Quick Overview of Rockaway College Design

Rockaway College establishes two major units:  Rockaway College School and Rockaway College. Rockaway College School houses the Early Childhood Program in the unified Pre-School/Kindergarten and the Primary Education Program in the Elementary School.  In Rockaway College there are three schools each with a unique learning program:  The Venture School holds a personal growth intake for the secondary education program, The Lower School holds the secondary education program and The Upper School is the early college. 

MISSION STATEMENT:  The Mission of Rockaway College School and Rockaway College is to cultivate in all its students a solid psychological foundation for future growth and a cognitive dexterity for adaptability to life’s vicissitudes by providing a highly supportive Learner-Responsibility-Centered education.

STUDENT POPULATION:  While the learning programs of the School and the College are meant to include the full spectrum of Gifted and Talented, they are meant mostly to directly serve the bright neurologically diverse, also know as the Twice-Exceptional (2E) or Gifted and Talented Learning Disabled (GTLD). 

NEED:  By one calculation there are a minimum of 10,500 Twice-Exceptional youngsters in New York City; by another, there might be up to 50,000.  (The prospect is high that the number is way above the latter.  Approximations are required because New York State does not oblige local school districts to collect prevalence data on this category of student.)  Currently there is no direct service to this population in the New York City Public Schools and only one school within the City, The Lang School, a private, independent institution, which directly serves this population. Thus, a huge gap exists in available direct service which Rockaway College would partially address.

SCHOOL DESIGN:

          --Rockaway College School houses the Early Childhood Program in the unified Pre-School/Kindergarten and the Primary Education Program in the Elementary School. 

            ---Early Childhood Program:

               ----Grouping:  ungraded, mixed ages 3-5.

               ----Purpose:  executive functioning self-regulation and social-emotional management.

               ----Learning Model:  Talent Development infused Democratic Montessori with Toys.

               ----Learning Structures:  Self-organized individual and group play with elements of a prepared environment.

               ----Psycho-Cognitive, behavioral and social supports are through student-staff and, if necessary, mental health professional, counseling.

               ----Curriculum Core:  Montessori Ages 3-6. 

               ----Advancement:  Progress through the Early Childhood Program would be at the individual’s own pace, and when ready he and she would move into the Primary Education Program.  Benchmarks in progress and requirements to be met to pass into Primary Education would be a school governance issue to be resolved by the initial school staff.   

               ---Democratic Education Governance:  Program policy governance is through the instructional staff.  School policy governance is through the General School Community.  Administrative governance is shared through the Head's Council (the College Director and the Heads of School of both major units) and the professional School staff.      

           ---Primary Education Program:

               ----Grouping:  ungraded, mixed ages 6-11.

               ----Purpose:  continued executive functioning self-regulation and social-emotional management, plus the development of competency in neuro-compatible Literacy and Expression, along with cultivation of topics of interest where the course of content learning would be self-directed, individualized and emergent, unique to each student as they choose to engage learning through their distinctive neurological construction, abilities, interests and communication styles.

               ----Learning Models:  Talent Development infused Democratic Montessori.

               ----Learning Structures:  In-class learning during the school day would be engaged through the student choice of one or more of three ways:  through self-directed independent or self-organized small group engagement with the materials and activities of the prepared environment, through small whole group teacher initiated and student voluntarily accepted cooperative topic study and/or through self-initiated one-to-one instruction.  Additionally, students would have the opportunity if they so choose to work with teachers on activities of teacher interest as helpers not as students.  Outside class learning during the school day would be engaged through the student choice of varied field trips. 

               ---Psycho-Cognitive and behavioral supports are through individual student-staff mentoring/counseling and, if necessary, mental health professional counseling; social support is through peer ombudsmen and peer mediation.   

               ----Curriculum Core:  Montessori Ages 6-12. 

               ----Advancement:  Progress through the Primary Education Program would be at the individual’s own pace, and when ready he and she would move into the Venture School of Rockaway College.  Benchmarks in progress and requirements to be met to pass into the secondary education intake program would be a school governance issue to be resolved by the initial school community.   

               ---Democratic Education Governance:  Program and School policy governance is through the General School Community.  Administrative governance is shared through the Head's Council (the College Director and the Heads of School of both major units) and the professional School staff.    

         

          --Rockaway College houses three schools, The Venture School, The Lower School and The Upper School.

            ---The Venture School:

               ----Grouping:  ungraded, mixed ages from 11.

               ----Purpose:  an intake personal growth program for all youngsters entering secondary academic study or have yet to finish secondary academic study.  The School is meant to uncover and develop social-emotional and cognitive strength and compensatory weakness awareness, to integrate all into the Lower School’s cooperative self-directed learning culture and to cultivate outdoor topics of interest where the course of content learning would be self-directed, individualized and emergent, unique to each student as they choose to engage learning through their distinctive neurological construction, abilities, interests and communication styles.

               ----Learning Models:  Talent Development infused Democratic Education.

