Our families benefit from an academic plan that is tailored to meet the aspirations and needs of each individual student.
As new students progress through the admissions process, Laurel Springs takes the time to get to know each student and his or her family. For students in grades 7-12, our staff reviews a wide variety of information about the incoming students, and then consults with parents to make recommendations for an academic plan. Frequent feedback and assessment take place throughout the admissions period as well.
Transcript Review
The entrance review process starts with reviewing records from the student’s previous school. Our staff evaluates what was effective and successful for each student in the past, and where opportunities exist to improve. This step in our admissions process ensures that the student has successfully completed prerequisites, had made successful progress on grade level, and allows our staff to select the appropriate grade level placement.
Diagnostic Assessment
Diagnostic assessments are designed to provide parents, students and teachers with specific information about what skills the student has and has not mastered. The results empower students, parents and teachers to pinpoint, assign and review those areas the student must master before moving on to more complex materials.
Learning Styles Profile
Laurel Springs assesses five aspects of learning style: disposition, modality, interests, talents and preferred environment. The profile helps parents better understand their child’s blueprint for learning and offers helpful study tips and techniques. By understanding their child’s learning style, parents can help their children excel not only in school, but in life.
Academic Plan
The academic plan is the result of a collaborative process between the family, admissions office, and counseling department. The process ensures that we address the student’s specific needs and goals so that he or she can be successful in our program.
For high school students, the college counseling team incorporates information from the learning styles profile, the diagnostic assessment, and transcripts from previous schools to create an academic plan. The academic plan recommends carefully-tailored placement options based on the student’s talents, skills, and educational experiences. The counseling department reviews the proposed academic plan, and makes adjustments or recommendations for course selection (including honors or AP curriculum) to meet the student’s goals. Finally, the admissions coordinator presents the academic plan to the student’s family, and finalizes the enrollment.
Ongoing Assessment
Assessment is a vital part of the Laurel Springs educational process. We want to know as much as we can about our students and their progress. Our goal is not to compare them to other students, but to measure their progress and gather information about learning. Since our approach is mastery-based, students need to demonstrate that they understand assignments and courses through tests, as well as the assessments. In this light, we have developed a student-centered approach to assessment that helps us better understand each child and measure the effectiveness of our courses.
In addition to the assessment and feedback that is built into every course, the Terra Nova, a national norm-referenced standardized test, is administered to full-time Laurel Springs students in 4th through 11th grade, every other year. This test provides valuable information about the student’s academic progress in language arts and mathematics.
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