The tailored curriculum and instruction of our Middle and Upper School dovetails with and expands on the Lower School’s focus on classroom-based instruction, so students are empowered to take ownership of their learning process and goals as they gradually prepare for college. 6th to 12th graders continue to access a menu of empirically validated push-in and pull-out supports, as needed, to advance their learning and specialization. In WIN (What I Need) classes, students receive small group or 1:1 academic acceleration or support from content-area specialists. We incorporate students’ unique needs and passions into each school day, offering opportunities for the development of individual talents (IndieStudies) that become the foundation for a college major and keep motivation at the heart of each school day. Beyond taking college entry requirements and college level courses, our Upper School students choose their electives, acquire mentors, develop a portfolio, participate in internships during the school day, and regularly apply for competitive summer programs.

 

As in the Lower School, a multidisciplinary plan is created that targets each student's unique needs in the context of a classroom of peers, where extensive enrichment, acceleration and remediation options complement our robustly differentiated academic curriculum. We employ evidence-based best practices and goal-oriented therapeutic approaches—

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• Organizational Skills Training (OST) to support organization, time management and planning

• Positive Behavior Supports

• Collaborative & Proactive Solutions

• Regular self-reflection and, as needed:​​

  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

  • Dialectical Behavioral Therapy

 

—in order to improve student self-awareness, increase the ability to ask for and leverage help, and develop a self-regulation toolkit in the social-emotional, behavioral, sensory/physical, and academic learning domains that students will take with them when they graduate from our program.

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We prepare 6th to 12th-grade students for college by incorporating their unique needs and passions into each school day, offering early opportunities for the development of individual talents that become the foundation for a college major and keep motivation at the heart of each school day.

 

 

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Academics at The Lang School are grounded in our commitment to project-based learning and an orientation that builds connections and integration across traditional subject area domains. Additionally, our focus on student interests and strengths creates high-levels of student engagement and provides a pathway into supporting skill development in areas of challenge.

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Our Middle and Upper School Talent Development Program surfaces and stokes passions, provides structure and viability for big ideas, instills a sense of purpose and commitment, and, ultimately, develops gifts. Each student is assigned a teacher/coach who helps define and organize the exploration of a specific semester or year-long "IndieStudies" project of the student's choosing. Domains are wide ranging—from studying the history of surgical knots, to creating an multi-media autobiography, to learning to take apart & reconstruct a Porsche—and are individualized to the skills that a student wants to develop further.  At the end of the year, students present their work to a round table of staff and select peers. It is possible to integrate aspects of a student's IndieStudies project into their core and elective courses.

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Our holistic approach integrates academic instruction, executive functioning support, and social-emotional learning, ensuring that students develop the skills, self-awareness, and resilience needed for both college and life beyond. By emphasizing talent development, real-world application, and interdisciplinary learning, Lang equips students with the tools to become tomorrow's innovators, thought leaders, and lifelong learners.