               ----Learning Structures:  In-class learning during the school day would be engaged through the student choice of one or more of three ways:  through self-directed independent or self-organized small group engagement with the materials and activities of the prepared environment, through small whole group teacher initiated and student voluntarily accepted cooperative topic study and/or through self-initiated one-to-one instruction.  Additionally, students would have the opportunity if they so choose to work with teachers on activities of teacher interest as helpers not as students.  Outside class learning during the school day would be engaged through the student choice of frequent and varied camping, backpacking, hiking and other types of adventure trips. 

               ----Psycho-Cognitive and behavioral supports are through individual student-staff mentoring/counseling and, if necessary, mental health professional counseling; social support is through peer ombudsmen and peer mediation.   

               ----Curriculum:  Outdoor Education centered on outdoor skills, and on outdoor subjects such as Botany, Geology, Forestry, Zoology and Environmental Science.

               ----Advancement:  Progress through the Venture Program would be at the individual’s own pace, and when ready he and she would move into The Lower School.  Benchmarks in progress and requirements to be met to pass to The Lower School would be a school governance issue to be resolved by the initial school community.

               ---Democratic Education Governance:  Immediate outdoor program policy governance is through the General Venture School Community.  Overall program and general Venture School policy governance is through the Rockaway College General Schools Community and the institution-wide General College Community.  Administrative governance of the Venture School is shared through the Head's Council (the College Director and the Heads of School of both major units) and the professional School staff.    

            ---The Lower School, The secondary education of Rockaway College:

               ----Grouping:  ungraded, mixed ages, from whatever age a youngster transfer’s into the Lower School from The Venture School.

               ----Purpose:  to provide high quality academic skill development according to the individual’s Neuro-Learning Style, along with the cultivation of topics of interest where the course of content learning would be self-directed, individualized and emergent, unique to each student as they choose to engage learning through their distinctive neurological construction, abilities, interests and communication styles.

               ----Learning Model:  Talent Development infused Democratic Education.

               ----Learning Structure:  Integrated Interdisciplinary Thematic, Inquiry Project Based and Performance Assessed.  Every student would engage the academic world through an inquiry project determined by his own neurological construction, abilities, interests and communication style.  Inquiry projects would be developed, implemented and evaluated through participation in cooperative learning groups where group members act together to achieve individual project objectives rather than through self-reliant, independent studies.  Additionally, students would have the opportunity if they so choose to work with teachers on inquiry projects of teacher interest as helpers not as students. There are proposed to be six Cooperative Learning Groups inhabiting their own lab spaces and facilitated each by a Learning Specialist:  Science, History, Letters, Arts, Performance and Foreign Language Arts. 

               ----Psycho-Cognitive and behavioral supports are through individual student-staff mentoring/counseling and, if necessary, mental health professional counseling; social support is through peer ombudsmen and peer mediation.   

               ----Curriculum:  “Free Academic”.  It is Academic in that the universe of knowledge open to engagement would be that from written tradition, Western and Eastern. It is Free in that the intellectual curiosity and the natural differences of each youngster would drive engagement with the academic world rather than that of uniform mandated core and elective curricula.

               ----Advancement:  Progress through The Lower School would be at the individual’s own pace, and when ready he and she would matriculate into The Upper School.  Benchmarks in progress and requirements to be met to pass to The Upper School would be a school governance issue to be resolved by the initial school community.

               ---Democratic Education Governance:  Immediate cooperative learning group questions are settled in each Cooperative Learning Group.  Specific Lower School policy governance is through the General Lower School Community; general Lower School policy is through the Rockaway College General Schools Community and the institution-wide General College Community.  Administrative governance of the Lower School is shared through the Head's Council (the College Director and the Heads of School of both major units) and the professional School staff.   

                

            ---The Upper School, the early college of Rockaway College:

               ----Grouping:  mixed ages from when students are eligible to matriculate in the program.

               ----Purpose:  to engage deep, cooperative, scholarly study into questions of curiosity, interest and passion; to satisfy common core university requirements enabling Rockaway College scholars upon graduation to receive a high school diploma, an Associate of Arts degree and, if desired, entrance into a college or a university to complete a Bachelor’s degree. 

               ----Learning Model:  Talent Development infused Democratic Education within a conventional college semester course structure.

               ----Learning Structure:  full participation in Socratic Seminars initiated, developed and facilitated by the groups of young scholars who would be in attendance in them and/or by the professors of the Upper School. 

               ----Psycho-Cognitive, behavioral and social supports are through student-staff mentoring and, if necessary, mental health professional counseling.

               ----Curriculum:  an integrated interdisciplinary contemporary Great Books curriculum called the Great Question Curriculum which utilizes the Great Books as the sources from which Great Questions would be derived and the resources from which students would turn to answer these questions.  Great Question course development is a community governance responsibility begun by initial community and expanded, and modified by community decision as the Upper School program expands.

               ----Advancement:  Progress through The Upper School would be at the individual’s own pace.  Benchmarks in progress and graduation requirements to be met to graduate from Rockaway College would be a school governance issue to be resolved by the initial school community and modified, if desired, by subsequent community decisions.

               ---Democratic Education Governance:  Upper School policy governance is through the General Upper School Community and the institution-wide General College Community.  Administrative governance of the Upper School is shared through the Head's Council (the College Director and the Heads of School of both major units) and the professional School staff.