Bergen County Academies

Bergen County Academies
File:Http://www.bergen.org/guidance/images/academylogo.jpg
Location
Hackensack , NJ USA
Information
Type	Magnet school
Established	1991
Principal	Patricia T. Cosgrove
Grades	9-12
Enrollment	1100
Color(s)	Black and Gold (BT Knights) Teal, Black, and White
Mascot	Knight
Information	(201)343-6000
Average SAT Scores (2004-05)	694-M 660-V
Athletics	13 Sports 35 Teams
Website	http://www.bergen.org/ACADEMY/

The Bergen County Academies (often referred to by its students and faculty simply as Bergen Academy, The Academies, The Academy, Bergen Academies, BCA, and occasionally BA) is a very selective public magnet high school located in Hackensack that serves the high-school population of Bergen County, New Jersey. (Dr. Dave Ostfeld, in charge of admissions, stated that in recent years, the school has accepted 20 - 25% of applicants.) The school, originally the brainchild of the late Dr. John Grieco, is a part of the Bergen County Technical Schools district. The current principal is Patricia Cosgrove and the vice principal is Russell Davis.

Program

The school's strengths are evident in its challenging academics, extracurricular activities, and a distinguished faculty, many of whom are doctorates in their respective fields. One prominent extracurricular activity is the school's math team, which is well-known in national and international high school level academic competitions. The school also offers individual research opportunities, which allow students to compete in science fairs on local to international levels. Seniors participate in Senior Experience, in which they attend an all-day internship once a week instead of reporting to school. Finally, the school is heavily involved in the Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma programs.

The school is divided into seven different college-prep academic programs. Each program is called an academy and offers a unique set of challenging courses catering to a specific area. An eighth program, called the Global Leadership Exchange (GLE) exists for the classes of 2008 and 2009, but does not exist for the class of 2010.

In order to accommodate a traditional liberal arts high school education in addition to studying a specific field at a higher level, the school day at BCA ranges from 8 AM to 4:10 PM. Despite specializing in an area, many students of BCA find that their options in studies open up greatly once having graduated from the school. While the different academies are often treated as a single school within the district and the state, each program has a unique College Board code. Students apply to colleges and certain academic programs under the aegis of their respective academic programs rather than BCA as a whole.

The school is also known for defying traditional methods and practices adopted by typical high schools, a few examples include: Students are not required to attend study hall during free time and are allowed to socialize in hallways. The free time referred to as "free mods". Homerooms are referred to as IGS (Information Gathering Sessions). All seniors participate in the aforementioned Senior Experience internship, and classes are scheduled using flexible modular scheduling, which explains the "free mods".

Notable alumni of the school include Harry Altman, class of 2005, who appeared in the documentary Spellbound, Kaavya Viswanathan, class of 2004, author of the controversial novel How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life, and Hyun-Soo Kim, class of 2005, member of the USA International_Mathematical_Olympiad team.

Awards and recognition

For the 2006-07 school year, Bergen County Academies was recognized with the Blue Ribbon Award from the United States Department of Education, the highest honor that an American school can achieve. Students and faculty were issued small blue ribbons to wear in acknowledgment of the award.

The Bergen County Academies were cited as a "Public Elite", one of 22 such schools recognized nationwide in Newsweek magazine's listing of "America's Best High Schools" in the May 8, 2006 issue. Newsweek described the school as "Seven subschools specializing in everything from finance to visual arts".

Admissions

Though it is a public school, admission to the Bergen County Academies is highly selective, and prospective students must go through an admissions process before attending. Tuition is free for residents of Bergen County and is paid for by the student's home school district, the State of New Jersey, and a number of public and private grants. Payments from sending districts are mandated by both state and county legislation affecting vocational and technical districts such as BCTS.

