An Education Above
An Education Above
S C H O O L P H I LO S O P H Y
A college preparatory school for girls in Kindergarten through Grade 12, with a Preschool for girls and boys, prepares its students for life. Strong academics are taught by an award-winning faculty in a genuinely supportive community. An Education Above.
Roland Park Country School, a college preparatory school for girls, is dedicated to the intellectual and moral development of its students. We cultivate creativity, independence of thought, tenacity of purpose, self-discipline, and emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being. We maintain high academic standards, uphold tradition, and promote innovation. We nurture a cooperative, resilient spirit within an atmosphere of mutual trust and respect. In a diverse, inclusive, and joyful community, Roland Park Country School strives to instill in its students a lifelong love of learning as well as the responsibility to look within and beyond themselves to contribute to and serve as stewards and leaders of their communities.
RPCS not only prepared me academically to complete colle ge and graduate school, but also taught me to seek knowledge and learn for a lifetime.
-RPCS Alumna
An Education Above
Roland Park Country School
A RICH HISTORY
HONOR A Roland Park Country School student is expected to have a sense of honor coupled with a sense of responsibility, to be considerate of others, and to exhibit qualities of truthfulness, sincerity and self-discipline. She values the spirit of fellowship which characterizes the spirit of RPCS and seeks to contribute to School life.
The School was established in 1894 as a neighborhood school for girls in Baltimore and officially became Roland Park Country School in 1901. Bertha Chapman, RPCS’s first principal, soon instituted a college preparatory curriculum. It earned the distinction of being the first fully-accredited independent school for girls in Baltimore City.
ACC R E D I TAT I O N S & AS S O C I AT I O N S
RPCS suffered two devastating fires but found its new home on the current campus, known as Chestnutwood, in 1980. Current Head of School, Jean Waller Brune, initiated the Campus Master Plan in 1994. The first phase was the addition of the Macfarlane Arts Center. As part of its Centennial, the School opened the Smith Middle School with a wing of state-of-the-art science labs and the dining hall. In 2008, construction was completed on the LEED Gold Certified RPCS Athletic Complex. The entire building became wireless so that students and employees can use technology anywhere within the building.
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Association of Independent Maryland/D.C. Schools National Coalition of Girls’ Schools Cum Laude Society National Association of Independent Schools The Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland Healthful Schools Baltimore Educational Scholarship Trust (B.E.S.T.) Maryland Green School
T E AC H I N G E XC E L L E N C E
When I run into roadblocks now, I know I can work through them because I’m a Roland Park girl. -RPCS Alumna
RPCS faculty teach from a neurodevelopmental perspective. Experts in content knowledge with an emphasis on pedagogy, our faculty nurture and challenge their students.
An Education Above
D I V E R S I T Y S TAT E M E N T
A DVA N C E D P L AC E M E N T Advanced Placement courses are offered in:
Our Board of Trustees is committed to an active, ongoing effort to attract, welcome, and support an inclusive community of talented students, faculty, administrators, staff, and Board members. The Board strongly supports the work of the administration and faculty in their continuing efforts to create respect in the school community for individual differences of race, ethnicity, religion, culture, socioeconomic status, abilities, gender and sexual orientation. It is the Board’s objective to celebrate and promote the recognition, understanding and acceptance of individual uniqueness, mutual interdependence, and cultural diversity within a pluralistic society. The Board expects that the students entrusted to the School’s care will acquire not only critical thinking skills and a love of learning, but also a sense of self, an appreciation of diversity and respect for others. The Board intends that the RPCS experience will produce graduates whose lives “speak for themselves” by example and attitude. Our commitment to diversity enriches every aspect of what we do. In creating an inclusive, accepting community of students, teachers, and parents representing a wide variety of races and ethnicities, socioeconomic groups and personal beliefs, RPCS is focused on preparing our students for living and succeeding in an increasingly multicultural, pluralistic, global community.
Art History Biology Calculus AB Calculus BC Chemistry Chinese Comparative Government Computer Science Computer Science Principles
English Environmental Science European History French Language Human Geography Latin Music Theory Physics
Psychology Russian (AP Prototype) Spanish Language Spanish Literature Statistics U.S. Government U.S. History World History
T E C H N O LO GY The use of technology is an integral part of the School’s commitment to providing a superior global education for girls and young women. RPCS is a one-to-one technology school. All students in Grades 6 - 12 use laptops in all classrooms, in science labs, in the library, and for homework. Graduates are highly skilled in using the Internet appropriately as a research tool, designing spreadsheets, Power Point presentations, virtual labs, graphing, note taking, and communicating with faculty through their web pages and email.
RPCS was the first girls’ school in Maryland to be awarded a Cum Laude Chapter.
RPCS was the first independent school in Baltimore City to be named a Maryland Green School and is now a Sustainable Green School.
RPCS was named the Best School for Tomorrow’s Leaders by Baltimore magazine.
RPCS is a Baltimore Sun Top Workplace.
EducationAbove Above AnAn Education
S T U D E N T S BY THE NUMBERS
FACILITIES BY THE NUMBERS
Lower School
Upper School
Girls K- Grade 12, Preschool for Girls and Boys 12-18 average classroom size 8-10 students in reading and math groups 3 foreign languages – French, Spanish and Chinese 2 computer platforms used, PC- and Mac-based 4 Music, Art, Dance and Physical Education programs 2 literacy specialists
Girls Grades 9-12 1:1 technology 25 Advanced Placement courses 3 School Coordination with Gilman and Bryn Mawr 1 STEM Institute 1 Foreign Language Certificate 7 foreign languages – French, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, Russian, Latin and Greek 90+ junior and senior electives 16 sports – 25 teams 3 auditioned performance ensembles for full academic credit 5 Music, Art, Dance, Drama and Lifetime Fitness programs 1 SAT/ACT Preparation course
Middle School Girls Grades 6-8 1:1 technology 4 foreign languages – French, Spanish, Chinese and Latin 3 engineering projects (one in each grade level) 1 week outdoor education experience in each Grade 20 student activities and clubs 5 Music, Art, Dance, Drama and Physical Education programs 9 team sports and intramurals
75%
of students participate in after-school athletics
100% of students enroll in four-year colleges
FACULTY BY THE NUMBERS 80%
hold advanced degrees
100% participate in Professional Development each year 7:1 student-faculty ratio
60
classrooms
5 science labs, 2 libraries, 2 playgrounds
425
seat Sinex Theater in the Macfarlane Arts Center
1 black box theater, 1 green room, 2 dance studios, 2 choral music rooms, 3 art studios, 1 photography lab, 1 ceramics studio
1 ST
school in Maryland with a crew rowing tank in the RPCS Athletic Complex
3 teaching gyms, 1 competition gym, 1 fitness center, 1 training room, 1 horizontal climbing wall, 1 suspended 3-lane jogging track, 2 synthetic turf fields, 4 squash courts, 6 state-of-the-art tennis courts
7
outdoor classrooms
1 Monarch Butterfly Garden, 1 Three Sisters Garden, 1 native urban meadow, 1 rain garden, 1 urban woodland area in forest conservation, 1 vegetative roof, 1 Peace on Earth Bench
A TRADITION OF ACADEMIC E XC E L L E N C E Cultivating the intellect, nurturing academic excellence and instilling a lifelong love of learning are hallmarks of the RPCS program, which prepares students for 21st Century learning.
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