Education Program For Gifted Youth - History

History

In 1985, Suppes received a "proof of concept" grant from the National Science Foundation to develop a computerized first-year calculus course with the initial objective of making it available to students in their last year of high school who were at schools that did not otherwise offer calculus. Suppes, together with a team that included Raymond Ravaglia, the current Executive Director of EPGY, began work on the course in earnest in 1987. When the course was ready for testing in 1990, the focus was turned to younger students who had been accelerated in their mathematics educations. For the summer of 1990, approximately 40 junior high and high school students with some knowledge of algebra were selected for a five-week instructor-taught accelerated precalculus course at Foothill College. Of those students, thirteen located at seven local schools were invited to take the computer-based calculus course during the subsequent school year, 1990-91. All thirteen took the Advanced Placement AB Calculus examination in May 1991. Six students scored 5, six scored 4, and one scored 3.

Following this initial success, computer-based courses in Beginning Algebra, Intermediate Algebra, and Precalculus were created to replace the accelerated summer course. These courses were tested during the 1991-92 academic year with a new group of students. At the same time, the calculus course was expanded to include the material necessary for the BC examination. That year four students took the BC examination, with all scoring 5.

After porting the software to the Windows operating system, the Stanford Pre-Collegiate Studies, then known as the Education Program for Gifted Youth (EPGY), was formally launched at Stanford University, in fall 1992, making these courses generally available.

In April 2006, EPGY received a substantial and generous gift from the Malone Family Foundation of Englewood, Colorado. The donation went to forming an online high school independent of EPGY's regular distance learning courses. It is formally titled The Stanford Pre-Collegiate Studies Online High School at Stanford University but is typically referred to as the OHS or Stanford's High School.