BCA serves all 70 municipalities of Bergen County. The acceptance rate varies according to the number of students who apply from each local public high school district in Bergen County and the actual population of students in the individual high school districts. In some very competitive school districts, like Fort Lee, the admissions rate may be lower than 15% while in others it may reach as high as 40-50%. There is an average of about 250 students accepted each year: 1 out of every 6 that apply. (Limits are held on the number of students that can be accepted from each district. The school reports that there are "7 or 8 districts where this is a problem".)

Admission is controversial (see "History" infra) and considered more prestigious than the district school, to the point where an independent hagwon in nearby Paramus offers a preparatory class for the admissions exam. Districts criticize draining talented students away from the district schools; some have taken measures to end it. In the Fort Lee school district, for example, students who apply are asked to tour Fort Lee High School and meet with its principal.

History

BCA began as a single academy, The Academy for the Advancement of Science and Technology (AAST), which inducted students in fall 1992 for the graduating class of 1996. The school originally intended to provide a unique learning environment where all classes were discussion based and in which students were not given grades. However, AAST quickly adopted more 'standard' teaching methods, including the offering of AP Programs, partly due to pressure from parents and other outside influences.

In 1997, the school expanded to include The Academy for Business and Computer Technology (ABCT), The Academy for Engineering Design Technology (AEDT), The Academy for Medical Science Technology (AMST), as well as three "Career Institutes", The Academy for Culinary Arts (ACA), The Academy for Power and Transportation (APT), and The Academy for Visual Arts and Graphic Communications (AVAGC). The school itself also changed its name numerous times: first Bergen Academies, then Bergen County Regional Academies, then Bergen County Academy (with the singular denoting the unity of the seven programs), and then the present Bergen County Academies.

In the years after 1997, several of the newer programs underwent changes: eventually all 7 programs were geared less towards career prep and more towards college prep, adopting a liberal arts curriculum with an extra focus on the respective fields. ABCT became The Academy for Business and Finance (ABF), APT dissolved and was replaced by The Academy for Telecommunications and Computer Science (ATCS), ACA added Hotel Administration to its title and became ACAHA, and AVAGC began including Performing Arts in its title, becoming AVPA. It is common to refer to each academy not by their acronyms but rather by a single-word nickname: AAST is Science, AEDT is Engineering, AMST is Medical, ABF is Business, AVAPA is Visual/Performing/Music, ACAHA is Culinary, and ATCS is Telecommunications or Telecom.

Over the past several years, funding policies and admissions procedures have drawn the ire of many local districts. In 2001, a major dispute initiated by the Bergen County School Administrator's Association focused on what then-Paramus Superintendent Janice Dime called "elitism." Several of these districts threatened to withdraw funding from the program. The Bergen County Technical Schools agreed to increase the transparency of the admissions process and enter into talks with a number of sending districts. For the 2006 - 2007 school years, districts pay annual tuition of $6600 for each student.

The academies

The seven major academic programs can be viewed as falling under one of two supersets with contrastingly different curricula. The first three academies (AAST, AEDT, and AMST) belong to the first superset and they share many parallel science courses and schedules each year. Often, they merge in numerous core classes. Their courses are rigorous and have a strong focus on the sciences. The last three mentioned (ATCS, ACAHA, and AVPA) have a notably lighter science schedule compared to the other three. However, these three have their own large programs that make up for the business of the first superset. Their science courses and they are spread through the four years in each of the four academies the same way. Often, they also share many courses and classes. These two large categories do not mix classes very often. ABF has a strong science and intellectual focus while still incorporating numerous aspects of Telecom, Culinary, and the Visual and Performing Academies. It seems to fit into either superset.

• The Academy for the Advancement of Science and Technology (AAST)

AAST was founded on a charter school framework in 1992 with the mission of preparing interested students for careers in math and science by promoting a problem-solving, project based, technical learning environment. Over time, AAST has departed a bit from this model and has become a more standard magnet school, drawing bright students from across the county. The roots of the program, however, can be seen in its unique science curriculum, which emphasizes and integrates chemistry, biology and physics, and its hallmark Wednesday lab rotation. Much of the AAST model, including the 6-mod project period on Wednesday, has been adopted by the other academies.

