Raleigh Progressive School

The Raleigh Progressive School believes that every person has a right to an education that is personal, relevant, challenging and one that prepares the student with practical skills for life.

True learning takes place when each student is an active participant in his or her education, when the course of study is personalized by teachers and mentors who know them well, and when school based learning is coupled with community and field experience.

With a solid core of professional educators, artists and creative thinkers, RPS is a beehive of intergenerational activity by parents, students, community members and professionals. RPS recognizes this meaningful interaction, which honors the identity and integrity of the individual and affirms the vital relationship between his/her inner life and one’s work in the world.

RPS ‘s first location** is located at 5201 Oak Park Road, Raleigh NC. Accreditation is in process by the National Coalition of Alternative Community Schools (NCACS).

Founders	Tara B. Fitz and Susan Johnstone
Executive Director	Tara B. Fitz
Educational Administrator	Susan Johnstone
Application Fee	$200 – non-refundable
Time to Apply	On a rolling basis.
Admissions Process	Complete and submit application along with application fee, academic records for last two school years, student questionnaire, and student/parent interview.
Student Body	Grades 6-10 for 2008-2009.
Class Size	10-12 students
Electives	Fine Arts, environmental studies, music, photography, yoga, and health fitness – varies with the interest of students
Athletics	Flexible schedules to support the committed athlete
Tuition (Fall 2008)	$7500 $750 new family fee Materials, books, field trips, and certain electives are an additional charge
Hours	8:30am – 1:30pm or 8:30-3:30 pm** (additional fees for full-day)
Additional Electives	1:30-3:30pm (open to both RPS and outside students)

Student Expectations
All students will be expected to attend classes, participate in activities which may include designing learning goals, completing assignments/packets in a timely manner, communicating with teachers and staff, participating in assessments and representing the RPS community proudly and respectfully. Students that continue to fail to meet these expectations will be asked to leave.

School Calendar
RPS will follow the traditional Wake County Calendar beginning August 25 and ending June 10. Although students will not be required to attend summer classes, they will be offered. Students with siblings on year-round calendars may take up to 1week off per track out with permission.

3 Class Groupings – Grades 6-8, 9-11, 12
RPS believes that multi-age grouping benefits student academic learning, social and emotional learning and builds strong community relationships. Advanced students can model for beginning students; the beginner can rise safely and comfortably to the challenges of the more advanced, thus creating less competition, while providing a firm foundation in esteem and celebration of individuality. Although goals may differ for each grade or individual, students are encouraged to work together using similar skills and access each other for guidance or feedback.

Assessment
Students are expected to design and present exhibitions as part of their assessment at the end of each quarter. Students’ grades are based on class participation (20%), class activities (30%), homework (10%), and written and oral assessments (40%). Students’ GPAs are based on a 4.0 scale. All students will conference with their teacher advisors about their CEP. They contribute to the CEP with their own queries and desires for learning with an awareness of goals and objectives. All students will keep a portfolio of work to be examined by the subject teacher and teacher advisors at the end of each quarter. Progress reports will be generated quarterly. Standardized testing required by the NC Department of Non-Public Education is administered in grades 6, 9 and 11.

Experiential Learning
At all levels, there will be opportunities for discovery and experiential learning in which active participation and the development of life-long learning is the goal. Areas for experiential learning may be: service learning, outdoor education, interviews, exhibits, electives, and field-study trips. This is co-curricular rather than extra-curricular, as it can be designed to be part of the Customized Education Plan (CEP).

Place-Based Learning
What is happening in our communities and our lives IS learning! Making it part of our discussion and study IS education. It is not separate from, nor can it be packaged as a subject called “current events.”

Living in and around Raleigh North Carolina provides students with a unique opportunity to study people, places, ideas, problems and issues that are relevant to them and those who reside here. It opens the door for further study in socio-cultural, historical and economic disciplines. The lens can then naturally widen to encompass regional, national, and global perspectives.

Tara B. Fitz

Tara is finishing her Graduate Degree Education. Although she is a lifetime member of the American Montessori Society and a certified Montessori teacher, she does not believe that it or any one philosophy can truly encompass the needs of the learner.

Her educational philosophy lies in the belief that the most meaningful learning experiences happen through relationships. In schools, the small class setting allows the time and environment for a culture of authenticity, trust and mutual respect. This therefore naturally creates the desire to learn. Whole, healthy, educated people who seek out opportunities to learn, understand and apply the obtained knowledge to "real-life" situations are desperately needed.

"Learning has been confused and clouded with temporarily memorizing facts. Sure you might become a great game show contestant and test taker. Then what? Real life doesn't have any of these tests."

Today knowledge alone is no longer power. Integrating the knowledge with "real life" is imperative to cultivate critically engaged thinking, life-long learners and problem solvers.

