At CA we encourage students to pursue their intellectual interests within a detailed set of department requirements.

CA’s curriculum comprises more than 230 courses in eight academic disciplines, and a co-curricular athletics program. For more information about each department—including department philosophies, requirements, courses of study, faculty bios, and frequently asked questions—please click on the links below.

Computer Science

It’s no secret that computers have transformed the way we live and work—yet how many of us are rooted in the languages, systems, theories, and structures of the technologies that are shaping our world? At Concord Academy, you’ll find cutting-edge technology just about everywhere on campus. But access is only the beginning.

 

For students who dream of developing apps, writing new programming languages, or starting their own Web design firms, CA offers deep engagement in real-life scenarios. So you’ll have the tools to create that Photoshop masterpiece, just for fun—or be well-prepared to move on to schools like MIT and a career in technology.

From theory and coding to graphic and Web design, our approach to Computer Science is interdisciplinary, hands-on, and highly collaborative. We love that CA students bring passion to projects that excite them, and we recognize that some of the most creative work happens outside of class. Our expert faculty is available to guide and support informal exploration—in the computer lab before dinner, on a pair of laptops in the library, or in collaboration with other developers online. Teachers at CA are not afraid to try new things, and that’s vital in a field that will continue to shape our shared future in the years and decades to come.

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Ben Stumpf

Ben Stumpf

Computer Science Department Head

English

To question, consider, and debate. To read perceptively, write clearly, and argue persuasively. To experience life through the eyes of others, and articulate our own thoughts with care and nuance. These are just some of the skills Concord Academy students develop by studying English during every semester of their CA education.

Our 9th- and 10th-grade curricula span common sets of ancient and contemporary texts that contend with definitions of home and explore questions of identity, power, authority, and belonging. Considering every story on its own and in conversation with competing texts and perspectives, students in their first two years of CA share a rigorous, core reading experience. With a firm grounding in analysis and effective expression, our 11th and 12th graders pursue highly specialized, college-level electives. Thanks to our location in Concord—the very town where Emerson, Thoreau, Alcott, Hawthorne, and Fuller transformed the American literary tradition—we offer our students direct access to the legacy of 19th-century transcendentalists. Engaging deeply with selections that range from the periods of the Bible, Dante’s Inferno, Milton’s Paradise Lost, and Wordsworth and Coleridge’s Lyrical Ballads to 20th- and 21st-century works by Kazim Ali, Roxane Gay, Kazuo Ishiguro, Toni Morrison, Claudia Rankine, Adrienne Rich, Danez Smith, Ocean Vuong, Jesmyn Ward, among others, students recognize how texts shape one another within an epoch as well as across time. Refracting literature through art, music, and film, they cultivate independent thinking and learn to synthesize ideas through various modes of collaborative inquiry.

Sabrina Sadique

Sabrina Sadique

English Department Head

Email
(978) 402-2391

History

Where do we encounter history outside a textbook? At Concord Academy, we don’t have far to look. Sometimes it’s a canoe trip down Concord’s rivers, or a collaboration with nearby universities to analyze an archeological dig. Sometimes it’s unearthing original documents from the town’s colonial archives. Or standing on the battlefield, a stone’s throw from campus, where the shot that started the American Revolution was fired. Few schools can offer such direct access to America’s rich social, political, and intellectual history. Our home—the town of Concord, itself—is one of our most valuable learning tools.

CA’s history curriculum also extends far beyond our own location. Students can delve into the cultural traditions of Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas, from the ancient world to modern economies. In every history course at CA, we read both primary and secondary texts—classics of the discipline, as well as the latest scholarship—and take advantage of a wide array of resources to bring the past into the classroom.

While coming to understand U.S. society and its institutions, as well as other cultures around the world, students develop skills in research, critical analysis, and written and oral expression. They also gain a historically informed perspective on the present, as we encourage students to be active, thoughtful, and engaged global citizens. At CA, students come to understand the significance of what’s come before—not just what happened.

Topi Dasgupta

Topi Dasgupta

History Department Head

Mathematics

What if you learned trigonometry by modeling the relative sizes of objects in a photo? Or statistics by studying the psychology of decision-making? At Concord Academy, our experienced and passionate mathematics teachers challenge students to think critically and to learn by engaging in the world around them.

Our course progression emphasizes a logical and intuitive development of mathematical techniques that opens the door to experiencing the creative aspects of mathematical thinking, as well as the power to solve everyday problems.

By providing numerous pathways through the math curriculum, we meet individual students at their levels of prior experience and interest. All students at Concord Academy learn data analysis, a crucial numeracy skill for the 21st century, and thanks to our flexible approach, most exceed departmental requirements. Older students might take college-level calculus, or use economic tools to analyze rent control. Future engineers channel their curiosity in very advanced classes, such as abstract algebra and number theory. You might find juniors together outside of class working on mathematical games and puzzles, or seniors competing at the Harvard-MIT Math Tournament. At CA, we appreciate math’s foundational role in scientific study, and we approach the discipline collaboratively and creatively. We’ve found that curiosity can be one of our greatest tools.

