- Bard High School Early College (BHSEC), is an alternative public secondary school in New York City that allows five to six hundred highly motivated and scholastically strong students (approximately 70% of whom are female) to begin their college studies two years early. Upon entering, these students embark on a writing intensive journey and engage in far more critical thinking than the typical high school student does. BHSEC is located in the Lower East Side, Manhattan in a building previously occupied by Public School 97. There is another new campus for BHSEC, which is known as Bard High School Early College Queens, in Long Island City.
- History
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Founded in 2001 as a partnership of the New York City Department of Education and Bard College and originally funded in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the school accepts students into the ninth grade and allows them to earn both a high school diploma and an Associate of Arts (A.A.) degree in four years. BHSEC was the first school in the Gates Foundation's Early College High School Initiative, which aims to improve education in the United States by introducing smaller public high schools which help remove the barriers to a college education by offering students a college education in a high school setting. Many of the teaching philosophies that BHSEC has implemented were originally developed at Bard College at Simon's Rock, the oldest and most highly regarded early college entrance program and the only accredited four-year early college to date.
- Many graduates of BHSEC transfer their 60+ college credits to another college or university and finish their Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree in two more years; others opt to study for three or four years in their subsequent institutions. The tuition-free school is open to all New York City residents and attracts a highly diverse student body. Admission is highly competitive and is based on a comprehensive set of factors, including grades, an essay and math exam, and an interview. In admitting the class of 2001, 900 applicants made it to the interview stage of the application. Approximately 6000- 8000 applicants vie for approximately 148 seats each fall.Due to the limited number of spaces available at BHSEC, in Fall 2008, a new school, properly name, BHSEC II will be located in Long Island City as more gifted students in New York City are offered an early college education.
- As of June 2007, five classes have graduated since the school's opening in 2001, and the first class to have gone through all four years of the program graduated in June 2005.
- High school
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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 get to experience each of 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 get to sample the different 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 whole semester. At the end of the year, they are given a variety of courses to choose from for the following year. Some of these courses are drum circle, chamber music, studio art, Chinese calligraphy, theatre 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 semester of Fall 2008, 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 Year I they will take the subject that the opted out of in 10th grade.
- Currently BHSEC does not rank its students and does not honor such titles such as Valedictorians or a Dean's list.
- Early College Program
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The two years spent in the college program are denoted First Year and Second Year. As a college program, students may select their courses based primarily on their academic interests and preferences for certain professors; however, they must also meet the college program's core requirements. These requirements include four semesters of seminar, in which students read and discuss seminal works of western thought, from Plato and the classics through Shakespeare and ending in postmodernism. Students are also required to complete two semesters of math, two semesters of laboratory science, one semester of history, one semester of literature, and two additional semesters of either social science or literature, two semesters of a foreign language (at least one at intermediate level) and three arts credits. Students may also create their own courses with the independent study program, provided that a faculty member is knowledgeable in the subject. Every semester, a student must take 14-18 credits. With permission from the dean, students may take more than 18 credits in a semester. Students can also transfer credits from other universities to meet their requirements for the college program.
- BHSEC's college program offers classes that are more specialized than in the high school program, such as Linear Algebra, Reason and Politics, Novels of Dostoyevsky, Philosophy of Religion, Physics of Sound and Music, The Social Contract and Its Critics, and Culture and History of Food. These courses are taught by college professors, many of whom have published books and articles in their fields.
- Faculty
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The majority of BHSEC faculty members at the school hold PhDs and all faculty have a masters degree or higher (2003-2004 Annual School Report). Faculty often choose to teach courses in the area of their current scholarly research. A full list of faculty is available on the school's website.BHSEC is also known for having close student-faculty relationships in addition to a faculty-student ratio of 10:1 which is much less common for a public high school in New York City.
- Student resources
- Library
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The library was constructed, completed and opened to the student body in November 2004. It utilizes a fully automated catalog which can be accessed online [1]. The library covers a diverse selection of subjects, and has recently added a small collection of classic movies in circulation. There are also twenty-five wireless laptops available to students for work and research, complete with printer access.Beginning in the Spring 2007 term, a Student Lounge was created and the Learning Center merged into the library. This effectively shifted socializing to the Student Center and renewed the academic purpose of the library space. However, as of the 2007-2008 school year, the Student Lounge is out of service because the construction of a new elevator for the faculty and physically-disabled students has decreased the number of available classrooms. The room that was formerly used for the Student Center is now used as a classroom.
- Learning Center
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In Fall 2004, BHSEC opened the Learning Center including a Writing Center, where students can come at any time for assistance in writing papers from faculty and student volunteers, and a Math Center for math help. Students will often find that many of their older peers are willing to help explain a key point or revise papers, and the majority of students believe the Writing Center is a valuable resource. Some professors are willing to take into consideration the time spent in the Writing Center working on their papers into grading. Furthermore, because all of BHSEC's highly qualified professors and instructors want to see their students excel, they are very accessible during their office hours and are willing to meet before and after school.
- At the beginning of the Spring 2007 term, the Learning Center was relocated to a portion of the library and its former location became the new Student Center to re-separate the library from socializing. The Student Center then became a classroom due to the construction of an elevator, although there are intentions of finding it a new home.
- Student life
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While studies occupy much of BHSEC students' time, they are also avid participants in community events.
- BHSEC has the Community Council, a student government consisting of three representatives from each grade and faculty representatives. The council is responsible for the organization of events and activities for the school and acts as the school community liaison between the administration and the students. Some of the programs organized in the 2005-6 academic year by the Community Council were the Spring Community Day (a celebration of the school's diversity and culture) and the Pink Dance (a dance for the students with the majority of the proceeds funding breast cancer research).In the 2006-7 academic year, the Community Council has revised the school's Course Evaluation form, held an "S-Dance" and is currently planning the year's Community Day, getting recycling for the school, and improving the new Student Center.
- Clubs
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BHSEC has a wide variety of extracurricular activities including student organizations and volunteer opportunities. In keeping with BHSEC students' initiative, a student can found a club for anything as long as there is sufficient student interest. Displaying the wide variety of passions in the student body, clubs range from BHSEC's old club: philosophy club, to the food lover's club, to the award-winning step team. A full list is below:
- The Palestine Awareness Committee
- Anime Club
- Art Club
- Asian Culture Club
- The Bard Bulletin
- Book Club
- BHSEC Student Activist Network
- Cancer Awareness Club
- Troubador (BHSEC's literary magazine)
- Chess Club
- Current Events Club
- Dance Dance Revolution Club
- Drama Club
- The Environmentalist Conservationist Organization of BHSEC (ECO)
- Food Lover's Forum
- Friends of Gauss
- The Future Doctors and Scientists of America (Science Club)
- The Game Club
- Glamour Gals
- Juggling Club
- Knitting for Animal Rights Club
- Math Club
- Model United Nations
- The Bardvark Newspaper
- Philosophy Club
- Rugby
- The Politicizer (student produced magazine)
- S+M's Strip (comic strip)
- Step Team
- Students for Human Rights
- Sweater Drive (with PS 188)
- Table Tennis Club
- Tap Club
- The S word
- The Seaward Club
- Sports
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Bard High School Early College has nine varsity PSAL sports teams: boys' and girls' tennis, girls' volleyball, boys' and girls' basketball, boys' and girls' soccer, and boys' and girls' track[2]. Non-PSAL sports include co-ed Table Tennis, Golf and Ultimate Frisbee.
- See also
- Early college entrance programs
- Education in New York City
- External links
- Bard High School Early College official website
- Early Entrance College Programs in USA
- Source: Wikipedia; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.
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