Independent Study Enrollment
Independent Study is distinct from homeschooling primarily in the level of parent participation in the educational process. Often, high school is a time when parents step back from teaching and allow students to directly experience the responsibility and accountability necessary for independent learning. Pathways Independent Study Teachers (IST) meet weekly with their students, checking on progress, assigning work, evaluating work and monitoring students' ability to tackle work on their own. Parents have varying levels of involvement in this process, from direct collaboration with the teacher in assigning and evaluating work, to attendance at monthly paperwork and progress reporting meetings with both student and IST. In all cases, parents are expected to support the IST through monitoring daily work and ensuring that students are capable of working independently.
At Pathways, both independent study and homeschooling models of education are embraced as legitimate learning options. Independent Study is the umbrella term for both models, and you will often see independent study used as a generic term for both. At Pathways, however, we see a distinction between the two types.
Homeschool is distinctly associated with high levels of parent involvement. As a result, students in grades K-8 are always homeschooled, as parent involvement is critical to this process. Homeschooling parents are the teachers in the home, relying on Pathways teachers for coordination of lesson planning, acquisition of aligned educational materials, brainstorming and collaboration in goal setting. The PCS teacher provides valuable support for referrals and identification of resources necessary for implementation of the student educational plan. Within this structure, parents and their homeschool support teacher meet a minimum of once a month.Independent Study is distinct from homeschooling primarily in the level of parent participation in the educational process. Often, high school is a time when parents step back from teaching and allow students to directly experience the responsibility and accountability necessary for independent learning. Pathways Independent Study Teachers (IST) meet weekly with their students, checking on progress, assigning work, evaluating work and monitoring students' ability to tackle work on their own. Parents have varying levels of involvement in this process, from direct collaboration with the teacher in assigning and evaluating work, to attendance at monthly paperwork and progress reporting meetings with both student and IST. In all cases, parents are expected to support the IST through monitoring daily work and ensuring that students are capable of working independently.
