RMA believes in the measurement of learning outcomes to drive instruction and learning within the school and classrooms.

Student’s Commitment to Learning

RMA promotes the philosophy of “U are Responsible 4 U”. An important aspect of student development in school is students’ learning to take greater personal responsibility. Each student at RMA, with the support of their advisor, maintains a portfolio that documents their learning and progress in all subject areas. Students engage in semester roundtables. In addition, there are other more traditional means of documenting and tracking individual student progress, including quarterly progress reports, report cards, semester grade reports and transcripts. Students are required to participate in all aspects of the state and district accountability system and to pass certain Florida state mandated tests as part of their graduation requirements.

The Florida Standards Assessment Brochure provides additional information for families on the Florida state mandated tests.

Teacher’s Commitment to Student Learning

RMA ensures that students engage in learning experiences that require them to practice and improve critical thinking and study habits.  Students must demonstrate mastery of content knowledge and academic skills.  They are provided frequent assessments to document progress. The academic program prepares students for college, career, and life-long learning. In order to improve student learning and academic achievement, RMA has developed an Educational Model grounded in instructional best practices. RMA Florida has aligned these practices with comprehensive training and professional development. Educational staff performance is continually evaluated to determine if students are making performance gains.

RMA teachers participate in ongoing professional learning communities called Data Groups where educators come together regularly to examine their instructional practice and student learning. Members of the Data Groups commit to making their practice public to one another, to being reflective, and to holding each other accountable for meeting the needs and interests of all students. Data Groups engage in “looking at student work” protocols to ground their discussion, reflection, and growth in evidence-based exploration of actual student products, assessments, and data. In addition, Data Group participants share resources and ideas with one another; explore outside texts together, including emerging research in the field of education; and engage in collaborative inquiry.

Data Groups are a teacher-driven professional development effort that focuses on practitioner expertise and collaborative learning among peers and are led by the RMA Instructional Leaders. Any educator who is interested in deepening his or her practice and becoming more reflective will benefit from the training. Participants will learn to develop the habit of regular and collaborative examination of teacher and student work with the goal of student improvement. Data Groups are a powerful professional development experience that can lead to growth for all levels of the teaching staff from the novice to the most experienced. Data Groups have a profound impact on student learning and school culture that creates strong professional learning community at RMA.