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Welcome to the
Principal's Office
home page. For more information on the
Principal's Office
department, please contact our department chair -
Dr.
Catherine
Karl, PhD
at
cathy.karl@ignatius.org or by phone at 312.432.8308.
For a complete faculty and staff contact list, please visit our Contact Info page.
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The following is a general overview of the academic policies for students of Saint
Ignatius College Prep. For a complete list of all of our policies, please consult
the Student Handbook.
ACADEMIC POLICIES
Registration/Scheduling
Registration for the following year's courses takes place during the spring. Students
are encouraged to review their course selection requests with their parents who
are required to sign the registration form. Counselors and College Counselors are
available for guidance with registration. Students will be assigned some courses
and levels as determined by school and departmental policies. Other courses or electives
are scheduled as possible. The Assistant Principal for Academic Programs makes all
decisions concerning a student's schedule and assignment of classes.
Advanced Placement (AP) and Honors Course Entry Criteria
Saint Ignatius College Prep offers a broad spectrum of college-level, advanced placement
courses. The schoolwide criteria for entering AP courses are:
- Students must have a teacher recommendation, indicating that they possess the
needed work ethic, study habits and self-discipline to do all the work that is required
in a course taught at the college level.
- Students with less than the required grade level in the department-designated
course(s) may take an AP course with teacher and department chair recommendation.
- Placement in honors courses is made by the department in which the courses are
offered.
Course Load Required for All Students
All Saint Ignatius students are expected to carry a full course load in every semester
of attendance. Generally, this means six or six and one-half courses per semester
in freshman/sophomore year and five or five and one-half courses per semester in
junior/senior year. After consultation with their counselor, most students are encouraged
to take advantage of additional elective courses by registering for an additional
half-unit or unit each year. Students may register for more than six and one-half
credits but only with the permission of the Assistant Principal for Academic Programs.
Withdrawal from Courses
All course choices (including second and third choices) will be considered binding,
so students and parents should consider their options and recommendations with great
care when registering. In some rare cases a student will be allowed to add or drop
classes, such as when a chosen course will not be offered, when a student has had
a teacher in a previous course or when a student has been deemed by the department
chair and the Assistant Principal for Academics to have been placed incorrectly
in a class. However, in order to ensure that the greatest number of students is
in the correct classes from the first day of the semester onward, students will
not be allowed to choose free periods, teachers or classes other than those for
which they have registered unless there is a valid academic reason in the judgment
of the Assistant Principal for Academics. Every effort must be made on the part
of the student to affect these changes during the designated schedule adjustment
days. Note: A grade of “Withdrew Failing” (WF) may be assigned if a course is dropped
after a reasonable period of time as determined by the Assistant Principal for Academic
Programs.
Homework
Students are given home assignments on a regular basis. These assignments will vary
in length, but students should expect to spend about three hours each day on homework
assignments.
Eligibility for Athletics and Co-curricular Activities
To be eligible to play and/or participate in all co-curricular, athletic and student
activity programs, students must maintain a minimum GPA of 1.75. Grades are checked
at each of the eight grading periods. Students whose GPA falls below 1.75 are declared
ineligible for a period of 10 school days. At the coach's discretion, athletes may
come to practice but not participate in any contests; club moderators determine
the consequences for ineligibility for their group. At the end of 10 school days,
ineligible students' grades are rechecked. Students who have raised their GPA to
at least 1.75 become eligible. Those whose grades are still below 1.75 remain ineligible
for the remainder of the marking period after which grades are again rechecked.
Academic Integrity Policy
The Saint Ignatius community expects academic honesty and integrity of all its students.
The members of the Saint Ignatius community, both faculty and students, expect that
students will assume responsibility for their own learning and honestly demonstrate
the breadth and depth of that learning.
The educational program at Saint Ignatius stresses not only the acquisition of skills
and knowledge but also the formation of a moral consciousness. Students explore
the ethical and moral implications of many issues, yet no issue is more important
for exploration than the student's own individual honesty and integrity. The faculty
and students should commit themselves to this exploration. It is the responsibility
of the faculty to call the students to moral behavior - to honesty and integrity.
It is the responsibility of the students to learn moral and ethical principles and
to live according to them.
