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I am an employee at a middle school in San Diego and I need help identifying the proper word to describe the act of progressing from one grade to another. I frequently hear employees use the word "articulate" to describe this process. For example, "John Smith will atriculate from elementary to middle school at the end of the year". The word "articulation process" is frequently used to describe a series of steps necessary to move an entire class of students from one school to another.
I have been told by some that the correct word to use is matriculation....not articulation.
I am having trouble finding clarification on which word to use. Please see below for excerpts from three different websites.
Any help would be appreciated.
From Dictionary.com….
Articulate - 1. the act or process of speaking or expressing in words 2. a. the process of articulating a speech sound b. the sound so produced, esp a consonant 3. the act or the state of being jointed together 4. the form or manner in which something is jointed
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/articulation
Matriculate - to enroll in a college or university as a candidate for a degree.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/matriculation
From Wikipedia.com….
Articulation - course articulation is the process by which one institution matches its courses or requirements to course work completed at another institution. Students use course articulation to assure that the courses they complete will not have to be repeated at the institution to which they are transferring.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Articulation_%28education%29
Matriculation - "matriculation" can refer to mere enrollment or registration as a student at a university or college by a student intending to earn a degree, an event which involves only paperwork and is often handled by mail or online.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matriculation#United_States
A website called “jargon busterâ€
Articulation Route - This is an agreement, either formal or informal, between a college and a university. An Articulation agreement means that a university has agreed to look at students with HNC or HND qualifications for entry into year 2 or (sometimes) year 3 of a degree course.
Matriculation - This is the formal process of registration for students. Matriculated students get a card (a “Matriculation Cardâ€), which is their official student I.D. and allows them to access many different student reductions.
First, welcome.
From what I can tell, the term most used for a student's passing from one grade into the next grade within the same school is promotion. As with any technical term, the smaller community establishes its use, and there can be wide variation from community to community.
As you point out, matriculation refers primarily to the initial entry into a new school at a typical beginning point for one of the school's programs. Articulation refers to the process of entering a school at some point midstream in one of the school's programs, often as a transfer. Of course, graduation refers to the completion of a school's program.
Promotion is what I find commonly used to refer to the successful completion of a stage, often a year, of study within a school's program.
I remember when the verb "graduate" indicated moving up a grade level (such as filling a graduated beaker).
One "was graduated" to the next level. After a while, the student simply "graduated from a grade." Later "graduated" referred only to the final level of a school (He "graduated from high school"). Now, a person "graduates" college.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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