What is a US style graduation?

[alhewison]

This is a bit of a confession. It annoys me when I see posts about 
Harry's graduation, or about any Hogwart's Graduation. In England, 
Graduation ceremonies only take place for degrees, in tertiary 
education, and not for secondary education. Students don't get their 
results for weeks after term has ended, and the way our exam system 
works, you can pass a whole stack of subjects - or none, so what 
would you be a graduate of?  

BUT,

 a couple of weeks ago, I read an article about how some British 
schools are now having a US style "Prom" - forgive me if this isn't 
the right wording. In Britain this could equate to nothing more than 
a celebration without exam results being involved. Well, it then 
occured to me that as the WW doesn't seem to have a University, then 
they could perhaps have some kind of ceremony to mark the 
official "Qualification" of the young wizards- AKA a "graduation". We 
have not been told how the OWL or NEWT system works, so I suppose 
that to be a "fully qualified" wizard as opposed to a an "of age" 
wizard, there might be a requirement for a certain number of exam 
passes.

Anyway, sorry for all that waffle, it's just made me wonder how the 
US system works. Are there a standard number of subjects that have to 
be passed? Is the standard set across States or across the Country as 
a whole? can true comparisons be made from one school to another - 
for instance, With our A'Levels: the standard is arguably the same 
for whatever subjects you choose to take wherever you take them (In 
England & Wales). 


Ali

Who doesn't think that Harry would ever have gone trick-or-treating. 
It's still in its infancy here as we have Bonfire Night only a few 
days later. Some kids do go out, but 10 years ago I think it would 
have been quite rare. When I was growing up, Halloween 
was "celebrated" by eating toffee apples, having apple-dunking 
competitions and blindfold tasting tests. I don't remember any 
sinister links to satanism, but just a low key bit of fun.