Grade Levels
Our unique academic program is designed to serve middle school students in grades 4-8. We’ve selected this range of grade levels because educational research as well as academic achievement data from the State of Georgia as well as from DeKalb County suggests that this is an area of great need.
Single Gender Classes
Renaissance Preparatory Academy will be a co-educational learning environment with single gender classes. Renaissance Schools Incorporated’s founders both worked at single gender academies as classroom teachers and have found single gender classes to be beneficial to both male and female students. Educational research by Michael Gurian also supports the idea that boys and girls learn differently and can benefit from learning environments segregated by gender. Our program is designed to take advantage of the school founders’ experience as well as Gurian’s research.
Meaningful Technology Integration
Each core academic area has been designed with the Common Core Georgia Performance Standards as the foundation. To support students’ mastery of standards the curriculum design team has integrated technology in each academic area in a way that helps students grasp abstract material.
Learning By Doing
A huge component of the school’s educational philosophy is that students learn by doing. This belief led to the design of a curriculum that emphasizes hands on experiences, performance based learning, and student produced media. If students are going to be prepared to think and grow as leaders in the 21st century then they must be required to think, work, and produce artifacts of their learning as soon as they are able.