Statement on Outside Study for Acceleration Purposes

The Great Neck Public Schools believe that abbreviated outside study (such as summer study) for acceleration purposes does not provide students with the depth of understanding required to move into the subsequent honors level courses, and achieving high passing grades on Regents exams does not demonstrate that a student has met the standard we hope our students will achieve during ten months spent in similarly titled courses in our schools. Therefore, the practice is highly discouraged. In order to fully understand our practices, students intending to enroll in and complete outside study are required to meet with their guidance counselor prior to registering for and completing such coursework.

In particular, the Great Neck Public Schools neither transfer grades nor accept outside coursework as appropriate preparation for honors courses, and study at non-accredited establishments will not be accepted for credit. As determined in consultation with the academic department, guidance counselor, and building administrator, students who undertake such courses without prior permission will need to repeat them (they may be placed into an honors section based on work completed), be placed into the non-honors course that is next in the sequence, or, in those cases where our schools’ course offerings do not include a non-honors option, not be scheduled in that content area for a given school-year.