Jessica Kuh

Jessica Kuh

Mathematics Department Head

Modern and Classical Languages

Chatting in a café in Paris or a host family’s kitchen in Madrid. Setting foot in the Roman Coliseum or Beijing’s Forbidden City. Or keeping up with a friend from Frankfurt. The world language you study at Concord Academy could take you to places that haven’t yet crossed your mind.

While schools across the U.S. are scaling back their language programs, CA remains committed to world languages as part of a 21st-century education. Our approach is practical, focused on proficiency—from speaking to reading, translating to writing, we want students not just to know the language but to use it.

We offer instruction in four of the world’s major modern languages—Spanish, French, German, and Mandarin Chinese—as well as in Latin. By making ample use of current technology in our teaching, we keep languages vibrant and meet students where they are communicating. In the classroom and through online resources and extracurricular activities, our students learn to think and engage in other languages. Many choose to spend a spring break, a semester, or a year studying abroad. In doing so, they come to understand other cultures from the inside, and find firm footing for presenting their ideas in our international society.

Carmen Welton

Carmen Welton

Modern and Classical Languages Department Head

Performing Arts

At Concord Academy, anyone can dance—or act, or sing, or play an instrument. With nearly 40 courses to choose from and 20 theater, dance, and music performances on campus each year, CA students can participate in the performing arts at every level of experience.

Programs in music, theater, and dance, as well as interdisciplinary courses, develop the skills necessary to progress toward greater mastery and self-expression. And our performing companies are regularly presented with opportunities for both national and international travel.

At CA, we encourage students to explore the world around them by questioning the conventional. As learning in the performing arts centers on the artistic process itself, students synthesize knowledge gained in other academic pursuits and their personal lives, build skills through rigorous training and critique, and communicate new ideas and ways of understanding.

Engagement with performing arts prepares students for success in all areas of their lives. Students learn individual expression within group pursuit, and develop skills in collaboration and communication, creative problem solving, improvising, and working within structure—gaining self confidence and finding inspiration.

Michael Bennett

Michael Bennett

Performing Arts Department Head

Science

For some it’s building a hovercraft. For others, it’s examining aquatic life while paddling on the Sudbury River. No matter what drives students to explore our world, there’s a way to engage deeply through the sciences here at Concord Academy. Whether we’re running a student-designed chemistry experiment in the lab or debating the findings of a journal article, we involve students in a dynamic process of questioning and investigation.

The science department’s new home, CA Labs, was completed in the fall of 2016. This center for interdisciplinary exploration doubled our science classroom and lab space and gives the community—from science courses to clubs to theater productions—dedicated maker space for laser and plasma cutters, 3D printers, and other CAD/CAM tools, along with conventional shop space.

With a green roof and sustainable design, DNA sequences and emissions spectra represented on the walls and distance scales embedded in the floors, the playful and purposeful building is itself an inspiration. It’s also an invitation to creative, curious students and thoughtful, engaged teachers to collaborate in the exploration of what we know, what we think we know, and what we don’t know.

Building on foundational courses in biology, chemistry, earth science, and physics, students have options to delve deeper into college-level work and specialty fields from engineering design to environmental science and sustainability to electromagnetic theory. We practice the ultimate challenges of the discipline: crafting questions and clearing paths to their answers. 

Our students’ scientific pursuits extend beyond the classrooms into environmental symposia; student clubs with a focus on biology, chemistry, and engineering; and summer research internships at Boston’s cutting-edge labs and engineering firms. 

Our students graduate from CA with the skills and knowledge necessary to be responsible and informed and to create positive change whether as active global citizens or as professional scientists.

Will Tucker

Will Tucker

Science Department Head

Visual Arts

The click of a shutter. The white space of a canvas. The elegance of a blueprint. Whatever ignites the spark for you, Concord Academy’s visual arts teachers—all of them artists who love collaborating with students—feel it too.

They provide a structured approach to a flexible curriculum that allows students at all levels to thrive. With more than 30 studio art courses, unlimited studio access, and a state-of-the-art media lab, CA’s visual arts facilities invite exploration and inspiration.

From foundational courses in drawing and printmaking to intense studio experiences in painting and fashion design, the possibilities for studying visual arts at CA truly are as wide as you can dream. Many students initially explore a broad range of two- and three-dimensional art forms before focusing on, say, documentary filmmaking or wheel-thrown ceramics. In addition to studio instruction, most visual arts courses include lectures or screenings, group discussions, and critiques. First-level courses serve as introductions to a progressively challenging sequence of courses in subjects such as photography, architecture, digital graphic design, fiber arts, sculpture, screenwriting, art history, and film history, to name just a few.

Drawing on greater Boston’s rich cultural scene, CA supports the study of visual arts with trips to artists’ studios and in-depth, behind-the-scenes engagement at museums such as the Museum of Fine Arts, the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, and the Addison Gallery of American Art. At CA, the arts are embraced as a core component of the student experience, and students bring their creative passions to bear in nearly every class.

Monica Ripley

Monica Ripley

Visual Arts Department Head