by George J Elbaum
“The Ross School District is a single-site school district, serving 385 students in K-8 grades in the community of Ross, CA. Ross School is an award winning, dynamic school committed to academic excellence and innovation. Habits of heart, mind and action are at the core of all decision making centered on the learner and their experience. Students are expected to apply their thinking and learning in a variety of highly engaging and forward thinking courses.
Curriculum is based upon the Common Core State Standards, grounded in rigor and differentiated supports for all levels of learners. In addition to core academic instruction, students are provided enrichment and innovative curricula taught by specialized teachers for music, art, physical education, reading, Spanish, technology integration, fabrication laboratory and STEM classes as part of the instructional program. The average class size for grades K-8 is 22 students. The average student to teacher ratio is 13:1.”
My audience was 90 7th & 8th graders whose academic performance is commendable: scores in English for 7th & 8th graders respectively were 92 & 80 vs. 48 CA state average and Math scores were 92 & 56 vs. 29 CA state average. Per SchoolDigger publication, Ross ranks 90th of 5848 CA elementary schools and 79th of 2788 CA public middle schools.
I was invited to speak at Ross by Allison Broude Friedberg who was assisted by Mindy Nowak (both have children at Ross), and attending the talk were Ross personnel including principal Maria Lubamersky, counselor Meredith Meshel, and teachers Blake Schmidt and Sandrick Jackson.
