Bard High School Early College - High School

High School

In the BHSEC program, students spend what is traditionally ninth and tenth grade finishing the bulk of their high school work. Students take the five Regents exams required for the High School Regents diploma, which they receive in addition to the Associates of Arts degree from Bard College. Unlike most New York City high schools, however, BHSEC does not offer courses tailored to prepare students for the Regents, nor are there any Advanced Placement (AP) courses offered (as the last two years are spent in an accredited college program). In order to complete the high school curriculum in two years, courses are taught at an accelerated pace.

During the freshman fall semester, students are enrolled in Introduction to Foreign Languages, where they experience three foreign languages: Latin, Spanish, Chinese. At the end of the semester, students choose the language they wish to study further.

Additionally, in freshman year, students sample the arts that are offered. Students take visual arts and theater for one half a semester each, and take music and dance together, on alternating days, for a semester. At the end of the year, they are given courses to choose from for the following year. Some of these courses are drum circle, chamber music, studio art, Chinese calligraphy, theater for social change, storytelling, the search in research, and rock ensemble. Introduction to the Arts is similar to the Introduction to Foreign Languages course, where each class contributes to the final grade. This program began in the fall of 2006.

As of the fall 2008 semester, the high school science curriculum has been revamped. 9th graders take a full year's course of Physics and then can either choose Chemistry or Biology for 10th grade. In the following year, they will take the subject that they opted out of in 10th grade.

BHSEC does not rank its students and does not honor titles such as Valedictorian, nor does it implement a Dean's list.