• The Academy for Engineering and Design Technology (AEDT)

This academy's core curriculum is very similar to that of AAST. The two programs share much of the same core courses, but AEDT directs students away from some of AAST's biology focus in order to provide room for courses in electronics and design increasingly in upper grades. The program encourages students to think creatively about scientific problems and take part in several competitions such as "Battle Bots". Because the students in AEDT take the required science course with AAST, as well as its own Engineering courses, like civil engineering and Digital Electronics, they are considered the busiest of all the Academies. The only courses that are mandatory for AAST and not AEDT are biology electives.

• The Academy for Medical Science Technology (AMST)

Students in this academy take more biology than do AAST students. To make up for one less year of physics, Medical students take several college-level medical courses and are required to take five Medical electives before graduation, in addition to standard requirements. Medical students typically take literature and history courses with business students. These students are also very parallel with AAST and AEDT, but tend to differ increasingly in the upper grades.

• The Academy for Business and Finance (ABF or ABFIB)

Originally called the Academy for Business and Computer Technology (ABCT), the academy participates in the IB Diploma Program, an international program of extremely high academic standards. Students in the Business Academy take extra courses in economics, management, SAP Technology, and business ethics as well as the rigorous IB curriculum. Although it shares numerous aspects of the following three academies, because of its extremely busy schedule almost parallel with the above three, it is sometimes considered busier than AAST and sometimes placed with the first superset.

• The Academy for Culinary Arts and Hotel Administration (ACAHA or ACHA)

Founded in 1997, this academy has worn many hats in its short existence. Originally called the Academy for Culinary Arts (ACA), the program represented a culinary vocational program that was reworked to give students a more academic focus. Originally grouped with APT and AVAGC (see abbreviations stated previously) as "career" academies, they were set apart from the college prep programs of AAST, ABCT, AEDT and AMST. After being reorganized into academic, college-prep academies, the name changed to the present name in 2002 to reflect the change in emphasis and curriculum on intellectual studies as well.

Head instructor Mary Beth Brace has been recognized as Advisor of the Year for SkillsUSA and has received national attention for her devotion to her students as a Baking and Culinary Arts instructor. Chef John Branda, who worked in the food service industry for over 30 years, was the Saucier at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel for many years, and has cooked for three presidents and many celebrities.

• The Academy for Telecommunications and Computer Science (ATCS)
  • (referred to as Telecom or Telecomm)

This academy's primary focus is the exciting world of computers and the Internet. Its students are well-prepared for careers as computer programmers, software engineers, networking technicians and other computer-related jobs. ATCS students study material from Cisco Systems and Oracle Corporation and compete in competitions against other schools and even colleges from around the nation which ATCS students often end up winning. This year, thanks to NJIT, they are even given the opportunity to receive college credits for their advanced classes. ATCS students take their academic classes with students from the ACAHA and AVPA academies.

• The Academy for Visual and Performing Arts (AVPA)
  • (Visual), (Music), (Performing)

This academy is unique for being subdivided in three "sub-Academies": Visual Arts, Performing Arts, and Music. Visual, Performing, and Music students are famous in the area for their artistic abilities, and many have performed at venues in nearby New York City. Depending on their focus, students in AVPA take classes in either drawing, painting, printing, sculpture, acting and stagecraft or music and music theory. They share some core classes with ATCS. Please refer to The Arts section for more information.

• Global Leadership Exchange (GLE)

Started in 2004, GLE is the newest program at the Academies (the oldest students are currently juniors); its focus is the rising field of biotechnology. It was initially designed to give its students the state high school requirements in only two years. There has not been a GLE class since the Class of 2009, as many of the components of the GLE program, such as biotechnology, are being integrated into the Academy for Medical Science Technology.

