Summer Courses

Stevenson offers only one summer course, Dale Hinckley's U.S. History class, but each year several students take courses elsewhere. Students taking courses over the summer are still expected to take a full academic load during the school year.

Stevenson students often choose to take courses at other schools during the summer. If a student is successful in a summer course Stevenson will include a note at the bottom of his or her transcript indicating the title of the course, the school at which it was taken, and the grade received. Such courses do not count as Stevenson courses and cannot replace a low grade in a Stevenson course, but they can count for placement.

If a student wishes to take a summer course for placement, he or she will need to get the course approved by the appropriate department head. For example, a student may wish to try to move from Spanish 2 to Spanish 4, skipping Spanish 3, by taking a Spanish course over the summer. The student should give the Foreign Language department head a description of the course he or she plans to take. The department head will decide if the course is equivalent to one of our courses, and may place additional requirements on the student, such as achievement of a minimum grade in the summer course and/or successful completion of a placement test at the end of the summer.

We do not have a list of approved courses for students to take during the summer because course descriptions at other schools can change each year. We can, however, suggest the California community college system and the following online schools whose high-school level courses we have generally found to be reliable:  Brigham Young University, the University of Missouri, and the  University of California. Students will still need to bring descriptions of these courses to the appropriate department head for approval. Note that our science courses include a lab, so online science courses will not be approved.