with that original plan for the most part. There was some alterations my sophomore year that changed a few things later on.
US school systems vary wildly by state and even between different districts in the same state.
Generally you are required to pass certain core curriculum and also have a number of electives. For example when I was in school we had to have 4 years of high school English but we could choose between “College Prep” or “Practical English”. We had to have a minimum of 3 credits in math, but some kids might take 4 or more including Geometry, Algebra II, Trig, and Calc, while others might take Algebra I, Geometry, and Accounting. Science was similar, I took Biology, Chemistry I & II, and Physics, while others took Biology, Earth Science, and Field Bio. For electives you might need a certain number of credits between Shop, Home Ec, Art, and Music. I took mostly Shop so Woods I & II and Metal Shop.
Some kids also fulfilled some of their credits by attended the local career center for part of the day to learn vocational skills like auto shop, CNC, electrical engineering, culinary, and cosmetics. The students that took the higher English, maths and sciences were expected to go on to college, while those that attended the career center generally went on to trades shortly after graduation.