Scheduling

BCA students observe a form of flexible modular scheduling. Mr. Robert Aloia, superintendent of schools, suggested a new schedule in spring of 2006 to be implemented in the 2006-2007 school year in order to relieve the guidance department which had until then scheduled 1100 students and 100 teachers manually. The new schedule would consolidate three-mod periods into hours, institute a common lunchtime and stagger classes throughout the week. The new schedule was criticized because it far exceeded the capacity of the cafeterias during the common lunch, eliminated a number of classes that met exclusively in two-mod periods, and required amendments to the faculty contract that had not yet been negotiated. It was met with disapproval by the staff and more vocal resistance by students and parents; Mr. Aloia postponed implementation for an unspecified period but promised to revisit the issue in 2007.

Each day is divided into twenty-five sections, the first being IGS. The other twenty-four are called modules, lasting seventeen minutes; three free minutes between each module are used to navigate for travel to the next class. Classes typically last three modules, equivalent to fifty-seven minutes. (It is an hour, adding the additional three minutes at the end.) Other classes are two modules, and some classes, notably Wednesday Labs and Wednesday projects, last four and six modules respectively.

Class time is highly variable, ranging from four hours (3 mods, 4 times) per week for AP programs to two hours per week for electives, for example. Due to this scheduling method, students generally have each class two or three times a week (with few exceptions, notably AP and IB programs), as opposed to standard schedules in which each class meets every day of the week. Exceptions to these principles include:

• Students may schedule individually with the teacher; this is available only for independent studies such as research and choir.
• Students with labs meet for four mods each Wednesday for laboratory work, relevant to their chemistry, physics, and biology courses, in rotation.
• Students with projects meet for six mods each Wednesday for classes that are more project-driven than usual courses. Since 2003, Wednesday projects have become increasingly restricted by required projects.

Sometimes, between classes are "free mods" (modules with no class). Most students take electives, socialize, do homework, study, or use the computer labs. Most students have a free mod each day during the student's scheduled lunchtime somewhere between 11:10 and 1:10, and there are upper and lower limits to a student's free mods. Students were once required to sit in the school office during their free mods as a form of punishment, but in 2004 this was replaced by a more traditional detention.

During the final three modules on Wednesday, the students report to their elected clubs. There are an almost limitless number of clubs provided. Examples include the chess club, homework club, club for a course help, etc.

Academic departments

• Biology
• Business
• Chemistry
• Culinary Arts
• Engineering
• English
• Health/PE
• History
• Journalism
• Mathematics
• Music
• Physics
• Studio Arts and Graphic Communications
• Technology
• Theater Arts
• Senior Experience
• Visual Arts
• World Languages

Mathematics

Students in ABF who participate in the IB program have two years of Integrated Math and two years of IB Math instead. Everyone else follows the in-house mathematics curriculum, which begins with algebra and continues to linear algebra, multivariable calculus, and beyond. It begins with the precalculus sequence,

Advanced Algebra II and Trigonometry

$\rightarrow$

Math Analysis I or Adv. Math Analysis I

$\rightarrow$

Math Analysis II or Adv. Math Analysis II

This prepares the student for Statistics or AP Statistics, or the more common calculus sequence:

Calculus I or AP Calculus AB or AP Calculus BC or AP Analytical Calculus (BC+)

$\rightarrow$

Single Variable Calculus or Multi-Variable Calculus or Linear Algebra and Ordinary Differential Equations or Advanced Topics in Mathematics

$\rightarrow$

Topics in Advanced Mathematics or Data Structures

Students place into a course in the precalculus sequence and continue up, taking only one course in each group. The full sequence requires six years; fewer than twenty students from each graduating class place into Analysis II and reach Topics in Advanced Mathematics. This is in keeping with the advanced nature of the course. As described in the course catalog,

This is our most advanced course. Designed for the exceptionally well-prepared student, this course covers material that is two years beyond the curriculum of BC Calculus. As such, the material varies from year to year, currently covering a sweeping introduction to three cornerstones of Mathematics, namely, Linear Algebra, Abstract Algebra and Real Analysis. Vector spaces, linear operators, groups, fields and rings, and the topological underpinnings of Calculus are covered. Emphasis is placed on rigor and proof.

