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Graduation Requirements

The Beacon School’s mission is to create an educational community where critical analysis, creative thought, and careful research are at the core of the learning process. The Beacon School’s performance-based assessment (PBA) system requires students to demonstrate their learning and to articulate their process of learning to others. For example, students conduct labs and design experiments in science classes, and, then, explain their research before a pair of teachers. In history, students write research papers or ethical positions papers, and, then, defend their thesis or position to teachers.

Graduation Requirements

In order to graduate with a Beacon Diploma, students must complete the New York State, New York City, and Beacon School graduation requirements, which include passing 44 Credits in the following courses:

  • 8 English Credits*
  • 8 History Credits*
  • 6 Mathematics Credits*
  • 6 Laboratory Science Credits*
  • 2 Foreign Language Credits*
  • 2 Arts/ Music Elective Credits
  • 1 Health and Wellness Including Community Service Credit
  • 4 Physical Education Credits*
  • 7 Credits In Elective Courses (Any Academic Subjects)

 

* Credits are awarded on a semester basis. For example, passing both semesters of ninth grade English would give to a student two credits for English. * To pass these courses, students successfully present and pass a Performance-based Assessments with a score of “2” or above.

PBA Requirements

To graduate, a student must satisfy the PBA requirements in four subject areas, English, History, Mathematics, and Science. Under a waiver granted to all schools in the New York Performance Standards Consortium, a passing score in each of these subjects replaces the need for a passing grade on a Regents examination in these subjects. In addition, a student’s performance on PBAs determines the level of diploma that he or she earns: Honors or Beacon (Regents Equivalency). The Regents English Language Arts Common Core Examination is required by New York State for graduation (classes of 2017 and beyond), but is not factored into the determination of diploma levels at Beacon. At every course level, the students receive PBAs that factor heavily in the determination of their course grades in English, History, Mathematics, Science, and World Languages.

"My daughter walked out of her English and History PBAs last spring into interviews with our assemblyman and councilman; at the end of the week, she had two internships"

– A Beacon Parent