In Upper School, we are committed to the values expressed in our Founder’s Statement: humanistically-oriented education grounded in understanding, appreciation and growth of the individual.

As expressed in the work of Howard Gardner, we see our students as possessing multiple intelligences. Our task – our sacred trust – is to lead our students in a process of discovery and definition of those intelligences that ends in their placement in the right college for each student. This is only possible if they know who they are and where they want to go.

By the time a student reaches 9th grade, we have a good idea of the energies and passions that drive them. Through the next four years, RCDS serves as a total learning experience that continually defines, refines, and focuses their energies on unfolding inner motivation. Always, we look to match their passions with an educational framework that brings each student to a new level. In history, English, mathematics and language, we differentiate to allow each student to move at the right pace throughout the upper school years. In physical education, we offer not only classes that use our amazing natural setting but also Ballroom Dancing, which helps them discover positive ways to navigate personal and interpersonal space. In the arts, we offer multiple opportunities for direct experience of music and visual art taught by working professionals. At every step of the way, we look to increasingly differentiate their educational experience, by ability and passion. We offer high-level math and science courses with some students pursuing independent work that goes beyond our curriculum, advised by RCDS staff. The same is also true in art, photography and history. These courses exist not because we chose to offer them, but because our students are led naturally by their own curiosity, and we do all that we can to promote the growth of this inner drive.

We view our School as a total educational experience and we look to expand the process of self-definition beyond the classroom. This is exemplified by experiences such as the Frost Valley trip that promotes sharing, mutual understanding, and community-building. Some students are passionate about food, and work with our chef in regularly scheduled sessions. Some pursue independent work with our pre-k and kindergarten classes. All seniors research and formulate curiosity-driven projects in our WISE program.

At the end of the process, we remain committed to 100% college attendance. As we have since 1959, we continue, even in today’s challenging college environment, to place our students at some of the most famous colleges in the country – schools such as Williams, Swarthmore and University of Pennsylvania in 2009 – but our proudest achievement is that RCDS provided the guidance that helped these student to recognize in themselves the energy and passion that would get them there.

A typical Upper School academic program includes the following: