Upper (High) School (Grades 9 - 12)

Beginning in Middle School, students transition from MSR's Montessori program to the International Baccalaureate MYP (Grades 6 - 10) program.

The International Baccalaureate (IB) is a worldwide community of schools, educators, and students with a shared mission to empower students with the values, knowledge, and skills to create a better and more peaceful world.

It aims to provide an education that enables students to make sense of the complexities of the world around them, as well as equipping them with the skills and dispositions needed for taking responsible action for the future. They provide an education that crosses disciplinary, cultural, national and geographical boundaries, and that champions critical engagement, stimulating ideas and meaningful relationships.

IB programmes offer students access to a broad and balanced range of academic studies and learning experiences. They promote conceptual learning, create frameworks within which knowledge can be acquired, and focus on powerful organizing ideas that are relevant across subject areas and that help to integrate learning and add coherence to the curriculum.

The programmes emphasize the importance of making connections, exploring the relationships between academic disciplines, and learning about the world in ways that reach beyond the scope of individual subjects. They also focus on offering students authentic opportunities to connect their learning to the world around them through the focus of international mindedness.

Credit: "What is IB Education?" International Baccalaureate, 2024. 

*The Montessori School of Raleigh is authorized as a Diploma Programme (grades 11 - 12) school. The Montessori School of Raleigh is a candidate school* for the MYP (grades 7- 10). This school is pursuing authorization as an IB World School. IB World Schools share a common philosophy- a commitment to high-quality, challenging, international education- that we believe is important for our students.

The Montessori School of Raleigh is an official IB World School for the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme (Grades 11 - 12).  This two-year program emphasizes critical thinking, rigorous research and exams, thesis writing, a “Theory of Knowledge” course, and other advanced college preparation.

Instruction is tailored to follow student interests and aptitudes, while challenging them to stretch beyond their comfort zones ensuring our students remain engaged, inspired, and excited about learning and expanding their abilities.

More about the IB Diploma Programme

A recent study proves the value colleges see in this curriculum:

• The average acceptance rate of IB Diploma Programme students into university/college is 22 percentage points higher than the average acceptance rate of the total population.
• The acceptance rate of IB Diploma Programme students in the most highly selective institutions is between 3 and 13 percentage points higher compared to the total population’s acceptance rate.

The outcomes for our students at MSR are greater than a highly competitive learning environment normally associated with these sorts of metric successes. We aim to prepare our students for academic successes, with the confidence and knowledge to succeed in life.

Diploma Programme (DP) Course of Study

• Group 1: Studies in language and literature (Language A)
• Group 2: Language acquisition (Language B)
• Group 3: Individuals and societies
• Group 4: Sciences
• Group 5: Mathematics
• Group 6: The arts

THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT

In Upper School, we give your student the space they need — literally! Set amidst 40 acres of forest, streams, and wildlife, MSR’s Brier Creek Campus provides the ideal environment for students. Our natural surroundings provide expansive space for experiential learning and quiet reflections as your student performs scientific field studies, raises their environmental awareness, loses themself in a great book, stages an outdoor performance, or participates in community service.

Meanwhile, indoors, our Upper School forms the lively new hub of activity on our Brier Creek Campus. Our students inhabit and help create vibrant, start-up-like workspaces — classrooms, labs, and other collaborative areas — that support the natural flow of focused learning and vigorous discussion within and beyond the walls of the classroom.

THE SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT

Your upper schooler doesn’t just need physical space, they need a social space that allows plenty of room for them to broaden their sense of identity and sphere of influence, where they can express opinions and ask hard questions, master healthy collaboration and participate in spirited competition with many different kinds of people.

At MSR, with a student-teacher ratio of 10:1, an average class size of 14 – 16, and a target cohort size of 75 students, we strive to balance the variety, diversity, and opportunities that greater numbers allow with the mentorship, free space, tailored learning experiences, and personal connections that only smaller class sizes can ensure. A well-balanced cohort means your student develops the capacity to appreciate and collaborate with different kinds of people, since it precludes the development of look, act, and think alike cliques so common in larger school environments. And not only does your student develop close relationships with an incredibly diverse group of peers, they also connect personally with his teachers who are his mentors, advisors, and friends.

In other words, your upper school student is surrounded by a community of adults and peers that meets their need for belonging, inspires them toward ever greater independence and personal discovery, and supports them as they navigate relationships and growing academic responsibilities.

THE INTANGIBLE ENVIRONMENT

Perhaps the most vital aspect of our learning environment, palpable the moment you arrive on campus, might also be the most difficult to describe. It’s not something you can easily point to: a place, a program, a policy. Rather, it’s a mindset — a community-wide belief in the capacity of our students to set and achieve their own goals; seek out big, meaningful challenges; both fail and succeed spectacularly and safely; and thus learn lessons so deeply that they inform their lives forever.

They may not know how yet, but will know from experience that they're capable of learning how to do anything, that with hard work and persistence no problem is too big to take on, and that grappling with complex, interesting problems is part of what brings joy and meaning to work and life.

MSR provides a complete course of study that integrates real-life learning into every subject area. This means that in English courses, your student annotates and dissects texts that intentionally connect with Humanities studies in ways that raise complex and engaging questions — around social change, progress, immigration, survival, peace and justice, the very nature of knowledge, language, and and creativity — and then pursues open-ended projects, driven by genuine and advancing questions: Why do we need laws and how do we create and change them? How do natural resources affect human migration and power dynamics? Why does art matter?

