It’s not our learning experience. It’s yours.


Our academic program, known as the Mod System, offers breadth, depth, and intensity you won’t find at any other high school. Within its 6x6 framework (six terms of six weeks each) — and with the guidance of faculty, advisors, and college counselors — you’ll choose from over 250 classes to craft a highly personalized schedule that prepares you for the rigor of college study, allows you to dive into current areas of interest, and invites you to explore new fields of study.

The CSW academic experience expands and deepens as you progress through the grade levels. Within the 18 main blocks of a single year’s schedule, earlier grades focus on building core competencies and foundational skills while still leaving room for choice and exploration. Scheduling possibilities expand in the upper grades, when opportunities for elective courses increase, and you can more deeply delve into areas of interest, sharpen your focus in chosen subjects, and continue to try out new things.

Signature Programs

Social Justice Education

Social justice education is a fundamental component of the CSW mission and curriculum, as we seek to cultivate empathetic, culturally-aware global citizens with a deep sense of social responsibility. Our Social Justice Graduation Requirement ensures that students regularly examine pertinent issues from multiple perspectives, unpack structures of power and privilege, and seek models of social change with the goal of advancing human rights and equity.

Focus Fusion Courses

While interdisciplinary learning and the ability to draw connections across subject areas is paramount to the student experience at CSW, Focus Fusion Courses are classes specifically designed to complement one another, allowing students to delve into a particular topic, area of interest, or skill from a variety of different angles and perspectives. This allows for a broader, more informed understanding of material, which many students take with them on their chosen career paths. Focus Fusion Courses can be taken simultaneously during the mod, across multiple blocks, or over the course of one’s full student career. Example topics have included: Focus on Film, Black America, and The Natural World. 

Place-Based Learning

The flexibility of the Module System allows students and faculty to engage in off-campus, placed based learning in an organic and intentional way. Whether students are engaged in an immersive Mod Abroad to France or a two-week research study on the coast of Maine, learning is project-based, active, and highly interdisciplinary. Studying content within a real-world context in a highly actualized manner further solidifies the absorption of knowledge in students’ minds and is reflective of the deep, meaningful learning that CSW perpetuates. 

Community Ambassador Program

Community dedication and service to school are tenets of CSW’s curricular model dating back centuries. Today, every student spends at least one module serving as a Community Ambassador. Through the Community Ambassador Program, students partner with a particular school department — academic or administrative — and receive hands-on experience, one-on-one coaching and mentorship, and a behind-the-scenes view of the inner-workings of the school. The Community Ambassador Program teaches students what it means to be a contributing citizen of society, while also instilling them with critical, on-the-job professional skills and a greater sense of pride, personal responsibility, and purpose. 

Integrated Studies

In accordance with our academic philosophies, CSW offers a range of Integrated Studies Courses, which are designed to be hands-on, interdisciplinary courses organized around particular themes, which, in most cases, are team-taught by faculty from various departments. Courses vary from year to year. Recent integrated studies courses include: "Haiti" (English/History/French), "Applied Anatomy in Motion" (Science/Dance), "Neotropics of Panama" (Spanish/Science). 




Tenets of Progressive Education at CSW


Progressive education was introduced in the late 19th century as a response to the standardization of traditional education. Today, in a world where creative thinking is a critical success factor in so many aspects of life and work, its principles are more relevant than ever.  
Our faculty have identified the following four tenets of progressive education at CSW:
 
  • Student-oriented: Students who influence their learning by making choices about what and how they learn deepen their interest in the knowledge, skills, and concepts being taught.
  • Active: Students who engage through actions with the intent of learning develop transferable learning habits.
  • Justice-minded: Students who learn in an environment designed to be equitable and inclusive extend their understanding beyond their biases and assumptions.
  • Challenging: Students who embrace learning at the edge of their understanding and ability develop the resilience for challenging growth.

The Mod System allows me to focus on the topics that interest me.

"I knew I was interested in engineering before I came to CSW, and the Mod System has allowed me to build my schedule accordingly. I plan to major in aerospace and mechanical engineering in college, and classes like “Studies of Flight,” “Physics: Electricity and Magnetism,” and “Computer Science,” — in addition to my role on the competitive robotics team — have really strengthened my confidence and ability."
 
— Bram, West Newton, MA

Graduation Requirements


ENGLISH
Grade 9:   Writing Foundations Workshop (2 Blocks) + 1 Elective Literary Arts Courses
Grade 10:   Writing About Reading 1 + 2 Elective Literary Arts Courses
Grade 11:   Writing About Reading 2 + Advanced Writing Portfolio
Grade 12:   3 Electives
HISTORY

Grade 9:   Food, Justice, Power + 1 Elective
Grade 10:   Race in the U.S.: Black America and/or Elective
Grade 11:   3 Electives
Grade 12:   3 Electives
MATHEMATICS

Geometry + Algebra 2 + 1 Block Beyond Algebra 2
SCIENCE

Biology + STEAM + 3 Blocks Beyond STEAM
LANGUAGE

Language Level 3 (3A and 3B, 2 mods each)
International students and language waiver qualified students may opt out of this requirement. 
 
ARTS

Students must complete coursework in three of four disciplines.
Grade 9:   2 Blocks
Grade 10:   2 Blocks
Grade 11:   2 Blocks
Grade 12:   2 Blocks
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS
  • 10 Social Justice courses over CSW career
  • Involvement in PACE programming
  • 3 Athletic credits per year
    • One athletic exemption is granted for mainstage productions. Students are limited to two athletic exemptions per year. 
  • 18 D Block credits (6 in Grade 9; 5 in Grade 10; 4 in Grade 11; 3 in Grade 12)

Transcript Requests

Please follow the directions below to request an official transcript.
 
Please email Academics@csw.org with the following information:
 
1. Your name while you attended CSW
2. Graduation/attendance year(s)
3. Reason for transcript request
4. Physical address or email address to send the transcript to
 
Please note: Transcript requests may take 5-10 business days to process so please plan accordingly.
45 Georgian Road | Weston, MA 02493 | 781-642-8600

CSW—a gender-inclusive day and boarding school for grades 9-12—is a national leader in progressive education. We live out our values of inquiry-based learning, student agency, and embracing diverse perspectives in every aspect of our student experience. Young people come to CSW to learn how to learn and then put what they learn into action—essential skills they carry into their futures as doers, makers, innovators, leaders, and exceptional humans who do meaningful work in the world.