Ross Global Academy
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Ross Global Academy Charter School, or RGACS, is a public Charter School located in Tribeca in Lower Manhattan. It opened in September 2006 with 160 students. The school was developed in collaboration with New York University's Steinhardt School and The Ross School in East Hampton, which follows a spiral curriculum designed by William Thompson and Ralph Abraham. The school was initially slated to be housed in the same building as the NEST M school, in the Lower East Side, a controversial decision which was eventually revised.
The school is currently housed within the New York City Department of Education building, formerly the Tweed Courthouse, at 52 Chambers Street. The school will begin it's 2007-2008 school year at full enrollment on September 4, 2007, with students in grades K, 1, 2, 6, and 7. It is a project of the Ross School in East Hampton. RGA was founded by Courtney Sale Ross, who is a philanthropist and the widow of Steve Ross, the former CEO of Time-Warner.
[edit] Ross Model
The core elements of the Ross Model include:
- Instruction in skills and content of each discipline in order to provide the foundation necessary for interdisciplinary understanding, the development of 21st century skills and the incorporation of multiple intelligence approaches.
- A school program that serves all students from a diversity of backgrounds and from a wide range of traditional academic abilities, including students who have special learning challenges and those students who are English language learners.
- An interdisciplinary curriculum for intercultural understanding taught through an integrated approach that connects multiple subjects through a cultural history core.
- Programs that promote self-directed learning, collaborative problem solving, responsibility as well as the exploration of individual interests.
- A holistic approach to providing and raising awareness about nutrition, health and well-being as part of the educational program.
- High-quality instruction and innovative experiences with communication and media technologies, so that students become sophisticated in both the use of technology as well as in understanding its role in society.
- Intentionally-designed learning spaces that intentionally foster optimal learning, collaboration, positive relationships and a sense of mutual respect and responsibility. These spaces will be adaptable and multi-functional.
- Professional development programs for teachers and administrators that foster innovative pedagogy through an emphasis on team teaching, collaborative learning, globalization and learning, multiple intelligences, differentiated instruction, strategies for English Language Learners (ELLs) and other strategies necessary to best educate.
