Schools Definitions Schools refer to legal definitions in a jurisdiction of various grade levels. In the US this is Elementary School, grades K through 5, Middle School grades 6 through 8, and high school, grades 9 through 12. A grade level is the student's year in school, first grade, second grade, third grade and so on.  The term 'grade level is used to differentiate between the grade or mark a student received in a class and the year the student is in. Schools Table A "School" is a span of grade levels. The schools table is a list of the names of the various jurisdictional schools in a region.  There are no additional fields in this table as the other data entities use this primarily as a reference. To customize the PEMS, the administrator edits the list of schools. Out of the Box, the solution comes with Elementary, Middle, and High School defined.