Advanced Placement Program

As the Bay School curriculum is being developed, high school Advanced Placement programs are the subject of
considerable controversy at independent schools and colleges. We believe that the Bay School curriculum has
integrity unto itself, offering an extremely challenging high school program, and does not attempt to take the
place of any college freshman courses. Rather, we aim to instill the inquisitiveness, skills, and passion that will
provide our students with a solid preparation for study on the college level.

Many of our courses have been approved as Honors level courses by the University of California, giving them
the same weight as AP courses. We remain committed to challenging our strongest students by offering
advanced courses in all disciplines.

Our academic committee is watching and learning, but has reached the following provisional decisions regarding the AP program:

1. The Bay School may offer traditional Advanced Placement courses, over time, in cases where the content of
the AP syllabus is comparable to our own courses in a given subject area. Prescribed AP courses will not be
offered if they do not reflect the school’s educational mission and philosophy.
2. Bay School U.S. History courses will be cognizant of the AP curriculum, but will not sacrifice depth to cover
all of the content in this curriculum.
3. Many of our junior-level and senior-level elective courses are multidisciplinary; where the content of the
course is in accordance with an AP exam, and a student is interested in taking the test, we may work with
the student individually to make this a reality.