Academics

Middle School Program Grades 5-8

Middle School students who are prepared to be active and responsible citizens in a democratic society need learning experiences, in which they actively construct knowledge, solve problems, make decisions, and collaborate with fellow students and teachers. A primary goal then, is to help students become increasingly able and willing to guide their own learning throughout their lives.

The traditional scope and sequence approach to curriculum fails to provide students with higher-order thinking and problem solving abilities. Learning is more meaningful and longer lasting when it results from efforts to find answers to interesting questions. Research into adolescent learning has documented that early adolescents learn best when the curriculum is derived from thematic units representing salient concerns and issues of adolescents, such as transition, identities, social structures, conflict resolution, justice and caring. RMDS has a curriculum that is based on sound theoretical principles of how children learn, and is derived from the needs, knowledge, life experiences, and interests of individual students, while satisfying all of the standards set by the State of California.