Academic Support

Student-Teacher Conference Sessions

Conference sessions with teachers can be scheduled during free periods or after school. These sessions may be required for students whose work is unsatisfactory or who have been absent for an extended period.

Academic Skills Center

Teachers expect students who are experiencing academic difficulty to meet with them outside of class. Normally, a teacher can provide up to one extra help session every week with a particular student. Students requiring a greater level of assistance should meet with the director of academic support in the Academic Skills Center. The staff of the Academic Skills Center helps students with organization, study skills and time management.

Tutoring

If a student needs long-term individualized tutoring, the director of academic support can assist in making arrangements for this kind of support. Families bear the expense for such tutoring and must inform the director of academic support in advance of a tutor coming onto campus. Milton has a policy that all tutors on campus must follow, including where tutoring must take place. Parents or guardians must ensure that their student’s tutor follows this policy; copies of the policy are available through the Academic Skills Center. The academic dean can also assist parents or advisors interested in tutoring for a student.

Peer Support

Milton Academy’s peer tutoring program pairs students in Class I or II with younger students seeking academic support in a variety of subjects. Peer tutors apply for the program and are accepted on the basis of teacher recommendations and exemplary progress in the chosen curricular areas. Peer tutoring sessions are customized to meet the individual student’s academic needs and are conducted throughout the school day, in the evenings, and on weekends.

Disability-Based Academic Evaluations and Accommodations

Milton Academy strives to foster an environment of equity and inclusion. The school seeks to partner with families of students with visible and invisible disabilities to identify barriers and implement plans for access. The Director of Academic Support is available to consult with families regarding students’ academic experience and progress, developmental issues, and referrals to outside supports.

Some students may benefit from disability-based academic accommodations. The Director of Academic Support will review any educational testing documentation conducted by a qualified evaluator. The director can provide families with information about seeking a free psychoeducational evaluation through their zoned public school, as well as certified evaluators in the Boston area who conduct private neuropsychological evaluations. Appropriate accommodations depend on the individual disability and will be narrowly tailored to meet an individual’s disability-based needs. Students requesting accommodations must present appropriate documentation to the Director of Academic Support, which assists the director and support personnel in understanding the extent to which a disability may impact a student and their learning and allows these personnel to make consistent, informed decisions regarding accommodations.

Disability-based academic accommodations are those accommodations necessary to ensure that a student with a documented disability can best access Milton Academy’s programs and services. Please note that Milton Academy has no obligation to provide accommodations that the school determines are unnecessary or unreasonable; constitute an undue burden; or fundamentally alter the nature of the school’s academic program.

If the Director of Academic Support determines that accommodations are warranted, they will develop a written set of recommendations, typically referred to as an Individualized Learning Guide (ILG). Parents and students will have a chance to review and approve the ILG and consent to it being shared prior to implementation with those Milton faculty and staff members needed for its successful implementation. ILGs are not part of a student’s academic record and are kept confidential in the Academic Skills Center.

The Director of Academic Support must receive documentation in support of a new request for disability-based accommodations on semester exams at least two weeks prior to the beginning of the exam period.

Homework Expectations

Full-year courses may expect 4.5 to 5.5 hours per week of student learning time, including time spent in class. Class IV students may expect a maximum of 4.5 hours per week, including class time. Therefore, homework assignments should average 30 minutes in preparation for each class meeting for Class IV students and 30 to 45 minutes in preparation for each class meeting for students in Classes I–III. Department chairs are responsible for ensuring that members of their departments give assignments that can be reasonably completed within these time guidelines. Teachers will provide weekly pacing guides, and are urged to provide students with assignments two or three weeks in advance whenever possible.

Advance notice is particularly important for long papers or major tests. Students will find all course assignments in Schoology; weekly pacing guides must be posted at least 24 hours prior to the first assignment being due. Teachers do not assign homework over vacations or specified long weekends.

Late and Incomplete Work

Students are expected to complete all assignments on time. If circumstances prevent that, a student may petition a teacher for an extension until a specified date (to be determined by the teacher and student). Under most circumstances extensions are granted only to students who make the request before the assignment’s due date. Excused absences, such as for illness, are acceptable reasons for handing in late work.

Students are expected to complete all work by the end of each semester. If, at the end of the course (semester or year), a student has not submitted assignments valued at more than 10 percent of the semester grade or considered by the department to be work integral to the completion of the course, the teacher will give the student an incomplete.

Such work must be completed one week after the end of the semester. Exceptions to this deadline must be adjudicated by the academic advisory group which includes the academic dean, dean of students, director of counseling, director of the Academic Skills Center and appropriate department chair. Under normal circumstances, a course grade of incomplete may not stand beyond the one-week deadline, at which time it will be converted to an E.

Any incomplete work valued at less than 10 percent of the semester grade may, at the teacher’s discretion, be assigned a grade of zero (0). The teacher may require that the work be made up, but no additional credit may be given.

Class I students who have not completed academic work necessary for the granting of their diploma by noon on the day before Graduation will not be given incompletes. If this policy interferes with their completing a requirement, or requirements, necessary for Graduation, Class I students may appeal, at that time, for a delayed diploma, which requires a vote of the faculty.

Changes in a Student’s Program

Changes should only take place when a student is in a clearly unsuitable course. A student seeking a change must have their advisor, relevant teachers, and relevant department chairs sign a “Request for Change of Program” form, available in the Registrar’s Office. Ultimate approval for a change must be given by the academic dean or the registrar. During the first few days of school, the Registrar’s Office will prioritize making level changes for new students.

A student may switch levels in a particular subject no later than one week before interim grades are due without a record of the initial level appearing on the student’s transcript. The transcript will only indicate the level of the subject into which the student changed and the year-end grade for that level. If a student switches levels after this point, the student’s transcript will indicate the grade in both the higher level and the lower level of the subject, with the date noted when the level change took place. Exceptions to this policy will be made by department vote, after consulting the academic dean. If a Class I student applying early to a college has changed levels in a course, no grade will appear on the transcript for the new course until the teacher has enough graded material to make a fair assessment. “Level” refers both to different “years” of a course, for example, Latin 3 and Latin 2, and to course alternatives offered within the same “year,” for example, Honors Chemistry and Chemistry.

A student may enter a new course after the first two weeks of the semester only in unusual circumstances and only with the explicit approval of both the relevant department chair and teacher.

Class I students may not drop full, half, or first-semester courses after interim grades are due. Exceptions to this policy will be considered only under unusual circumstances and only with full disclosure to and approval from colleges.  In these exceptional cases, the student’s grade at the time the course is dropped will appear on the students’ transcript.

Transcripts

All courses taken at Milton Academy, whether assigned a letter grade or graded on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis, shall be recorded on the student’s transcript. Exceptions are health, physical education, Current Events and Public Speaking and Class IV arts. For Class IV students, the transcript will show Class IV courses and credit received, but no grades will be recorded for those classes.