Ridgeview Classical Schools (abbreviated RCS, also known as Ridgeview) is a small charter school located at 1800 South Lemay, Fort Collins, Colorado. The school divides into three parts: elementary (K-6), intermediate (7-8), and high school (9-12). There is no cafeteria in school. Ridgeview serves about 770 students, and about 200 of them are high school students. School colors are blue and gold.

Philosophy

Ridgeview declares its mission to be, "to develop the academic potential and personal character of each student through academically rigorous, content-rich, educational programs." Its mission is being practiced through intense classes. Many humanity classes at Ridgeview are heavily discussion-based, and every student is encouraged to take part in every class. The grades are also partially based on participation to encourage participation. Students are required to read the text before the class in order to participate; some classes assign homework questions that students have to answer based on what they read before class.

Unlike most other high schools, Ridgeview seeks to achieve its mission through a classical education, offering old but famous and noteworthy readings. The current principal, Mr.Hild, says,
"RCS is staying the course of teaching Americans the wisdom of their
ancestors. RCS students learn from Socrates, Bach, Franklin, and
Churchill, to name a few giants of our civilization. Our goal is to
follow Newton's famous insight that seeing farther than others is
accomplished by standing on the shoulders of giants.
Getting to these heights is accomplished by studying the best that has
been said and done in our history. This includes good character as
well as good academics: our ambition is to teach good habits to our
students, based on the cardinal virtues and our character pillars of
citizenship, cooperation, courage, honesty, integrity, perseverance,
respect, and responsibility."

Building

Ridgeview's building is quite small for the student population that it serves. The building is separated into two parts the ground floor, or "Lower school" and second floor or "Upper school". All the Elementary are in the "Lower school". The Ground floor is arranged with the entrance on the south side of the building. from there it splits in two directions. The left leads to the Elementary cafeteria, and the stairs to the second floor. The right leads to the gym, class rooms, resource room and Performing Arts Center or P.A.C. the classrooms are all in the North side.

The "Upper school" houses the middle school and high school. There are two sets of stairs that lead to the main hallway that connects to the "science hallway" and the "music hallway".

Elementary

Ridgeview Classical Schools Elementary starts out as a very rigorous schooling career. The children start in first grade by learning Riggs, a Phonics program that emphasizes how to sound out instead of memorizing how to pronounce words such as "the" and "we". Each grade goes over a unit of history extensively and at the end usually have a "party" where the students can dress up as a person or character from what they have learned. The Elementary also have several advanced math courses, such as Algebra I. By sixth grade the students are very adapt at writing papers and essays on various topics. These usually range from 1 to 4 pages.

Middle School

The Middle school is were the rigor starts to step up. the papers begin to get longer, about 4 to 6 pages in length. The students start to explore the complicated plots of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, and Animal Farm by George Orwell. The History looks at the 1800's to the mid 1940's.

High School

Ridgeview Classical Schools' high school is one of the two public charter schools in the Poudre school district. Full-time students take eight classes each 45 minutes and have a forty five-minute study hall period everyday.Between each period is a passing period of five-minutes in which they students can get books, socalize and get to the next class. The school works on a six day rotation each day represents the "doubling" of that period that takes place of the other corresponding class (1 and 2, 3 and 4 ext.) On day 1 period 1 is "doubled" resulting in period 2 being skipped. This continues through the six day rotation. The first class starts at 7:30 a.m., and the school day ends at 3:00 p.m. Everyday before the first class, teachers and students recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Beside regular classes, the school offers AP classes and extracurricular programs. The size of its senior classes have ranged from nine to forty-eight.

Academics

Ridgeview's high school starts its classical education with readings that ranges back to Greece; in the Classical Literature class, students read and discuss about such books as Iliad and the Odyssey, and in the Wester Civilization I class, they learn about the Greek and Roman history. There are also others classes that are in the criteria of the classical education. In humanity classes, students are often assigned to write essays or papers on the readings that they have done. Through each paper, students are expected to present their own ideas as well as to show their understanding of the text.

At the end of their junior year, students are required to write and present a junior thesis, using the texts and materials that they have went through and any other materials that support their theses. Also, the seniors have to write and present their theses. Senior thesis is the biggest project that students have to complete in order to graduate: it has to be twenty pages at least, and its topic is, "what is the good life?"

Ridgeview also offers AP classes, such as Calculus, AP Biology, AP Chemistry, AP Physics, etc.

Math Program

Ridgeview's math program uses a different method than the typical lecture. The students are given a set of problems that relate to a subject such as hyperbolas, sequences, ext. Through personal application and comparing with classmates the students recognize patterns that give them an understanding of the subject. This method engages all of the students and helps them latter in life to recognize patterns which will make tasks easier. At the end of the course the students take a "basic skills test" which has all of the main topics that they were supposed to understand and have the ability to do. If the student passes this they are allowed to continue on to the next math course other wise they repeat the course they just took.

Achievements and Recognitions

Based on the CSAP scores, ACT scores, academic growth, etc., Ridgeview has been rated as the best high school in Colorado in 2005,2006, and 2010. Moreover, in 2008, "US News and World Report ranked Ridgeview Classical Schools' High School as 15th in the country, 4th US charter school, and 4th open-enrollment high school in the nation." Ridgeview is mentioned in E. D. Hirsch, Jr.'s The Making of Americans: Democracy and Our Schools.

Ridgeview's Science Bowl team won the regional competition and went on to the national final in 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 school years.

Extracurricular Activities

• After School Club
• Chess Club
• Domino Club
• Engineering Club
• Folk Singers & Dancers Club
• Geography Club
• Hoplite Helpers
• Guitar Club
• Plays
• Science Bowl
• Scout Troops
• Madrigal
• Mock Trial
• Yearbook Club
• Veritas
• Student Council