— the BCA course catalog

An often noted shortcoming of this otherwise rigorous curriculum is the lack of geometry, which demands a full year in traditional high schools. As of 2007, the only mention of geometry is in the introductory course Geometric Concepts, a one-trimester required elective.

The arts

The arts at the Academies reach beyond the confines of the two arts academies: AVPA and ACAHA. Many students in the other science-oriented academies partake in various studio and performing arts programs. In particular, the Bergen County Academies Choir has won various awards at both local and national levels under Dr. Patrick Finley, taking home gold ratings and first place trophies at music competitions around the country. The Bergen County Academies is also one of the few high schools to offer advanced college-level courses in music theory, including AP Music Theory and Advanced Problems in Music Theory. The instrumental performance program offers other attractive features, including an opportunity for students to play with the North Jersey Philharmonic, regular appearances at local jazz clubs by the school's jazz ensemble, and the first Guitar and Mandolin society founded by the school's department.

The theater arts department puts on plays and musicals each year on the school stage, which is a well-equipped auditorium that seats 1,300 and is rented out to outside professional groups regularly. The auditorium boasts a fully automated lighting rig and a digital AV system on par with many Broadway theatres in nearby New York City.

The school also features two studio art labs. One is a studio for traditional painting and sculptures, where students and faculty members work together to produce artworks that have won numerous awards in local competitions. The second studio is a visual arts lab equipped with the latest compositing and printing equipment to train students in graphic communication and print media. The school also maintains a restaurant-grade kitchen for teaching the culinary arts and features the Academy Grill, which serves five-star restaurant meals cooked up by the school's culinary arts students.

Finally, the Bergen Academies Video Lab broadcasts inside the school and features top-of-the-line editing workstations, professional-grade cameras, and a bluescreen for special-effects productions. The Video Lab produces a movie each September reviewing the previous year, and also creates original movies acted by faculty for display during Christmas, Halloween, and Valentine's Day assemblies. These are comedic and usually parody other works. Three examples are 'Academy Clue,' 'The Academy Bunch,' and 'Faculty Go.'

Student Council

The Bergen County Academies Student Council is comprised of 19 students of all four grade levels. The Officers are: President, Vice President, Treasurer, and Secretary. To qualify for the position of President, the student must have at least one year of Student Council experience, along with several other qualifications. For the other three, at least one year of Class Council experience is required. All other members are composed of Student and Class Representatives.

The Student Council runs a variety of school events including, but not limited to: Homecoming Dance, Battle of the Bands, assemblies, community service activities, Spirit Week, and various appreciation days. All of these events include a great deal of preparatory work, where the students work together to make each event the best possible for the school. In addition, Student Council members present the announcements each morning and have trimester meetings with the BCA administration.

FreshAngles

As part of a co-curricular program run through the Academies' Journalism and English departments, students run a teen-oriented current events website currently known as FreshAngles. Students write articles and opinion columns on a variety of topics, including politics, technology, sports, and pop culture, in addition to showcasing their creative writing. The project, located at freshangles.com, was originally known as Insite and run in a partnership with The Record. Later it was known as Teen Voice, but its name was changed in 2000 after it was threatened with a lawsuit by Teen Voices magazine.

FreshAngles was much more prominent in the past. Companies such as Random House and Sony often sent the staff music, books, and electronics for review well before the commercial release date, and thousands or millions of hits each day were not uncommon. A server crash later destroyed the website as well as the articles archived on that server, and to this day the site limps along on a buggy in-house fix with infrequent updates.