Learning begins and continues by: Asking questions, creating dialogue and searching for possible meanings and answers.

We must know our students and their families well. We must recognize and celebrate differences. We must create learning environments that allow everyone's needs to be met. It can be done. Education is everyone's business. It's personal. It has to be."

Tara was raised in Northwestern New Jersey. She grew up surrounded by a creative circle of artists, musicians, teachers and innovators. Her Dad was a guitar maker, inventor, teacher and entrepreneur whose guitars were showcased at the Smithsonian Institute. His untimely death in 2005 at age 54 was the catalyst for moving RPS from idea to reality. Her Mom’s interest and dedication to a holistic lifestyle and educational experience led to Tara attending a Montessori school. (She later attended public middle and high school.)

"I was very aware of the disconnect between school and real-life. Even then, the focus was on doing what you were told, not asking questions and 'making good grades.' That somehow it would equate to being successful later in life. Nothing I learned in middle or high school prepared me for college or real-life."

Years later “synchronicity” led her to High Point University where she made many friends with students and professors alike.

“The education was personal, caring and friendly. My professors knew me by name even after 15 years!”

It was the combination of all of these experiences that fostered a life-long love of learning, compassion for others and a passion for creating a personal, relevant, learning experience for today’s middle and high school students.

She has an amazingly supportive husband, 2 bright and funny sons, 2 Himalayan cats, a hamster and a golden retriever.

She is a lifetime member of AMS, AERO, CHADD, NCALS, and too many other acronyms to list. She doesn’t drive a Prius, but still aspires to be green!

Susan Johnstone

Susan took interest in the elementary child and completed her Montessori training in Boston , MA and has taught in the Montessori classroom since 1987. She became certified in adult education and designed courses for Montessori interns, Montessori teachers and for people wanted to lead a healthier life. She became a teacher mentor and school consultant. She is a mother to three delightful, opinionated boys on three different paths, adding to her other mission, consciously raising the 21st century male! She became a school administrator and learned about how the public system works for and against children and teachers. During her administrative role, she was shown a path to open her own school with her own system. Her friends’ and family’s response is “It’s about time!”

Susan believes that true education is all about the learning and that learning can be measured in so many different ways: auditorily, visually, kinesthetically, and performance. It is an educator's job to keep current with the latest teaching strategies to reach the learners as well as observing to improve the environment for learning and preparing for the next environment whatever that may be. I believe in interdisciplinary education, cosmic curriculum, productive dialogue, objectives and rationales for lessons, meaningful and purposeful work, professional development, and keeping a healthy perspective. I believe in the power of two or more minds, problem-solving, context of the learner, goal-setting, progress not perfection, reflection, and humor. My strengths and experience are public speaking, designing curriculum and educational courses or workshops, keeping current, establishing objectives, mentoring, understanding systems and improving them, and making a meaningful connection with others.

Bruce Burnside - History/Humanities

Bruce was born and raised in Greensboro, NC, and—despite its charms—yearned early for adventure and the wider world. He found those things first in reading and travel. At sixteen he left for a year in eastern and western Germany with a stack of books and never looked back. Between books Bruce found time to spend six months on the road with a rock band in seventeen countries, to work on an arctic wolf sanctuary in Oregon (where a wolf named Nepenthe teased him daily), to start a publishing company, and to edit a book about travel. Eventually Bruce pursued a Religious Studies degree from UNC Chapel Hill, which brought him to Jordan for a summer to study current events and Arab history and to Sweden for a half of year of immigration studies. During this time he also led the film guild at UNC, made a "research" Super-8 film about seven classic fairy tales and had a "metaphysical detective novella" published by a small Canadian publisher. Most recently Bruce worked as a guide in his favorite city on Earth, Berlin, leading historic walking tours through its streets, as well as the Sachsenhausen concentration camp memorial. He also found time to go sit in the park, to go see bands play, read at cafes and visit old Prussian palaces—some of his favorite things to do in the whole world. History is one of Bruce's passions, especially how it connects to our present lives and provides insight for where we are and where we are going, and is thrilled to a part of the Raleigh Progressive School.

Alexis Cooke - Spanish

Alexis Cooke is intrigued by all things Hispanic. A lover of languages from an early age, she has studied Spanish, Latin, French, and Portuguese. Alexis earned a BA in Latin American History from Princeton University and an MA in Spanish Literature from the University of Virginia, as well as studying abroad in Spain and Uruguay along the way. She has traveled extensively in South America and is looking forward to conquering (figuratively) Central America soon. Alexis has taught at the middle and high school levels as well as the university level, once mistakenly thinking that she wanted to be a university professor. Her love for teaching children and adolescents led her back to middle and high school, however, and she is here to stay.

