Description Beacon Academy is a Montessori high school that brings together independent school best practices and challenging IB (International Baccalaureate) curriculum with independence, freedom, and a student-centered approach. Our students experience a learning community that inspires self-motivation and personal challenge and celebrates intellectual, cultural, and socioeconomic diversity. Based in Evanston, but using the entirety of Chicago as a classroom, Beacon Academy is home to 213 students in grades 9-12.