A petite 14-year-old Jewish girl >from a small Lithuanian shtetl immigrates to the United States in 1921. She doesn't speak a word of English--only Yiddish. She lives with her uncle and aunt (both of whom immigrated much earlier) in a town in Massachusetts. They enter the girl into the local public school. How would the school handle the girl's education? Would they place her in the grade where most 14-year-olds are, or in kindergarten, elementary school or what?
Here is what happened with my mother, who arrived in the US >from Poland in 1928 at the age of 15. At that time, the school year was divided into two semesters, A and B. My mother was placed in grade 6A, then skipped 6B and went straight to 7A, then again skipped 7B and went straight to 8A.
