Selective Education
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A selective school is a school that admits students on the basis of some sort of selection criteria, usually academic. The term may have different connotations in different systems and is the opposite of a
comprehensive school A comprehensive school typically describes a secondary school for pupils aged approximately 11–18, that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude, in contrast to a selective school system where admission is res ...
, which accepts all students, regardless of aptitude. The split between selective and comprehensive education is usually at secondary level;
primary education Primary education or elementary education is typically the first stage of formal education, coming after preschool/kindergarten and before secondary school. Primary education takes place in ''primary schools'', ''elementary schools'', or first ...
is rarely selective. At the university level, selection is almost universal, but a few institutions practice
open admissions Open admissions, or open enrollment, is a type of unselective and noncompetitive college admissions process in the United States in which the only criterion for entrance is a high school diploma or a certificate of attendance or General Education ...
or open-door enrollment, allowing students to attend regardless of prior qualification.


Australia


New South Wales

In
New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...
, selective high schools are government schools that select students on the basis of academic ability. Most students enter a selective high school in Year 7, after sitting the
Selective High Schools Test Selective schools in New South Wales, Australia are government high schools operated by the New South Wales Department of Education that accept their students based upon their academic merit. Each year, approximately 15,000 Year 6 students acr ...
in the previous year. The process of entering selective schools is much like that of a university, with students electing their preferences and being chosen for schools based on their performance on the Selective High Schools Test. Compared to the other states, New South Wales has many more selective schools than other states, (see
List of selective high schools in New South Wales This is a list of selective and agricultural high schools run by the Department of Education. Entry to these schools is managed centrally by the department's Selective High School and Opportunity Class Placement Unit. Prospective students sit t ...
).


Victoria

In
Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...
,
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
, selective high schools select all of their students based on an entrance examination. As of 2022 there are four selective schools:
Melbourne High School Melbourne High School is a government-funded single-sex academically selective secondary day school for boys, located in the Melbourne suburb of South Yarra, Victoria, Australia. Established in 1905, the school caters for boys from Year 9 t ...
,
Mac.Robertson Girls' High School , motto_translation = Mastery of self , established = , type = Government-funded single-sex selective secondary day school , principal = Sue Harrap , location = South Melbourne, Victoria , country = Australia , coordi ...
,
Nossal High School Nossal High School, also referred to as Nossal or NHS, is a Government-funded co-educational academically selective secondary day school, located in the Melbourne suburb of Berwick, Victoria, Australia. The school (named after Sir Gustav No ...
and
Suzanne Cory High School Suzanne Cory High School (abbreviated as SCHS) is a government-funded, co-educational, Selective school, selective entry secondary school located in , in the western region of Melbourne, Australia. The school caters for students from Year Nine, ...
. In addition there are a number of special schools, including: Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School,
John Monash Science School The John Monash Science School is a government-funded co-educational academically selective and specialist secondary day school, located on the campus of Monash University, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The school specialises in science ...
, and
Elizabeth Blackburn School of Sciences Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to: People * Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name) * Elizabeth (biblical figure), mother of John the Baptist Ships * HMS Elizabeth, HMS ''Elizabeth'', several ships * Elisa ...
, which cater to students opting for focused education in Arts and Science.


