Yes, but we call it "eleventh grade" -- doing it the other way round is a Canadianism.
Well, I've been known to use either phrase, although since I
am Canadian maybe that's not surprising. But I'm pretty sure I've heard people here in California say it both ways.
high school is 4 years now, whereas before it was 5).
Even way back when Ontario still had Grade 13 - and I admit, I don't think anyone ever referred to it as "thirteenth grade" - high school was as frequently four years as it was five. It depended on whether or not Grade 9 was included in the junior high system. For mine it was, and all of the high schools in my region of Toronto had four years (Grades 10-13).
The Ontario high school diploma requires 30 high schools credits completed (a course passed is one credit).
It's been a lot of years since high school for me, so I haven't a clue how many credits were required. I do know that you could just finish Grade 12 and receive a high school diploma. That would be enough for you to study at most universities in the country, except for Ontario (and probably Quebec). If you wanted to study at a university in Ontario, most required a certain number of Grade 13 credits from Ontario high school students. My best friend's family moved to British Columbia right after she finished Grade 12, so she was able to start university that fall, whereas I had another year of high school to go...
Quebec has or had it too. Not sure on where they stand now.
I don't know what Quebec's system is now. At one point they had 13 years of pre-university education, but it wasn't referred to as Grade 13. When we lived in Montreal, high school went through til Grade 11, then a student would attend two years of CEGEP, which I think in some ways was similar to community college, but at a lower level. Certainly to attend a university in Quebec, such as McGill (which is where I was working), a student had to have both years of CEGEP before they could enter as an undergraduate.
And based on what I've typed in this post, Pam, it's obvious that I say "Grade XX" far more often than I say "XXth grade".
I guess it's the Canadian in me. I'll have to listen more to people around me down here.
Kathy