Extracurricular academic teams

AAST Math Team

With nearly 100 students in participation, AAST Math Team is among the largest extracurricular teams at the Academies. Since its inception, the team has been coached by Mr. Joseph Holbrook, who is also the chair of the mathematics department. In line with the school's original philosophy, Mr. Holbrook created a model for mathematics education that was directed at solving non-standard problems, unbounded by traditional time restraints and curricula. Through the Math Team and the math department, Mr. Holbrook directs individually paced problem-solving based math courses during the school day and runs extended math problem solving sections on the weekends, on Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00 AM to 3:30 PM, which function as Math Team practices. The Math Team model has been adapted into after-school programs for gifted area middle school students and has become a de facto center for competition math in New Jersey, as bright students from across the state are encouraged to come to practices and participate with the Team in high school math competitions.

The AAST Math Team participates in rigorous competitions such as the AMCs, AIME, USAMO, Mandelbrot, Harvard-MIT Mathematics Tournament and ARML, among others. The team often ranks among the top ten, if not top five, in almost all competitions it enters, competing against other top magnet schools as well as state and regional teams. In addition, the AAST Math Team has been national and regional champions in the past four years of the Mandelbrot Competition.

Although the AAST Math Team is open to all academies, it is still known as "AAST" for historical reasons.

Debate Team

The Academies also has a strong debating tradition. The Academies' policy debate program finally finished first in Bergen County in 2005-2006, narrowly beating perennial powerhouse Tenafly High School (which had won the previous six years) and the Dwight-Englewood School, which also has a history of consistently beating the Academies. In 2006-2007, however, Tenafly High School returned to dominance in the Bergen County Debate League. Three levels of competition are present: Novice, Junior Varsity, and the highly selective Varsity level which accepts only six teams, with more than twice that number usually trying out.

Other extracurricular activities

Academy students often participate in numerous competitions nationwide in a variety of fields, from Debate to Skills USA to FBLA to HOSA. The Academies also has a Model United Nations program consisting of their own Model UN conference, called AMUN and the Academies Model United Nations Team, which has won best delegation at Yale, Princeton, and MIT/BU and garnered numerous individual delegate awards. The Academies Quizbowl team is also one of the most competitive in the region; it placed third at NJ States in the 2004-2005 school year and went to the National tournament. The Academies BattleBots IQ team, known as the Titanium Knights won the 2006 national heavyweight championship in the high school division with the robot E2V2, and two other awards for another 120lb robot, Knightrous. In previous years, the team has won second, third and fourth place titles in BBIQ, and affiliated student teams have won numerous awards in Northeast Robotics Club events.

Mission: Bossou is a charitable project of the students of Bergen County Academies. Its official purpose is to deliver food as quickly as possible to people suffering from hunger in Bossou [Guinea] and surrounding communities.

Sports

The Academies shares its sports program with the Bergen County Technical High Schools. The boys' teams are called the Bergen Tech Knights and the girls' teams are the Bergen Tech Lady Knights. These teams have formerly played in the BCSL Olympic athletic conference. However, Bergen Tech has been placed in the Northern New Jersey Interscholastic League (NNJIL) for the start of the Fall 2006 athletic season. Bergen Tech must prove itself by facing teams such as Bergen Catholic High School, Don Bosco Preparatory High School, Paramus Catholic High School and Saint Joseph Regional High School. This will be especially difficult as the Academies have not been very competitive in most sports regardless of their competition. However, it is important to note, the Tennis team has been a bright spot as well as the Baseball Team, which advanced to the North I Group IV State Playoffs last year.

For boys, offerings include Baseball, Basketball, Bowling, Cross Country, Football, Golf, Lacrosse, Soccer, Tennis, Track, Volleyball and Wrestling. For girls, the program includes Basketball, Bowling, Cheerleading (club program), Cross Country, Golf, Lacrosse, Soccer, Softball, Tennis, Track and Volleyball.

If a particular sport is offered by the student's home district but not by the Academy (i.e. ice hockey, fencing), that student may join and participate with his local school's team.

External links

• Bergen County Academies website
• Bergen County Academies PPO website
• School Performance Report for Bergen County Academies, New Jersey Department of Education
• BCA math competitions