重点中学是借用中国的名词。但是，美国式有一种中学叫做magnet school，可能有点类似重点中学。可以到网上谷歌搜寻就可以找到各地的magnet schools。不过，这样的学校大多都是要考试才进的去。

另外，有些是按照住家地址来上附近的学校，其中有些是一点也不比magnet school差的。在加州硅谷就有：Saratoga High School， Lynbrook High School， Monta Vista High School, Mission St. Jose High School, Gunn High School等。 就此本文简要介绍美国的重点中学magnet schools。
Magnet schools offer programsdesigned for students with special abilities or needs. For example,a sixteen-year-old boy has unusual abilities in science andtechnology. He attends a magnet school that places specialimportance on these subjects. Another boy, eleven years old, cannothear. This child attends a magnet school for the deaf.
There have been schools like these in the United States for morethan one-hundred years. However, the Performing and Visual ArtsSchool in Houston, Texas probably was the first to call itself amagnet school in the early nineteen-seventies.

At that time, American courts were ordering public schools to endracial separation. The law required public school children to attendschools so that there would be a racial balance. Then came a legaldecision about school attendance in Detroit, Michigan. It added achoice. The decision gave students a chance to attend a magnetschool.
Today, magnet schools operate throughout the nation. Liketraditional public schools, they receive government support. Magnetprograms are based on special subjects. They include communications,international studies, the arts, and mathematics and science.
For example, one of America’s best known magnet schools is theBronx High School of Science in New York City. It began innineteen-thirty-eight. Its first students were three-hundred youngmen. Today, about three-thousand male and female students attendBronx Science, as it is called.

Thousands of students from all areas of New York City takecompetitive examinations to attend the school. To be chosen,students must show excellence in mathematics and reading and writingskills. Students at Bronx Science must study all the sciences,mathematics, English, world and American history and a foreignlanguage.
Many students at Bronx Science later have become successfulscientists, doctors, lawyers and writers.
This VOA Special English Education Report was written by JerilynWatson.