Our academic guide is the Core Knowledge Sequence, which stipulates rich and specific objectives in each of the subject areas. We also follow a Core Virtues curriculum, a literature-based character education program developed at Crossroads and now in use in many schools across the country.

Core Offerings

Our curriculum is designed to foster literacy. Reading, grammar, vocabulary, spelling, and writing instruction are stressed in all grades. We employ a wide range of teaching practices, including phonics instruction, written response to readings, and exposure to a rich selection of literature. From fourth through eighth grade we emphasize literary analysis through development of critical reading and writing skills.

In mathematics, teachers guide students through concepts using well-sequenced materials. Our program emphasizes a balance of strong computational, problem-solving, and geometry skills. Students develop strategies for approaching problems in an efficient and accurate manner, with an emphasis on knowing basic math facts. Middle School classes remain small and range from on-level sixth grade arithmetic to pre-algebra, algebra, and geometry.

In our science lab and in the countryside surrounding the school, students explore all aspects of their world. From cell study to the study of the galaxies, our program provides students with a balanced, well-coordinated curriculum that includes life, physical, and earth science topics. Through exposure to scientific laws and the lives of extraordinary scientists, students begin their journey into the world of science: researching, observing, experimenting, and recording.

One of the unique offerings at Crossroads is its rich, sequentially organized history and geography program. Through songs, projects, drama, mapmaking, and teacher presentation, our students travel from Mesopotamian ziggurats to Sung Dynasty silk painting to the classic Renaissance architecture of Brunelleschi’s cathedral in Florence. By the end of the eighth grade, students are able to research and debate topics from the democratic revolution to Romanticism and from nationalism and imperialism to communism.

The music and art departments have coordinated their topics with many of our history units. We believe that exposure to a rich array of composers and visual artists is fundamental to learning basic elements of composition and design in both art and music. In music class, students read, play, and compose music. All belong to a chorus that performs regularly throughout the school year. In art history, students study the great works and put what they have learned into practice as they produce their own works of sculpture and painting.

Drama class provides Middle School students with theatrical disciplines such as vocal techniques, concentration, characterization skills, theater terminology, theater history, acting styles, stage and spatial awareness, critical thinking, observation, and auditioning skills. Classroom work includes improvisation, theater games and exercises, skits, monologues, open discussions, and self and peer analysis. Such skills help to prepare the students for a year-end musical theater production in the spring. Along with listening, clear speech, and language, acute attention, self discipline, self respect and respect for others, drama class encourages the independence that comes from working to achieve personal excellence while maintaining a commitment to group projects.

All students are introduced to Latin in the sixth grade; in optional seventh- and eighth-grade Latin, students develop reading fluency while learning extensive vocabulary, morphology, and syntax. Cultural education about Rome and its place in history and letters is a central theme of this course.

In French, students in grades four through eight acquire a clear sense of French culture while learning the basic structure of the language. They are introduced to grammar and vocabulary through reading sentences, exercises, dialogues, and stories. Integral to our studies are the geography and culture of France: its provinces, literature, art, music, and history.

In physical education we encourage participation that helps enhance self-confidence. Activities and games are designed to promote growth in skill level, provide opportunities for personal challenge through risk-taking, and teach students strategies for working together as a team.

Finally, we believe that education is not just about content but also about what Martin Luther King Jr. called “the content of our character. ” Our character education program promotes such virtues as respect, responsibility, honesty, and compassion. The program is rooted in Jewish and Christian theology but is nonsectarian in nature. Highlighting the virtues through a morning gathering, posting of inspiring definitions, and daily reading of fine literature in the Lower School, and discussion and journal response in the Middle School, the program nurtures the desire to be good as well as the habits of good behavior. All students from kindergarten through eighth grade are encouraged to apply the virtues in their daily lives and to act in thoughtful ways toward others in the wider community through community service.