High School

Island School’s high school offers a rigorous college-preparatory program that prides itself on both its comprehensive curriculum and individualized instruction. The expertly trained faculty continuously provides thought-provoking, critical challenges and regularly adapt their lesson plans and knowledge to the needs of their students on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis.

While attending Island School, students are required to perform twenty hours of community service per year and to take college-preparatory classes in all of the following: language arts, mathematics, science, history, foreign language, visual and performing arts, computer science, Hawaiian history, and physical education. Students are challenged to test their intellectual boundaries through honors courses and in college courses at the nearby Kaua‘i Community College. Exceptional students are also challenged to take online classes at Stanford University. Each year, about 30% of graduating seniors have taken at least one AP exam.

 

As seniors, students complete an independent senior research project in an area they are most passionate about. From inception through completion, the seniors are responsible for designing, researching and presenting a thesis, experiment or problem/solution model. Meeting at regular intervals with faculty members and community mentors, students become experts in their chosen fields and verify their expertise in a teacher-led interview. All seniors must then present their findings to the community in a thirty-minute presentation. Only after a successful interview and presentation may an Island School student earn their High School diploma.