Junior high school

A secondary school encompassing grades seven and eight and sometimes nine. Sometimes used as a synonym for a middle school, the true junior high school differs from the middle school in that it is organized and administered apart from, but almost exactly like, any high school. Now a disappearing entity, the junior high school was the predecessor institution of today’s MIDDLE SCHOOL but, unlike the latter, did not alter the high school approach to education to take into account the sharply different needs of early adolescents.