Academic Information & Policies

GRADUATION REQUIREMENTS

Minimum Course Load: 6 Courses each term Minimum Graduation Credits: 24 Credits (Adjusted for students seeking reclassification)

Department Requirements:

English and/or English Language: Four Academic Years

Fine Art: Visual Art Performance Art 1/2 Credit 1/2 Credit + 1/2 credit in either area

History: Three Courses (Humanities/World History I, World History II, US History)

Informatics:

Mathematics

Modern Language:

Science:

Religious Studies: Computer Science I

Three Courses (Must include all prerequisites)

Completion of Level III (English as First Language students only)

Three Courses (must include Conceptual Physics, Chemistry, Biology, or its equivalents and each must have a lab component)

One Grade Level Course per Academic Year

* Transfer Students: Transfer credits are awarded based on official transcripts. Adjustments to graduation requirements are made.

ADVANCED PLACEMENT COURSES

Advanced Placement (AP®) courses are college-level courses offered in almost all academic departments, in grades 10, 11, and 12. Classes are taught as the equivalent of courses taken by college freshmen, and students are expected to produce college-level work in the course; that is, work showing greater depth, more sophisticated reasoning and higher creativity than the work in regular courses. These courses will include outside reading and other assignments, additional class time and significant amounts of homework each night. Because of the rigors of these classes, students are encouraged not to take more than three AP® courses in a given year. If four AP® courses are taken, an additional study period is required during the school day. Midterm and Final Examinations are

weighted as one-third of the term average for all AP® level courses.

Students are carefully selected for AP® courses according to the following criteria: • Recommendations of the student’s prior teachers in the subject matter 4

• Evaluation of all Habits of Mind indicators • Excellent grades in prerequisite courses • High achievement as shown on standardized test scores • Evaluation of the student’s total academic program, particularly the student’s performance (including grades on any prior AP® courses and any approval that the student has received to take other concurrent AP® courses) • Other specific departmental requirements (see appropriate section)

• A mandatory commitment to the AP® examination in mid-May.

The school expects students to give serious commitment to AP® courses and to take the AP® examination in mid-May.* A sufficiently high score on an AP® examination may allow the student to earn credit in the college they eventually attend. *Students will be responsible for the fee associated with these tests.

Honors courses are offered by most departments at all grade levels. These courses are significantly more rigorous than regular courses. Students need specific departmental recommendation to take Honors courses. • The facility to produce Honors level work consistently and independently • An eagerness to take risks and embrace ambiguity when encountering the unknown • A willingness to persist with challenging questions or tasks • The desire to explore ideas deeply, not merely complete assignments • The ability to make connections to other areas of knowledge or fields of study • A readiness to embrace, process, and use feedback to improve performance • An intellectual appetite that is awake or awakening to the pleasures of the mind • A commitment to all Habits of Mind indicators

Independent Studies, in which students do considerable work on their own with periodic supervision by an assigned teacher, are sometimes available. With solid academic standing, administration and departmental chair approval, students may elect to fulfill a requirement or an elective through special independent work. Prior to the commencement of the course of study, the student must present a proposed project outline, including a statement of what the student hopes to achieve by the completion of the course. The student is free to organize their project and to decide its basic direction, seeking advice and direction from the assigned faculty member when the student feels it is necessary. However, “independent study” does not equate to “anything goes,” and the student must produce tangible evidence of scholarship (a research paper, a scientific experiment, a work of art) at the conclusion of the course of study.