All students’ work—homework, notes, quizzes, tests, essays, group projects, research
papers, lab reports—should be a product of their own effort. To offer someone else’s
work—whether a student or not—as if it were one’s own is dishonest. Such behaviors
as copying homework, taking information from another during a quiz or test, and
plagiarizing (presenting another’s writing or ideas as your own) constitute serious
lapses in moral judgment.
Assisting a person to be dishonest is also a moral lapse. To supply another with
one’s homework to be copied so that the other student can submit it as his/her own,
to supply information to another during a quiz or test, and to write a paper for
another are violations of the norm of moral behavior. Obviously, to steal a quiz
or a test and/or to share the information from a stolen quiz or test is morally
reprehensible. If a student has an electronic device that can store or communicate
information in a testing area, this shall be a violation of academic integrity as
well as a regular violation.
The rewards for academic honesty are a sense of personal accomplishment, self-esteem,
and self-respect in addition to the knowledge gained. The consequences of academic
dishonesty are both academic and disciplinary.
Any student offering someone else's work—whether a fellow student’s or another person’s—as
if it were one's own may receive a zero for that assignment. Any student assisting
another student to be dishonest may receive a zero. The teacher will complete a
dishonesty referral to the Assistant Principal for Academic Programs.
- For a first
offense, the Assistant Principal will notify the student's Guidance Counselor, write
a letter to the parents, and speak to the student to explain the seriousness of
this lapse and the consequences of a recurrence.
- For a second offense, the Assistant
Principal will have a conference with the parents, Guidance Counselor, and the student
and place the student on probation.
- For a third offense within a student's academic
career at Saint Ignatius, the Assistant Principal for Academic Programs may recommend
a Discipline Board hearing. The Board will impose appropriate sanctions ranging
from suspension to withdrawal from a course with an "F" to expulsion.
A student caught stealing a quiz or a test and/or sharing the stolen information
will appear before the Discipline Board for a hearing. The Board will recommend
appropriate sanctions which may include expulsion from school.
Summer School School
If a student fails a course during the school year and this course is offered in
the Saint Ignatius Summer School, this failing grade must be made up in the Saint
Ignatius Summer School Program. Saint Ignatius grants credit for other schools'
summer school courses only when they are a direct equivalent of courses offered
in the SICP regular school-year academic program as determined by the Assistant
Principal for Academics.
A student taking credit courses in summer school may receive credit for the course,
and the grade will be included in the calculation of the student's GPA. The exception
to this is the student who has not failed a course but who elects to take the credit
course in summer school in order to improve his or her skills in that subject area.
The student’s regular school year grades will stand, and no additional credit will
be granted for taking the summer school course. A student taking a credit course
at a summer school other than Saint Ignatius must have the course approved by the
Assistant Principal for Academic Programs. The course must be consistent with the
courses in the SICP curriculum.
Core courses must be taken during the regular school year except for cases of making
up a semester failure.
Core courses include: English 1, 2, 3, 4; Language 1, 2, 3; Algebra 1; Geometry;
Algebra 2/Trigonometry; Pre- calculus (for students who took Geometry during freshman
year); Integrated Science I & II, World History, U.S. History, Fundamentals of Economics,
U.S. Government, and Religious Studies 1, 2, 3, 4. Prior permission from the Assistant
Principal for Academic Programs must be granted for any credit to be accepted by
Saint Ignatius. No more than 1.5 units of summer school credit from schools other
than SICP will be accepted toward the fulfillment of graduation requirements. This
limit does not, however, apply to summer courses taken to make-up failures. Credits
for pre-approved summer school courses will be accepted, placed on transcripts,
and added to the cumulative total of credits.
If the course taken in summer school is to remediate an "F" in a course taken in
a school year, the "F" will remain on the transcript and will be calculated in a
student's GPA. The grade earned in summer school will also appear on the transcript
and be included as an additional course in the calculation of a student’s GPA.
Textbooks
Saint Ignatius uses Follett Online Bookstore to provide students and their families
with choices for purchasing their textbooks at competitive prices. Each year prior
to the beginning of school students will receive their class schedules from the
Principal's Office. All courses and most required texts are listed. Students will
have their choice of new, used, and rental textbooks handled through Follett Online
Bookstore. Some textbooks may be rented through Saint Ignatius. Follett also carries
a line of clothing for Total Wellness classes and other Saint Ignatius apparel.
Please visit the Saint Ignatius website for more details and booklists.