Academic Policies

Academic Policy

Attendance Policy

The Landing School requires that students attend at least 90% of all classes to be eligible to receive a diploma or Associate’s degree in any full-time technical program (Wooden Boat Building, Yacht Design, Marine Systems, and Composite Boat Building). An absence equivalent to one school-day is defined as follows: two absences of a half-day (one half-hour or more) or four late arrivals or early departures of less than one half-hour. Students who miss more than 10% (9 days for a typical semester) of a technical program for any reason may be dismissed or assigned a “0” for a course grade at the discretion of the Director of Education. Students are responsible for making up class work, assignments and exams missed due to absences. Specific policies for making up class work, assignments and exams missed due to absences are left to the discretion of the instructor. The attendance policy in general education courses is left to the discretion of the instructor. It is the responsibility of the instructor to inform the students in each general education course of the attendance requirements for that course during the first week of classes.

Grading System

The School recognizes the importance of consistent, fair and periodic evaluations of student performance, both as a means of measuring the student’s progress towards educational goals and as a method of evaluating The School’s success in providing the education for which the student has contracted. The grading system used throughout The School for all category grades, progress reports and final grades is as follows:

Score Letter Grade Point

• 94-100 A 4
• 88-93.99 B+ 3.5
• 82-87.99 B 3
• 76-81.99 C+ 2.5
• 70-75.99 C 2
• 65-69.99 D+ 1.5
• 60-64.99 D 1
• 0-59.99 F 0

Standards for Satisfactory Progress

Each academic year is divided into two formal marking periods (semesters) consisting of approximately 18 instructional weeks, excluding breaks and holidays. Each semester of a full-time technical program (Wooden Boat Building, Yacht Design, Marine Systems, and Composite Boat Building) is made up of multiple courses of varying credit hours that are taught concurrently throughout the semester. A student receives a grade in his/her technical program at the end of each semester. A student must earn a grade of 1.0 or better in a course in order to pass and earn the credits for that course. A student must earn a grade of 1.0 or better in all courses each semester and achieve an overall GPA of 2.0 or better in a full-time technical program in order to earn a diploma and/or degree. In the event a student earns below a 1.0 in a course within a technical program, he or she must retake the entire technical program in order to earn credit for that course.

Standards for Graduation

Upon successfully completing a program from The Landing School, each student receives a diploma. To be eligible for graduation, a student must have satisfactorily completed his or her program, meeting all evaluation criteria and attendance requirements, as well as meeting all financial obligations to The School. If during the school year a student fails to meet any graduation requirement, he or she may be subject to immediate dismissal. For students working towards an Associate’s degree, the same standards apply for each of the two programs they will complete.

Makeup Work/Remedial Courses

Due to the highly compressed curriculum in The Landing School’s full-time programs, the opportunity to do additional work for extra credit is not available to students. A student who has not satisfactorily completed an assignment in the required time may apply to the program instructor for a time extension; at the instructor’s discretion mandatory completion date and maximum grade obtainable may be established. All makeup work must be completed by the end of the semester in which it was assigned.

Credits Awarded

Credit for The Landing School’s programs is awarded to students in credit-hours. The credit-hours awarded for successfully completing each of the technical programs is:

Program & Credit-hours

Wooden Boat Building: Small Boat Option – 31; Cruising Boat Option – 31

Yacht Design – 34

Marine Systems – 27

Composite Boat Building – 27

Clock-hours to Credit-Hours Conversion

Credit for the The Landing School’s programs is measured in credit-hours that are converted from clock-hours. One clock-hour is equal to 60 minutes of classroom, shop or externship time with a minimum of 50 minutes of instructional time. The clock-hour to credit-hour conversion rate varies depending on the type of instruction:

Instruction/Clock-hours to Credit-hours

General education classroom – 15 clock-hours = 1 credit-hour

Technical classroom – 30 clock-hours = 1 credit-hour

Laboratory – 30 clock-hours = 1 credit-hour

Externship – 45 clock-hours = 1 credit-hour