Curriculum, grades 9 to 12
A complete college-preparatory curriculum, mapped to Common Core and the Next Generation Science Standards, with credit-bearing courses and a transcript with external test scores. Placement is by mastery, not by age, so gaps are closed first, without a label.
- Mathematics through Calculus
- Four years of AI Fluency
- At-home laboratory science
How credit works
- Mastery, not hours.
- A credit is earned when the standards for the course are demonstrated, verified with fresh problems and out-loud explanations. Not when a number of hours has passed.
- Placement, not age.
- Every student starts each subject where they actually are. Gaps close first, without a label. Students move faster once they are.
- A human signs every credit.
- The state-certified educator who leads the student's pod reviews the record every week and signs off on every credit that goes on the transcript.
- Standards threaded through projects.
- Quest Time projects carry the year's standards inside them, so the thing the student chose to build is also the evidence.
- Work without the machine, on the record.
- Every English unit has no-AI checkpoints. Every AI Fluency course makes the student responsible for the code AI wrote. The transcript shows what the student can do alone.
- External measures every year.
- MAP Growth three times a year, the PSAT from grade 10, and the SAT or ACT in grade 11, so a college or a state can read the transcript against numbers they already trust.
Graduation requirements
A minimum of 25 credits. Most students graduate with 27 to 30 credits.
| Area | Credits | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| English | 4 | English I to IV, with no-AI checkpoints every unit and a senior thesis. |
| Mathematics | 4 | Placement by mastery. Most students reach Precalculus or Calculus; Statistics and Data is an option in grade 12. |
| Laboratory science | 3 | Biology, Chemistry, and Physics or Environmental Science, each with an at-home laboratory kit. A fourth science is optional. |
| Social studies | 4 | World History, Human Geography and Global Systems, U.S. History, Government, Economics. |
| World language | 2 | Spoken with Kai every day. A third year is recommended and counts toward electives. |
| AI Fluency | 4 | One credit-bearing course every year, from Coding with AI to a publicly defended capstone. |
| Living with AI | 2 | A weekly seminar every year, half a credit each. |
| Electives and Quest credit | 2 | Game design, robotics, entrepreneurship, a third or fourth language year, or a student-designed course. |
| Executive Function Studio | Daily | Ten minutes every school day, all four years. Noted on the transcript; not a credit. |
Grade 9Foundations
Gaps are closed first, without a label. Then the pace picks up.
| Course | Credit | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Mathematics (placement-based, usually Algebra 1 or Geometry) | 1 | Placement by mastery, not by age. Kai closes gaps first, then moves as fast as the student can go. Ratios arrive through basketball statistics; equations through problems the student chose. |
| English I | 1 | World literature, analytical and narrative writing, formal speaking. No-AI checkpoints every unit: the student writes and speaks without the machine, on the record. |
| Biology | 1 | Laboratory science with an at-home kit and Kai as lab partner. Cells to ecosystems, with the lab notebook as evidence of mastery. |
| World History | 1 | Inquiry-based, argued out loud, sourced in writing. From the first cities to the modern world, through the question of who could think and coordinate better, and what it cost everyone else. |
| World Language I | 1 | Spoken with Kai every day, from the first week. Reading and writing follow the ear. |
| AI Fluency I: Coding with AI | 1 | The professional workflow with AI coding tools: specify first, version control, tests, reading and reviewing AI-written code. Ends in a web application shipped to real users. The student takes responsibility for every line. |
| Living with AI | 0.5 | Weekly seminar. Foundations to practice: protecting attention from systems built to take it, verifying before believing, relationships and AI companions, identity, money, and the first earned dollar. |
| Elective or Quest credit | 0.5 to 1 | Game design, robotics, entrepreneurship, or a student-designed course. Quest Time projects earn credit when the year's standards are met inside them. |
| Executive Function Studio | Daily | Internalize: plan the week, estimate time, self-monitor. |
- Up to 7.5 credits this year
- MAP Growth three times. First shipped project.
