System of Classes
The class schedule at the Beacon School is organized in bands, designated by letters A through H. In the first, or freshman, year a specific grade is usually organized into streams. A stream consists of about 25 to 30 students who travel to at least two classes together. With the system as it is, the classes for each band letter in a stream are often the same for each member of the stream, providing continuity in core subjects such as History, 9th grade electives and English. However, some band letters are cross-stream and even cross-grade level, leading to a diverse class with multiple age groups and grade levels.
The band system is intended to instill a sense of stability in first-year students who have just emerged from junior high school, where most, if not all, classes contain the members of a single grade level and do not switch around from class to class. As a Beacon student advances in grade level, s/he is gradually given more opportunity to choose classes of his or her choice in the subject area of the band in question, rather than relying on his or her stream to do the selecting. This is both a preparatory measure for the university system of class selection, where students are permitted to select all their classes themselves on an individual basis, as well as a means of allowing students the ability to find what interests them among the course offerings.
Beacon also offers several Advanced Placement courses for those that have shown merit for them. These courses can count for up to six college credit hours at any university, depending on the subject(s) taken. AP courses are available currently in the math, language, and science departments. The history department is notable for its stand against offering such courses, preferring to offer challenging, but heterogeneously grouped classes in the twelfth grade.
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