Queensland

In
Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...
, there are four selective entry high schools:
Brisbane State High School , motto_translation = Knowledge is Power , city = South Brisbane , state = Queensland , country = Australia , coordinates = , type = Public, selective, co-educational, secondary, ...
, which is partially selective and formed in 1921, and the three Queensland Academies, which are fully selective and were formed in 2007/8. All require entry based on academic entry tests, Naplan results, primary school grades, interviews and other considerations. In 2005, the
premier of Queensland The premier of Queensland is the head of government in the Australian state of Queensland. By convention the premier is the leader of the party with a parliamentary majority in the unicameral Legislative Assembly of Queensland. The premier is ap ...
,
Peter Beattie Peter Douglas Beattie (born 18 November 1952) is an Australian former politician who served as the 36th Premier of Queensland, in office from 1998 to 2007. He was the state leader of the Australian Labor Party (Queensland Branch), Labor Party ...
announced as part of the Smart State Strategy the additional creation of the Queensland Academies "as an innovative alternative educational program for highly capable high school students." There are three Queensland Academies for students Years 10 to 12 and all study the
International Baccalaureate Diploma Program The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) is a two-year educational programme primarily aimed at 16-to-19-year-olds in 140 countries around the world. The programme provides an internationally accepted qualification for entry into ...
which in 2019 had a yearly fee of $2,291.45. In 2019 QASMT additionally opened entry to grade 7 students.
Brisbane State High School , motto_translation = Knowledge is Power , city = South Brisbane , state = Queensland , country = Australia , coordinates = , type = Public, selective, co-educational, secondary, ...
is for Years 7 to 12 and does not have an International Baccalaureate Diploma Program fee, although a fee is payable (less than $260 in 2019), with its membership in the
Great Public Schools Association of Queensland The Great Public Schools Association of Queensland Inc. (GPS) is an association of nine south-east Queensland secondary schools established in 1918. With the exception of Brisbane State High School, GPS schools are all-male, private schools. Sim ...
and
Queensland Girls' Secondary Schools Sports Association The Queensland Girls' Secondary Schools Sports Association Inc (QGSSSA) is a sporting association for girls from eight private girls' schools, one co-educational private school, and one co-educational public school, based in Brisbane, Queen ...
. The
Queensland Academy for Science, Mathematics and Technology The Queensland Academies – Science Mathematics & Technology Campus (QASMT) is a selective entry high school in Queensland, Australia, developed in partnership with the University of Queensland. QASMT offers the International Baccalaureate Dip ...
(QASMT) at Toowong was opened in 2007. It has a partnership with the
University of Queensland , mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work , established = , endowment = A$224.3 million , budget = A$2.1 billion , type = Public research university , chancellor = Peter Varghese , vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry , city = B ...
at St Lucia. The
Queensland Academy for Creative Industries The Queensland Academies Creative Industries (QACI) is a selective entry senior state high school in Queensland, Australia which offers the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. The school aims to provide a platform for like-minded stud ...
(QACI) at Kelvin Grove opened in 2007. It has a partnership with the
Queensland University of Technology Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is a public research university located in the urban coastal city of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. QUT is located on two campuses in the Brisbane area viz. Gardens Point and Kelvin Grove. The univ ...
Creative Industries Precinct at Kelvin Grove. The
Queensland Academy for Health Sciences The Queensland Academies - Health Sciences Campus (QAHS) is a Queensland State Government selective entry high school located on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia. QAHS offers the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program to students i ...
opened on the Gold Coast (QAHS) in 2008. It has a partnership with Griffith University at the Gold Coast. In the University of NSW ICAS competition for 2018, university medals (The highest result in the state) were awarded to: Brisbane State High School 13 Medal/s, QASMT 1 Medal/s, QACI 0 Medal/s and QAHS 1 Medal/s. In the same competition for 2017 university medals were awarded to Brisbane State High School 12 Medal/s, QASMT 1 Medal/s, QACI 0 Medal/s and QAHS 0 Medal/s. In 2018 in Queensland there were 733 OP 1's
Overall Position The Overall Position (OP) was a tertiary entrance rank used in Queensland, Australia to guide selection into universities. Like similar systems used throughout the rest of Australia, the OP shows how well a student has performed in their senior ...
(The highest possible result high school graduates can receive in Queensland and a 99+ ATAR.) out of which 67 (9.14% of the Queensland total) were achieved at
Brisbane State High School , motto_translation = Knowledge is Power , city = South Brisbane , state = Queensland , country = Australia , coordinates = , type = Public, selective, co-educational, secondary, ...
.


Western Australia

In
Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...
, selective secondary education (officially name
Gifted and Talented Education (GATE)
is operated by th
Western Australian Department of Education
through the Gifted and Talented Selective Entrance Programs for Year 7, and subject to limited placement availability for year-levels upward to Year 11. All applicants are required to sit the Academic Selective Entrance Test and possibly complete combined interviews, auditions and/or workshops depending on the program(s) applied for. The programs are categorized into three strands: academic, language, and arts. Eighteen state schools participate in the Gifted and Talented Programs, each specializing in one of the strands. All participating schools are partially selective and partially local intake, with the exception of
Perth Modern School , motto_translation = Knowledge is Power , location = Subiaco, Perth, Western Australia , country = Australia , coordinates = , mapframe-stroke-colour = #C60C30 , mapframe-marker-co ...
which is fully selective.


