Школа Beacon: История и особенности обучения

Beacon was founded in 1993 as an alternative to the Regents Exam based testing system in favor of portfolio based assessment. The school's purpose was also purportedly to keep class sizes down and total student population at, or just above, one thousand students. Over time, Beacon was forced to accept certain aspects of the Regents based testing curriculum, and to abandon its portfolio assessment system as the sole method of graduation, which had been the case until mid 1999. Beacon now utilizes, in its own words, "traditional testing [but] our students' progress is largely assessed through performance based projects, completed individually and in groups. To graduate, students must present their best work to panels of teachers."

The class schedule at the Beacon School is organized in bands, designated by letters A through H. As a Beacon student advances in grade level, they are gradually given more opportunity to choose classes of their choice in the subject area of the band in question, rather than relying on their 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. AP courses are currently available for biology, calculus, physics, and Spanish. Students take the Advanced Placement exam at the end of the course, and have an opportunity to attain college credits.

Though the yearly schedule is broken into two semesters, these are not standard United States college semesters. Most academic classes are year long courses, so students generally return to their classes with the same teachers for the second semester. Students have the opportunity to change electives at the end of each semester. Certain science courses are offered to students on a per semester basis.

For its first two years, The Beacon School was located inside Fordham University's Lincoln Center Campus. It also utilized John Jay College of Criminal Justice's facilities for physical education. From 1995 to 2015, the school had been located three blocks from Jay, at 227 West 61st Street, a former warehouse completed in 1919, alongside the Amsterdam Houses, a group of New York City Housing Authority projects. The Beacon School location has been replaced by West End Secondary School. It was in an area with many other schools, including Public School 191 and Abraham Joshua Heschel School across the street.

As of September, 2015, Beacon occupies a seven story building located at 522 West 44th Street, between 10th and 11th avenues. The building, previously used as a book warehouse by the New York Public Library was sold to the School Construction Authority for $45 million in August, 2011. Construction began in August, 2012, with a ground breaking ceremony attended by high ranking city officials including City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Department of Education Chancellor Dennis Walcott, and Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The building, built by Skanska USA for $88 million, houses a full sized cafeteria, black box theater, dance studio, auditorium, film lab, and library, with writing labs, art studios, and study spaces throughout the building.

The Beacon School offers extracurricular activities such as after school theater and studio stage crew, book club, a rock climbing club, a dance club, a Live Poets Society, Entrepreneurship club, art club, music performance, a photo club, an architecture club, a Senior Committee (populated by seniors who are responsible for helping with plans for graduation and the annual senior trip), and a Model United Nations club. The Beacon School has a debate team. Beacon has had a Student Government since 2016, with SG student members representing student voice in the School Leadership Team. The school has social justice clubs and affinity groups, such as Black Student Union, Muslim Student Union, Asian Student Union, Integrate Beacon and Young Democratic Socialists. It has charity clubs, such as Project ABLE, which raises money for libraries in Africa, and the Kids for Kids Club, which raises money for local and nonlocal causes. In 2007 the school made front page news after David Andreatta confirmed that the school took illegal trips to Cuba. At the end of the school year the teacher involved, Nathan Turner, resigned. In 2005, then Lieutenant Governor Paterson sent his daughter on one such trip. Alumni reaction to the trips was mixed, with some alumni continuing to be involved in activism, while others have expressed frustration with the liberal leanings of their teachers and peers. Educational travel has become an important part of the educational culture. Past destinations included India, Cuba, Spain, England, Ireland, Venezuela, France, Sweden, Costa Rica, Mexico, Mozambique, South Africa, and New Orleans.

The Beacon School offers an array of athletic teams for its students. Sports including fencing, softball, track, wrestling, bowling, basketball, Ultimate, soccer, cross country, and tennis form a part of the culture at Beacon. In 2014, Beacon's tennis team won the national tennis championship as a result of taking first place at the All American Invitational Boys Tennis Tournament in Corona del Mar, California. Because the school does not have a practice space of its own, the school uses many of the city's public access facilities. In addition, the boys baseball team advanced to the 2019 Public School Athletic League (PSAL) AAA championship game. The game was played in Yankee Stadium on June 4 and The Beacon School lost to Gregorio Luperon HS for Science and Math with a final score of four to five. On November 7, 2019, both the boys soccer program and the girls soccer program became city champions by defeating John Adams High School and Brooklyn Tech respectively. The games were played at Belson Stadium on the campus of St. John's University in Queens. As a result, the Beacon boys soccer team was ranked #9 in New York State and has since continued to remain one of the strongest programs in New York City.

Beacon's Model United Nations debates solutions to international issues, and attends conferences within New York City, as well as throughout the United States. In 2016, Beacon's delegation placed first among 174 schools from over 30 countries in the Global Classrooms Model United Nations conference. The conference, held annually at United Nations Headquarters, is sponsored by the United Nations Association of the United States in collaboration with the Lebanese American University. Since 2016, Beacon's Model United Nations program has been cited at the top of Best Delegate's annual list of the world's best high school Model UN teams. The rankings, calculated based on data aggregated from the 30 most competitive Model UN conferences in North America, divide teams into groups by region and overall standing. Beacon is ranked in the Top 25 Overall category, the highest level of recognition awarded by the publication.

The New York City Subway's and stations, served by the , are located nearby. Additionally, New York City Bus's routes stop near Beacon. Students residing a certain distance from the school are provided full fare or half fare student MetroCards for public transportation at the start of each term, based on how far away the student resides from the school.

as of 2017, student demographics were as follows: 48.7% White, 22.8% Hispanic, 13.5% Black, 9% Asian, Two Races 5.7%. Approximately 65 out of 100 students are female. Students commute from all boroughs of New York City, however the plurality of students reside in Manhattan and Brooklyn. The school has experienced a significant decline in the number of Black and Hispanic students since its founding due to changes in the admissions policy.