In the US, the education system goes from kindergarten (the first year of elementary school) to 12th grade (the final year of high school).
Parents can send their children to nursery school from the age of two or three.
The first year of school is called kindergarten.
Children aged between five and eleven go to elementary or grade school. Between 12 and 14 they attend junior high school and between 14 and 17 they go to high school.
Students in high school take examinations at the end of each (semester?).