Learn at RE

The majority of Ransom Everglades students attend both the middle and upper schools. Being able to take a seven-year view provides many opportunities for designing an academic experience that is ambitious, yet appropriate for each age level.

With the guidance and inspiration of caring teachers who are experts in their academic fields, students establish their own identities on the Everglades campus. They acquire fundamental skills, develop talents and discover the activities about which they are most passionate.

All middle school students take classes in English, mathematics, Spanish, social studies, science and physical education each day. Electives in the arts and other world languages, along with grade-level courses in programming and robotics round out the schedule.

• Middle school students have eight classes.
• The eight-day rotation schedule divides classes into even days (periods 2, 4, 6, 8) and odd days (periods 1, 3, 5, 7).
• Students begin and end each day in advisory.
• Each day contains four teaching sections of 70-minute classes, advisory, a break and AAA.
• AAA (long advisory, assembly, activities) occur throughout the eight-day rotation.
• The middle school is part of the Caring Schools Network. The CSN's goal is to create school communities where "students can grow academically, build healthy relationships, and develop key social and emotional skills such as empathy and gratitude. Caring schools can help reduce bias, combat sexual harassment, and minimize bullying and other problem behaviors."
• Advisory is built upon the five competencies of Socio-Emotional Learning, using activities from Making Caring Common and High Resolves for the eighth graders.
• Band, dance, drama, strings, STEAM, Future City, Python, photography, digital art and design, 2-dimensional art, 3-dimensional art and yearbook are offered as electives.
• A multitude of athletic opportunities are available to students, including an intramural option.
• The student-faculty ratio is 15:1.

As students navigate the Upper School, they apply their knowledge and skills to increasingly challenging, problem-based scenarios in all disciplines. Foundational courses in science, history, and English comprise the ninth- and tenth- grade course loads, along with courses in math, languages, and elective options in the arts, computer science, and speech and debate. As upperclassmen, students select from a broad range of courses based on their interests and abilities.  While specialization is discouraged, opportunities are available for students to develop particular areas of interest in depth.

Student-Centered Teaching

Classes in the Upper School are based on inquiry and collaboration, requiring students to prepare, discuss, debate, present and defend points of view. Teachers guide the discussions, but students navigate their way through information together, constructing understanding for themselves rather than being told what to know.

Place-Based Learning

Paul C. Ransom, a follower of educational reformer John Dewey and naturalist John Burroughs, believed in experiential learning. At RE’s antecedents, the Pine Knot Camp and, later, the Adirondack-Florida School, Ransom’s students learned by using the Adirondack Forest and Biscayne Bay as extensions of the campus and living laboratories.

Today, Ransom Everglades still requires every student to master basic sailing, canoeing and kayaking skills in order to graduate. One of the most distinctive aspects of Ransom Everglades’ experiential pedagogy is the annual Outward Bound program for ninth graders. Preparation for Outward Bound is part of the ninth-grade Bay Studies curriculum and includes instruction in canoeing and the use of map and compass.

The City of Miami and nearby communities have become important educational resources for Ransom Everglades students.

• Art classes have visited nearby Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, the Pérez Art Museum Miami, as well as Wynwood galleries such as the Rubell Family Collection.
• Fairchild Tropical Botanic Gardens has provided several research opportunities, including encouraging students to sequence and publish a gene of a rare palm species, as well as participate in NASA-sponsored plant growth experiments.
• All of our middle school students get a first hand view of the working Miami River, guided on their journey by acclaimed local historian Paul George.
• Middle and Upper schools students have experienced the trials of the accused, visiting both state and federal courthouses in our city, developing in the seventh grade a civic awareness, and as part of the government and criminal justice courses in the Upper School, an in-depth understanding of the complexities and challenges of the legal system.
• Budding entrepreneurs have interned in local business incubators.
• Future art historians and architects have interned at locally based, internationally recognized museums and architectural firms.
• Young scientists have completed original research at local institutions and have published their work.