Alexis recently relocated to Wake Forest, her husband’s childhood home. When she isn’t teaching at RPS you can find her working on her new (old) house in the Historic District, built in 1838 and in need of major repair! What little time she has left is spent traveling with her husband and visiting friends and family. A competitive swimmer all her life, Alexis is expanding her athletic repertoire to include running and snow skiing – neither of which she does very well, but both of which she enjoys.

April Jenkins hails from the Houston, Texas area and has always had a passion for the education of children. April has a B.A. in Sociology and is currently working on her Master's of Social Work at North Carolina State University. April has participated in a variety of social advocacy projects as well as educational collaborations. Some of those activities range from writing a charter for a school in Austin, Texas to her most recent venture with forming a community partnership named Hand In Hand Alliance (www.handinhandalliance.com). If education and community advocacy wasn't enough to keep her busy, she is a divorced mother of 4-year old twins (YIKES!). April keeps her sanity by boxing, dancing and singing (mostly in the shower, but some public venues). Her favorites consist of African history, chocolate, neo-soul live bands, chocolate, meditation and prayer, chocolate, and finally, chocolate. She is VERY excited to be a part of this new endeavor.

Rich has published 2 novels, a short story collection, 4 plays, a book of poems (forthcoming), two young adult sports biographies, a chapter book for children, and workbooks on how to teach writing to children and adults. He has won fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the North Carolina Arts Council (twice). He is a First Place winner in the 2007 NC Poetry Society Competition. His work has been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and Best American Short Stories. His sports biography on Yao Ming was awarded a 'Top 40 Books of the Year' award from the Pennsylvania Librarians Association. He has also published feature articles and reviews in newspapers and magazines around the country. His column, "Under the Radar", runs monthly on the Book Pages of the Raleigh News and Observer. He wrote the curriculum for the Beginning and Intermediate Fiction Writing courses, and teaches them online, for UNC-Chapel Hill. His training workshops for teachers, parents and social service personnel are in demand statewide and nationally. He is currently learning how to dance the Tango and the Soulja Boy, and can play 'Song of Joy' on the harmonica.

Greg Dragos- Sports History, Place Based Learning, Civics, Economics & US. Government

Carlos O'Neal- High School Mathematics, Chemistry

Sara Cumbus- Biology (Dr. of Veterinary Medicine )

Leila Wheless - Literature Studies

Leila Wheless has a B. A. from Davidson College, an M. A. T. from Agnes Scott College, andten years of teaching experience. Although she majored in English, she’s an incurable Francophile and still moons over the year she spent in France, where she over-ate exquisite pastry and rode on lots of trains. She also took a side-trip to England, where she achieved academic nirvana while attending a Shakespeare seminar at Stratford-Upon-Avon. Leila loves great books, is annoyed by politicians, and generally feels that cell phones, answering machines, and the Nintendo Wii are overrated. Her three-year-old strongly disagrees.

Leila has a hardworking husband, two energetic boys, and three cats who are neither hardworking nor energetic. In her free time, Leila is training for her first marathon--although if her left knee has anything to say about the matter, it will also be her last. Leila, her husband, and her sons are all thrilled that Leila will be getting back into teaching at Raleigh Progressive. The cats have chosen not to weigh in on the matter.

Elizabeth Hearn- Cultural Anthropology, Art

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed individuals can change the world; indeed it’s the only thing that ever has.”—Margaret Mead

For RPS, our community consists of people inside and outside of school walls, both near and far, who believe in the mission and vision of our school and are willing to share what they know, so that all within the community benefit from the experience, now and in the future. Most importantly, it is the belief in the adolescent: When given the voice, tools and opportunity, each can then make a difference in our world.

Each person belongs to many overlapping communities. In real life we turn to them often to provide guidance and information.

The local community can be an invaluable resource for our students. Many students do not know “what they want to be when they grow up.” Some have an idea, but may realize AFTER college, (or much later) that the path they chose is not the best for them. RPS believes students need exposure to real people and real situations to evaluate where they are headed after high school. We are pleased to offer a community based, place-based and most importantly a customized learning program!

RPS has generated a pool of teachers, mentors, and professionals who are willing to share their personal and professional expertise with our students. (They are both voluntary and fee-based.) Opportunities for students include: Classes, workshops, internships, self-directed study, and “shadowing.”

Partnerships with college and university programs expose students to a myriad of options BEFORE applying to college. Juniors and Seniors are eligible for “dual-enrollment” which allows them to obtain college credit in high school.

If you, or someone you know would like to join us to teach a class or host a workshop, please contact us!

We would like to thank the following people and businesses for their expertise, consultation and support!

About Us