Little Red School House
and Elisabeth Irwin High School

A Pre-K-12 Progressive Education

Our Program

High School

12th Grade

The twelfth grade year at LREI focuses on final preparation and reflection, as seniors are poised to move independently into the wider academic world. Seniors hone necessary skills and continue to follow their passions. They take on leadership roles in the classroom and the larger school community as peer leaders, members of the executive branch of student government, and by leading X-block classes, clubs, and minimester workshops.

In the twelfth grade, students engage in deeper specialization, pursuing strands of inquiry through more personalized and passion-based projects and initiatives, culminating in the senior project. In elective classes, which are shared with eleventh graders, seniors are expected to take on the role of modeling critical thinking for their eleventh grade peers, drawing on their own eleventh grade experiences to inform participation in class discussion, collaboration, and creative expression.

A major component at the start of their senior year is the college admission process. While it is a stressful process for many, students are encouraged and supported by a dedicated team in the college admissions office to make choices that reflect themselves, their needs, and their interests. Students engage in self-exploration and focus deeply on who they are, both within our community and beyond.

The twelfth grade year concludes with the senior project, which builds on the more scaffolded eleventh grade trip. Senior project provides an opportunity for students to pursue their ideas and realize them in the larger world, still tethered to and grounded by the School but free to move independently in the larger community.

The senior project has three major components: experiential, written, and intellectual. The experiential component can take many forms, including internships, independent projects, or hybrids of the two. All senior projects demonstrate connection to the outside world, self-led learning in an area of passion, and demonstration of that connection and learning through presentations done to the entire high school community at the end of senior year.