Courses

All of the department’s offerings are elective courses. With few exceptions, learners may enroll in any course without the need to take prerequisite classes. In some sense, the material covered in many classes is complementary. Read more

The English curriculum at McQuaid Jesuit is based on the skills of reading, writing, speaking and critical thinking. Literature is the basis for building these skills.

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Includes course descriptions for Art, Drama and Music (classroom and performing). Read more

A three-year sequence of high school credits in one foreign language is required for graduation. Students may take two sequences, if their schedules permit.

McQuaid Jesuit offers four years of French, German, Italian, Latin and Spanish, if sufficient numbers of students qualify for each level. Credit is given for each year of language when it is completed successfully. Departmental approval, which is based on success in prior language study, placement testing and observation in the classroom, is required for language placement.

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McQuaid Jesuit students are required to complete three years of mathematics: Algebra, Geometry and Algebra II/Trigonometry. Class sections are formed according to Mathematics ability levels. In the first ability grouping the student's relating of concepts requires mainly knowledge, comprehension and application. The ENRICHED ability grouping also requires the relating of concepts on the analysis and synthesis levels. The ADVANCED sections demand higher-level skills beyond memorization, requiring knowledge, comprehension and, especially, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. The amount of work, its intensity and difficulty, and the teacher's expectations all increase with each successive ability level. Placement in the ability groups is based upon performance and the department's recommendations. Read more

Includes course descriptions for all 7th and 8th grade courses. Read more

The Physical Education Program at McQuaid Jesuit consists of two phases.  The Core Program is for students in grades 7, 8, 9 and 10 while the Elective Program is for students in grades 11 and 12.  In the Core Program, students are taught basic and intermediate-level skills in a variety of seasonal team sports.  The Elective Program is centered around individual sports that possess "carry over" value.  Each student has the ability to select an activity from a number of different offerings in order to meet his interests.

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The Religious Studies program at McQuaid Jesuit is a thorough academic program that is an integral part of the goals and objectives of a Jesuit education.  It is designed to educate and to form students of all religious backgrounds whose parents wish their sons to be a part of the Jesuit tradition of excellence.  It is an essential part of McQuaid Jesuit's formation for all Christian and non-Christian students.

The academic nature of this program distinguishes it from other types of religious formation that take place both in our school and in the individual student's faith community.  Those activities are catechetical in nature, i.e., they help to initiate and incorporate a student into a particular faith community.  These catechetical experiences complement the academic program at McQuaid Jesuit in a young man's religious formation as a Man for Others.

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Three years of high school science (including Biology) taken at McQuaid Jesuit are required for graduation.  Chemistry, Physics and Environmental Science are electives available for students in the upper years.  Advanced Placement courses in Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Physics and Psychology are taken by those who wish to prepare for the AP Examinations and possible college credit.  All science courses include laboratory investigations as well as classroom work.  Sustained study is required in these courses in order to grasp the new language of symbols and equations used in science and in order to learn to relate numbers to measurable dimensions in the laboratory.  A common thread runs through all the department's courses enabling concepts and skills assimilated in the first courses to be utilized and enlarged upon in the upper-level ones.  Extensive use of computers is involved in many of the courses.  Simulations, data gathering, spreadsheets and graphics, and on-line research are the specific areas in which this technology is utilized.  Independent work will be carried out in the Science Resource Center. Read more