Academics

Curriculum

Ransom Everglades blends tradition and innovation to create a seven-year academic experience that is ambitious and appropriate at each age level. As students advance through the integrated curriculum, they apply their knowledge and skills to increasingly challenging problems across disciplines. They learn to think outside the box, seek different perspectives, collaborate, debate ideas and solutions, and defend their work.

Every step of the way, the faculty at Ransom Everglades empowers students to own their learning, exposes them to global perspectives and fosters an inclusive environment characterized by inquiry and student-centered discussions. All students engage in structured research projects across disciplines, gathering and analyzing data and crafting of original work.

Students find opportunities to pursue their passions through a broad variety of courses, as well as through special programs including independent study, the RE Climate Symposium, the RE Business Plan Challenge, the Dan Leslie Bowden Fellowships in the Humanities, and more. 

Mateo Jolivert ’21

“We’re lucky to be at a place where we have every opportunity to broaden our horizons and try new things … Anything that remotely piques my interest, I’m going to try it … you never know where it’s going to take you.”

View Our Curriculum

The RE Middle School

During the first three years of RE’s seven-year program, middle school students are introduced to independent-learning expectations, scholarly approaches to their studies and critical-thinking skills across all academic areas. Students develop self-advocacy skills by initiating meetings with teachers and attending extra-help sessions. All are assigned to advisories where they participate in activities designed to build character skills including empathy and gratitude.

Enrolled in eight classes, sixth- and seventh-grade students take rotation courses for visual arts, performing arts and computer science, and one elective each semester. Eighth-grade students take two electives per semester. 

The RE Upper School

Upper school students see an increased opportunity for interdisciplinary and experiential learning, and they are also encouraged to explore topics in greater depth through a wide array of electives. They engage in courses that focus on student expression and the development of writing, speaking and analytical skills. The seven-year curriculum is always evolving at the upper school. Academic leaders frequently consider adjustments and additions to accommodate pressing topics in the world at-large,  ever-changing technologies and advancing pedagogies.

Classes in the upper school are based on inquiry and collaboration. Teachers guide the discussions, but students navigate their way through information together, constructing understanding for themselves, rather than being told what to know.

Anna Mistele ’19, now a student at Stanford University

“You have to bring in outside sources and evidence to back up your claims. It sets us all up to go into the world ready to discuss things in a calm manner, not to argue, not to call names, but to look at a problem, discuss it, listen to both sides, and then find a way to move forward.”
Founded in 1903, Ransom Everglades School is a coeducational, college preparatory day school for grades 6 - 12 located on two campuses in Coconut Grove, Florida. Ransom Everglades School produces graduates who "believe that they are in the world not so much for what they can get out of it as for what they can put into it." The school provides rigorous college preparation that promotes the student's sense of identity, community, personal integrity and values for a productive and satisfying life, and prepares the student to lead and to contribute to society.