It means that in our science labs, they aren't just memorizing the facts; they're observing and exploring the interconnectedness of living and nonliving systems — from the structure of a single cell to the massive forces that move oceans, make mountains, and send ships into space. And as they master and exceed state and national standards, they also develop hypotheses based on their own burning questions — How long can a zip-line be? What forms of life can survive in total darkness? Can robots exhibit real emotions? — and then designs (rather than just performs) collaborative experiments, and reflects (rather than just reports) on the findings.

In short, the most memorable and meaningful learning happens when your student (and her questions, interests, and experiences) are at the center of a rigorous, interdisciplinary curriculum — even, or perhaps especially, as they tackle more advanced work. This kind of teaching requires the most masterful, most prepared, most actively engaged teachers.

MSR’s expert teachers plan for and continuously guide learning experiences that demand personal initiative and independent thinking from your student. And as they pursue answers to questions, teachers help to acquire the necessary knowledge and skillsets and then apply them in memorable and meaningful ways, supportively challenging toward ever deeper inquiry, genuine engagement, and constant skill-building.

Even as this approach builds adult independence and growing intellectual, social, and emotional sophistication in our upper schoolers, it also keeps alight the imagination and wonder-filled energy of youth, ensuring that your student learns to fuel (rather than replace) personal fascinations with ever more focused, vigorous, and disciplined study.

Many high schools offer community service and leadership programs. The MSR difference: our entire program — for students from early childhood to 18 years old — is designed to cultivate a sense of personal and social responsibility and genuine engagement in service. In other words, it’s not just something our students do, it’s a part of who we are together as a community.

Our mixed-age classrooms prepare students to work collaboratively, to master their lessons in order to teach them to others, to look for and foster skills and strengths in their peers, and to tend to their responsibilities and communities. As students advance at MSR, leadership opportunities exponentially increase. In Upper School, this means that your student not only practices leadership and service in their home and school communities; they are expected to begin making a positive impact in the wider world.

Starting in their freshman and sophomore years, students must complete 50 hours of service; in their junior and senior years, this grows to 75 hours of service per year. This work doesn’t merely signal the high value MSR places on service to the community, it plays a valuable role in galvanizing your student’s sense of self at this age, their sense of responsibility, generosity, and empathy. In both whole-school service activities and in service projects of their own design — improving marine habitats with an environmental organization, tutoring younger students, volunteering at a local hospital, organizing and participating in a charity run, building and populating new beehives, or other self-constructed commitment to community — your student forges a connection between their advancing talents and interests and their maturing self and social consciousness.

Exploration Week is a MSR signature program giving students a week off from traditional academics to explore in depth a topic that may not be found in traditional curriculum. Traditionally the week prior to Thanksgiving Break, these experiences are often core memories for students and provide a springboard for learning about new topics outside of the classroom.

Past year's Exploration groups have focused on are Technology & Engineering, Careers in Sports, Farm to Table, and Creative Exploration. 

Land and Livestock is an experiential program designed to not only cultivate the earth, but cultivate students' appreciation and understanding of the natural world and guide them in becoming stewards of the environment.

Through hands-on activities and student-led initiatives, Land and Livestock engages students in the planting, cultivating, and harvesting of herbs, vegetables, berries, and eggs from its on-campus gardens and chicken coop. The program also teaches students about healthy eating and cooking. During seasons of harvest, students plan and prepare dishes from the garden. They gain cooking skills and create food challenges and tasting competitions to test their knowledge of the herbs and vegetables they have grown from seed. 

A major part of being a globally-minded community is to ensure students are provided the opportunity to go into the world and explore new environments and cultures. 

Upper School day, overnight, and international trips are planned each year and are aligned with the International Baccalaureate approach to focus on global engagement and meaningful community service.

AT MSR, WE TAKE A COMPREHENSIVE APPROACH. MSR assesses student growth regularly using a variety of tools such as portfolios, student records, observations, scope and sequence charts, and standardized testing. Multiple sources and multiple methods of assessment help us understand and represent the whole child.

We incorporate developmentally appropriate and curriculum-aligned testing and assessment. MSR follows an evidence-based process of administering certain standardized tests three times a year to see how students' skills develop over the year, allowing us to provide even more targeted support mid-year. We also use these practices to identify students who may need additional support. This includes both academic and social-emotional assessments, with occasional opportunities for no-cost physical health screenings (i.e., speech, language,  hearing, and vision).

As a Montessori and IB World School, we use both qualitative and quantitative assessment. Formal, standardized testing begins in our Elementary Program. Student performance is aligned with a score to inform instruction and improve learning. Beginning in Middle School, performance is summarized by letter grades. Ultimately, data informs our practice and school improvement, which contributes to the academic growth and excellence expected of our students.

From the very start, children practice directing and evaluating their own learning. By the time they reach college, MSR graduates are comfortable with meeting performance requirements measured by tests and grades, but they’re not motivated by these external markers. They’re driven by a self-sustaining desire to learn.

*For required standardized testing, MSR administers the Educational Records Bureau’s Comprehensive Testing Program to all students in grades 3 through 9 in the fall. The ERB-CTP is the primary yearly assessment that independent schools adopt. The scores provide information about what our students know related to reading, writing, math, reasoning, and science.

Students complete tests within their classrooms by their teachers on grade level content. The testing window lasts one week, and the results are used as a data point for school performance, teacher development, and to understand what student know and what they need to work on. Families also receive copies of their child’s scores. Often, families unfamiliar to standardized assessments may need support interpreting the results. Our educators are available to help communicate the results and what they mean for your child.  

Please note that MSR is aware of twice exceptional learners, and we offer accommodations to those with relevant and timely evaluation results from an expert in the field. These reports must be on file, at least two weeks prior to any test administration.