Curriculum

Our students’ intellectual development and agility is the focus of Poly Prep’s Upper School curriculum. In every discipline, we set standards of academic excellence aimed at fostering habits of mind that will serve our students throughout their lives. Our expectation is that students learn to read, write, analyze, and quantify with purpose, focus, and clarity.

Our curriculum sequence is expressly designed to enable our students to acquire the knowledge and disposition to understand a complex, multi-faceted world and act as agents of positive change. To this end, we empower our students to promote social and racial justice, discern systems and structures from varied perspectives and with a critical lens, and imagine the world as it might be. Our commitment to anti-racism and to countering all forms of bigotry is steadfast; at Poly, we know firsthand how important diversity and equity are to academic and personal excellence and how profoundly they enrich our community. Our curricula draw from and extend these strengths by centering forms of knowledge that embrace nuance and complexity, and thereby prepare our students to assume roles as innovators and leaders in their country and the world.

From the beginning of their Upper School career until its conclusion, students meet with Upper School deans to craft courses of study uniquely suited to their individual academic goals and interests.

For more information about Poly’s Upper School curriculum, including core requirements, course descriptions, and elective offerings, please see our detailed Curriculum Guide.

For incoming Grade 9 families and students, please see addendum for the 2025-26 Curriculum Guide.

Upper School Curriculum Overview

• Computer and Information Science

  In our Computer and Information Science classes and state-of-the-art Maker Space, students apply their creativity, problem-solving skills, and communication tools to explore new languages; engineer and design 3-D solutions; develop multi-level understanding of the internet and social media; work with hands-on technologies such as robotics and microcontrollers; and discover the expanding universe of artificial intelligence. The language of computers is one of Poly’s fastest growing and most exciting fields of inquiry — and our digital-savvy students are its natural interlocutors.

  Among the elective courses students can choose are Cybersecurity; Data Science; Disinformation and Democracy; App Development; Game Design; Advanced AI; Advanced Computational Astrophysics; Advanced Rocket Engineering in Simulation.

• English

  English classes engage students in discovering their own voices as writers while they wrestle with literature’s diverse representations of the human experience. Core classes and electives introduce students to prose fiction, poetry, drama, and literary non-fiction from around the world and help them develop analytical and writing skills. At the core of our writing instruction is the understanding that writing requires flexibility and a wide range of skills beyond the traditional essay. Poly’s English program therefore actively prepares students to write effectively across disciplines and genres. Just as important, our approach to literature is grounded in the understanding that literary texts help students develop empathy for characters whose experiences are at once unfamiliar and strikingly recognizable. Our classes therefore join classic texts with new and emerging narrative voices, and faculty delight in seeing our students draw inspiration from both.

  Among the compelling English electives offered are African American Literature; The Bible as Literature; Creative Writing Workshop; Dystopia; Humor Workshop: Reading and Writing; Japanese Literature in Translation; The Literary Landscape; Literature of New York; Literature and Psychology; Magical Realism; Memoir and Autofiction; Modern Literature; Nuclear Texts: Literature and Culture in the Age of the Bomb; Pulp Fiction and Noir: A Study of Genre and Style; Reading Moby Dick; Satire and Society; and The Writer’s Craft.

  For more information about Advanced English courses, including Author Study: Toni Morrison; Frankenstein’s Legacy; Gender Studies; Critical Theory; Linguistics; and more, please see our detailed Curriculum Guide.

• History

  At the core of the History Department’s mission is the belief that the study of history has the potential to, in the words of historian Carl Degler, “expand our conception and understanding of what it means to be human.” The study of history is integral to Poly’s mission of preparing students to be global citizens, and our history curriculum is designed to help students become comfortable navigating, both in the past and in the present, the tension between the familiar and the strange. To this end, students develop a deep knowledge of their own country’s history, global history, and area-specific histories. We also empower students to seek an understanding of their world that goes beyond their present moment, and to develop the empathy and humility that are integral to the thoughtful exercise of global citizenship.

