Independent Study

Form VI boys have the opportunity to undertake one semester-long independent study project in lieu of one academic course during their senior year.

Graduation requirements remain the same: a boy must take at least five courses in each semester of the Form VI year, one of which could be a semester-long independent study. A student’s academic program must also conform to the approved sequence of courses as determined by the various academic disciplines.

During the course selection process, Form V boys may petition to undertake an independent study during the Form VI year. This petition entails:

• a detailed description of the intended inquiry; • a detailed description of the culminating work product, which may be research-, project- or performance-based; • identification of a faculty mentor who has agreed to guide the study (note: faculty members may not lead more than one independent study per semester); • identification of a secondary evaluator (from the relevant department) who – in conjunction with the mentor and the department chair – will assess the independent study as the student’s

“evaluating group.”

The petition requires approval of the Upper School Head, the Department Chair, the faculty mentor, and the secondary evaluator. Students applying for an independent study would be required to select a full slate of traditional classes during course sign-ups; if approved, the independent study would replace the appropriate class. In addition, the petition must also conform to state as well as Landon graduation requirements, i.e. a student’s Form VI curriculum must include either senior English electives or an independent study in English. Finally, an approved independent study does not supplant Landon’s graduation requirement of fulfilling an Independent Senior Project (ISP), unless the original proposal specifies using the ISP as part of the independent study. Those students wishing to extend a second-semester independent study into an ISP must petition the ISP committee for such an expansion of the original study.

An approved independent study requires that the student:

• commit to a schedule of work equivalent to that required by a non-honors academic class (roughly six hours per week), and assessed by his faculty mentor; • meet with his faculty mentor once per eight-day cycle to share progress, ask questions, and receive guidance on future work direction; • meet with other faculty-mentor partnerships three times per semester in gatherings arranged to share progress, ask questions, and receive guidance on future work direction; • receive a formal interim report from his mentor at the mid-point of each marking period; • meet clearly-articulated work and product benchmarks established and assessed by the evaluating group (department chair, mentor, secondary evaluator); • submit his culminating work product on the designated semester exam day for the appropriate department.

Marking period and semester-long grades will be established by the evaluating group and noted on the student’s transcript. A boy may take two semester-long independent studies in the Form VI year, provided that each experience is approved using the standard procedure, and that each study meets the necessary requirements for participation and final product.