Grade 10Systems
The student starts building things other people depend on.
| Course | Credit | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Mathematics (usually Geometry or Algebra 2) | 1 | Proof, modeling, and the statistics that keep showing up in Quest projects. Time made visible on every screen; one step at a time. |
| English II | 1 | American and world voices. Argument and research writing, rhetoric, and a spoken defense each unit. No-AI checkpoints continue. |
| Chemistry | 1 | At-home laboratory kit. Matter, reactions, energy, and the discipline of measuring honestly. The lab notebook is the evidence. |
| Human Geography and Global Systems | 1 | Population, resources, cities, trade, and how large systems fail. Maps, data, and the habit of asking what the map leaves out. |
| World Language II | 1 | Daily conversation with Kai, now with reading and writing. Second credit toward graduation. |
| AI Fluency II: Building Systems with AI | 1 | Model APIs, agents, retrieval, security. Ends in a system that real people use, with the student accountable for what it does when it is wrong. |
| Living with AI | 0.5 | Weekly seminar. Work and money in an AI economy, creativity and taste, ethics, identity. |
| Elective or Quest credit | 0.5 to 1 | Continued from grade 9, or a new direction. |
| Executive Function Studio | Daily | Extend: run your own week, own the calendar, recover from a bad week without a rescue. |
- Up to 7.5 credits this year
- MAP Growth three times. PSAT in the fall. Second world language credit.
Grade 11Judgment
The year of evaluating, arguing, and being heard by people who did not have to listen.
| Course | Credit | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Mathematics (usually Algebra 2 or Precalculus) | 1 | Functions, trigonometry, and the mathematics behind the models the student has been building. |
| English III | 1 | American literature and the research paper. The college essay begins here. No-AI checkpoints continue. |
| Physics or Environmental Science | 1 | The student chooses by interest. At-home laboratory kit; Kai as lab partner; the notebook as evidence. |
| U.S. History | 1 | Founding to now, from primary sources. Argued out loud, sourced in writing. |
| World Language III or elective | 1 | A third year of the language is recommended, or an elective in its place. |
| AI Fluency III: AI and Society | 1 | A research paper, a published model evaluation, and a policy brief delivered to a real official. |
| Living with AI | 0.5 | Weekly seminar. Civic life, law, and power in an AI economy. The policy brief goes to someone who can act on it. |
| Elective or Quest credit | 0.5 to 1 | Quest projects now run for weeks and reach real audiences. |
| Executive Function Studio | Daily | Direct: plan a semester, run a multi-week project, ask for help before the cliff. |
- Up to 7.5 credits this year
- MAP Growth three times. PSAT in the fall. SAT or ACT in the spring.
Grade 12Launch
A public capstone, a thesis, and a plan for the life after.
| Course | Credit | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Mathematics (Precalculus, Calculus, or Statistics and Data) | 1 | By placement and by the student's plan. Calculus for the engineering-bound; Statistics and Data for everyone who will have to read a claim and check it. |
| English IV | 1 | Literature by the student's choice, and the senior thesis: written, sourced, and defended. |
| Government | 0.5 | How power is organized, and how a citizen moves it. Paired with the senior seminar. |
| Economics | 0.5 | Markets, money, and work, in an economy where the cost of a standard answer has fallen to zero. |
| AI Fluency IV: Capstone | 1 | A product, a research project, or a venture, publicly defended. The portfolio piece that anchors the college application. |
| Living with AI | 0.5 | Senior seminar: Operating in an AI-Dominated World. Ends in a life design plan. |
| Science elective (optional) | 0 to 1 | A fourth laboratory science, such as Anatomy and Physiology or Astronomy, for students who want it. |
| Elective or Quest credit | 1 | Often the capstone's companion: the business, the exhibition, the deployment. |
| Executive Function Studio | Daily | Launch: run your own life. Money, time, commitments, and the plan for after graduation. |
- Up to 6.5 credits this year
- SAT or ACT retake if wanted. Capstone defended in public. College applications with portfolio.
The strands, year by year
| Strand | Grade 9 | Grade 10 | Grade 11 | Grade 12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI Fluency | Coding with AI I | Building Systems with AI | AI and Society | Capstone, publicly defended |
| Living with AI | Foundations to practice: attention, verification, first earned dollar | Work and money, creativity, ethics, identity | Civic life and a policy brief to a real official | Operating in an AI-Dominated World; life design plan |
| Executive Function Studio | Internalize | Extend | Direct | Launch |
| Quest Time | First shipped project | A system people depend on | Weeks-long projects for real audiences | The capstone's companion |
| External assessment | MAP Growth, three times | MAP Growth; PSAT | PSAT; SAT or ACT | SAT or ACT retake optional; capstone defense |
Elective titles and the grade 12 science elective are the current offering and grow with what students ask for. Middle school (grades 6 to 8) follows the same method with its own sequence; ask for it when you book a tour.