  Among the electives we offer our students are Constitutional Conflict: American Government; China, Vietnam, and Communism; Gotham’s Challenges; European History; Feminisms of the Modern Middle East; Latin American History; Left, Right, and Center; New York City History; Postcolonial Southeast Asia; Revolutions; The World’s Wisdom Traditions: Abrahamic Religions; The World’s Wisdom Traditions: Asian Religions; US History Seminars in: African American Women’s History; Black Power, Black Arts; Settlement-1865; 1865-Present; Immigration and Migration; News, Networks, and American Democracy; Our Republic in Nature; Queer Histories; and Slavery and Resistance.

• Interdisciplinary Studies

  Poly offers a wide variety of compelling interdisciplinary courses including Journalism, Advanced Journalism, Law & Jurisprudence, Psychology: An Introduction, Advanced Topics in Psychology, and Advanced Social Psychology Seminar. Some of these require departmental approval. Please check the Curriculum Guide for more details.

• Mathematics

  Our mathematics curriculum encourages students to become logical and imaginative thinkers. We help students recognize patterns and structures, explore multiple routes to solving problems, develop and apply critical thinking and abstract reasoning skills, and organize and explain their reasoning. As we model real world situations and promote both deductive and inductive reasoning, our students develop the intellectual tools to become independent problem solvers, develop the confidence to persevere through complex and challenging non-routine problems, and enjoy the challenge of attempting to find the unknown and delight in its discovery.

  In the Upper School, students study geometry, algebra, pre-calculus, and calculus, and in Grades 11 and 12 may choose from compelling electives such as Discrete Math; Economics; Financial Literacy; History of Mathematics; Introduction to Algebraic Structures; Linear Algebra; Multivariable Calculus; and Advanced Statistics.

• Science

  Our Science department recognizes that, now more than ever before, the natural world demands innovative solutions to the most vexing environmental, medical, and resource dilemmas humankind has confronted. Our students therefore engage in experiments and analysis of observable data that challenge them to understand how science shapes all phenomena, from the manufacture of sunblock to understanding of epidemic disease. Required courses are offered in biology, chemistry, and physics. Advanced courses are available.

  Electives include courses in those disciplines along with classes such as Earth Systems and Structures; Forensic Science; Modern Physics; and Environmental Chemistry. Advanced electives offered include Urban Ecology; Organic Chemistry; Applied Mechanics; and Science Research. All courses require students to apply science and engineering practices as they make sense of phenomena and design solutions to problems, preparing them to become tomorrow’s engineers, physicians, researchers, space explorers, and scientifically literate citizens.

  Science Research Program

  Science Research and Writing is a three-year program for students in Grades 10-12 which engages students in scientific research through self-driven experimentation. Students typically apply for admission to the program in the spring of Grade 9, although some 10th grade students begin the program each year and join members of existing cohorts in shared class meeting time. Students learn to read and use peer-reviewed scientific journal articles–many written at a very advanced level–to inform their research. The course requires each student to write a series of formal papers for submission to local and national competitions, such as the New York City Science and Engineering Fair and the Intel contest, in collaboration with an outside mentor or professional scientist.

• World Languages/Classics

  World Languages courses — Spanish, French, Mandarin, and Latin — immerse students in their chosen target language as a means of nurturing their curiosity about peoples and cultures far beyond our halls. Our modern language classes (including electives in Italian and Japanese) place a premium on speaking, sharing, and celebrating the world language, not least as a means of nurturing cultural competence and personal courage. In addition to local excursions to restaurants, exhibits, and NYC neighborhoods, curricular trips to Martinique, China, Spain, Italy, Peru, Ecuador, and Argentina as well as various domestic destinations encourage students to become intrepid and considerate global citizens.

  For information about our Global Studies and Curricular Travel program, please click here.

• Learning Support and Enrichment

  At Poly, we appreciate the wide diversity of learning styles and are dedicated to meeting each child’s learning needs. Our learning specialists help all students meet the demands of our curriculum, and become proficient self-advocates who are resilient, meta-cognitive, and strategic learners. Learning specialists work closely with students, faculty, and deans to address individual learning needs and oversee the Learning Center, a space for students to practice their skills and utilize a range of academic supports. Our learning specialists also support teachers and develop pedagogical tools designed to help enrich the classroom learning experience for all students.