Progressive Program

The Progressive Program at Green Mountain College is based on a simple idea: that people are better learners when they're passionate about what they learn. Students in the program bring forth the inquisitiveness to discover their truest passions, and the motivation to follow those pursuits intensively.

Every semester, faculty and peers work side-by-side with program participants to clarify their educational goals. Students write self-evaluations that reflect on their progress, and receive narrative (rather than letter-grade) assessments of their performance from instructors and advisors. The program is alternative and innovative because it is designed to make learning a journey, on which the student discovers his or her educational path--rather than the traditional educational model in which students progress by getting course requirements "out of the way."

The ideas behind the Progressive Program are drawn largely from the writings of educational thinkers like John Dewey, who believed that education "is a process of living and not a preparation for future living." For students in the program, learning is "24-hours," something that occurs outside the classroom as well as in it, and a social process that connects us with our community and environment.

Academic Requirements
The Progressive Program has many unique requirements: students take the four core courses at Green Mountain College (Images of Nature, Voices of Community, Dimensions of Nature, and A Delicate Balance), but not the general education, or ELA, distributive requirements.

Instead, once during their sophomore year and once during their junior year, students undergo an intensive Level Review process. During these Level Review semesters they produce a portfolio demonstrating competency in twelve areas (such as scholarship, writing ability, community engagement, quantitative reasoning, historical awareness, and so on) and write an essay reflecting on their past educational growth and future learning goals. A Level Review Team of the student's choosing, consisting of a faculty member, the student's advisor, and at least one peer, then meets at the end of the semester and evaluates the portfolio with the student.

Student Projects
The Progressive Program experience culminates in a capstone Senior Study Project worth 12 credits. Students design and plan the project at the start of the first or second semester of their senior year, and finally integrate their coursework, interests, skills and passions into a focused project that is shared with the college community. Past projects have included art exhibits, musical performances, performances of creative writing, plays, a research paper and public presentation on industrial livestock management practices, and the design and building of a sustainable homestead.

Students in the program are particularly welcome to take independent and group-independent studies, with a maximum of 42 independent-study credits allowed during the student's career, not including the Senior Study Project.

Students may elect to earn a Self-Designed Major or any of the majors already offered at GMC. Students may elect to receive grades or earn Pass/Fail designations, although in all cases they will receive narrative (written) evaluations of all coursework from instructors.