United Kingdom

Most schools in the UK are now
comprehensive school A comprehensive school typically describes a secondary school for pupils aged approximately 11–18, that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude, in contrast to a selective school system where admission is res ...
s, which are non-selective. However, there are still 164
grammar schools A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school, ...
in several counties of
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, which select pupils either on the basis of an
Eleven-plus The eleven-plus (11+) is a standardized examination administered to some students in England and Northern Ireland in their last year of primary education, which governs admission to grammar schools and other secondary schools which use academic ...
examination, by an internally set and moderated examination, or by both. There are no selective state schools in Scotland or Wales, however some of their independent schools may require an entrance test to gain admission. Some formerly
Grant Maintained Grant-maintained schools or GM schools were state schools in England and Wales between 1988 and 1998 that had opted out of local government control, being funded directly by a grant from central government. Some of these schools had selective a ...
schools were selective by means of exams, tests, interviews; or a combination of all three. Three notable examples of highly selective Grant Maintained schools were
St Olave's Grammar School St. Olave's Grammar School (formally St. Olave's and St. Saviour's Church of England Grammar School) ( or ) is a selective secondary school for boys in Orpington, Greater London, England. Founded by royal charter in 1571, the school occupied sev ...
,
The John Fisher School The John Fisher School is a Roman Catholic voluntary-aided boys' faith school based at Peaks Hill, Purley, Croydon, Surrey, England. The school is located in and funded by the London Borough of Sutton. It occupies the former site of the 19th-ce ...
in Surrey and
The London Oratory School The London Oratory School, also known as "The Oratory" or "The London Oratory" to distinguish it from other schools, is a Catholic Church, Catholic Secondary school#United Kingdom, secondary school for boys aged 7–18 and girls aged 16–18 in W ...
in Fulham, London. These
Local Education Authorities Local education authorities (LEAs) were local councils in England that are responsible for education within their jurisdiction. The term was used to identify which council (district or county) is locally responsible for education in a system wit ...
continue to maintain a fully selective education system: Several other LEAs have a mainly non-selective system but a few selective schools exist alongside their comprehensive counterparts, these are; Barnet, Birmingham, Bromley, Calderdale, Cumbria, Devon, Enfield, Essex, Gloucestershire, Kirklees, Lancashire, Liverpool, North Yorkshire, Plymouth, Redbridge, Stoke-on-Trent, Walsall, Warwickshire, Wiltshire, Wolverhampton, Telford and The Wrekin. There are also a smaller number of partially selective schools in England. In
Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
, secondary education is predominantly based on academic selection, although a number of comprehensive schools also exists. Selection is carried out by an exam taken in the final year of Primary school. A significant number of secondary schools in Northern Ireland cater only for male or for female pupils. In addition, there is a parallel system of
Catholic schools Catholic schools are pre-primary, primary and secondary educational institutions administered under the aegis or in association with the Catholic Church. , the Catholic Church operates the world's largest religious, non-governmental school syst ...
, with a parallel selection system.


United States

Selective schools in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
are typically
high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...
level, and are often also
specialized school Specialist schools, also known as specialised schools or specialized schools, are schools which specialise in a certain area or field of curriculum. In some countries, for example New Zealand, the term is used exclusively for schools specialis ...
s. In
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, students must take the competitive
Specialized High Schools Admissions Test The Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) is an examination administered to eighth and ninth grade students residing in New York City and used to determine admission to all but one of the city's nine Specialized High Schools. In 2008 ...
prior to possible admittance to one of the schools. Though many selective schools are of the
high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...
level, there are also schools which provide to lower aged students. One example is the
Logan School for Creative Learning The Logan School for Creative Learning is a private school in Denver, Colorado that serves gifted students grades K-8. The mission of The Logan School for Creative Learning is to "cultivate the curiosities of gifted children." The Logan School fo ...
in
Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...
which admits students 1st-8th grade mainly by IQ testing.


Germany

The German public school system is fundamentally selective after four years of elementary school. The selective Gymnasium (grades 5 through 12 or 13, depending on the state) is supposed to prepare pupils for university. The German
Realschule ''Realschule'' () is a type of secondary school in Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It has also existed in Croatia (''realna gimnazija''), the Austrian Empire, the German Empire, Denmark and Norway (''realskole''), Sweden (''realskola''), ...
is also a selective school, though with lower requirements, ending at grade 10. The pros and cons of a selective school system are a constant issue in discussions about German schools, while many parents take strong efforts to make their children attend Gymnasium. Attendance of Gymnasium had strongly increased in the second part of the 20th century to the majority of pupils in many areas. As a consequence, mainly pupils with rather low aptitudes remained for the non-selective ''Hauptschule'', traditionally the third main tier (and originally the main tier) of the German school system. Some German federal states have abolished the three-tier system in favour of a combination of Realschule and Hauptschule, starting about 1997. Such non-selective schools are called differently, e.g. "advanced Realschule" or the "Realschule Plus", Sekundarschule or Integrierte Sekundarschule.


Iran

NODET, also known as SAMPAD, schools are national selective schools (middle and high school level) in Iran developed specifically for the development of exceptionally-talented students. The organization was first founded in 1976, as the National Iranian Organization for Gifted and Talented Education (NIOGATE). These schools were shut down for a few years after the revolution but later reopened. In 1988 the organization was renamed to
National Organization for Development of Exceptional Talents National Organization for Development of Exceptional Talents (NODET; fa, سازمان ملی پرورش استعدادهای درخشان ''Sāzmān-e Melli-ye Parvareŝ-e Este'dādhā-ye Deraxŝān'', or ''SAMPAD'') is an Iranian organizatio ...
. Admission to NODET schools is selective and based on a comprehensive nationwide entrance examination procedure. Every year thousands of students apply to enter, the schools, but less than 5% are chosen. All applicants must have a minimum GPA of 19 (out of 20) for attending the entrance exam. In 2006, 87,081 boys and 83,596 girls from 56 cities applied, and 6,888 students were accepted for the 2007 middle schools.


See also

*
Magnet school In the U.S. education system, magnet schools are public schools with specialized courses or curricula. "Magnet" refers to how the schools draw students from across the normal boundaries defined by authorities (usually school boards) as school ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Selective School School types Philosophy of education University and college admissions