Who We Are
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Founded in 2014, Renaissance Academy Charter School of the Arts was created with the vision of providing a free quality, arts-integrated education to students from the city of Rochester and across Monroe County.
Renaissance Academy delivers a wholistic, arts-integrated education. Our passionate team empowers children to excel academically, embrace creativity, and thrive socially and emotionally.
We are committed to excellence, innovation and equity, as we relentlessly pursue cultural sustainability.
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STUDENT CENTERED
As each student is unique, so too is the teaching method and curriculum that will be used to support them in their learning for ultimate success - academically, artistically, socially and emotionally. RA evaluates each student for unique capabilities and develops a curriculum just for them. RA believes that meeting students where they are and developing a learning plan based on their gifts as well as needs provides a significantly better result than teaching everyone the same way.
CULTURALLY RELEVANT
RA aims to be culturally-relevant in all aspects of teaching and learning. This Aapproach
ensures that diverse perspectives are valued, making learning more engaging, meaningful,
and impactful.
Culturally relevant practices, content, and approaches are meaningful and applicable to the
cultural backgrounds, experiences, and identities of individuals. Culturally relevant teaching
involves using students’ cultural knowledge, experiences, and perspectives as assets to
enhance learning. It includes three key components:
(1) Academic Success – Supporting students in achieving high academic standards.
(2) Cultural Competence – Encouraging students to appreciate and maintain their own
cultural identity while understanding others.
(3) Critical Consciousness – Empowering students to analyze and challenge social
inequities.
Creative
An arts-integrated education is the basis for providing not only creative outlets for students at
RA, but also using the arts to improve academic performance. RA provides many artistic
opportunities integrated into the daily curriculum but also offered as extracurricular activities.
RA encourages all of its students to be creative in their learning process. RA offers innovative
programming to students; we are forward-thinking and on the leading edge with its creative
approach to education.
Collaborative
RA offers a collaborative environment both in and out of the classroom. Each class has two
teachers, encouraging collaboration to give the very best opportunities to the students.
Outside of the classroom, teachers, administrators, staff, board and parents work together to
ensure that practices and policies provide the best support for student success.
Inclusive
RA is the only charter school in Rochester that has dedicated Special Education classrooms.
Arts-integration is effective for all kids and helps each child thrive. By meeting each child
where they are, we include all students in academics and arts.
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RA believes that success is achievable when foundations are developed for each student based on their unique abilities and needs. Each student will have a foundation designed to help them succeed, built on the three pillars of academics, social-emotional learning and the arts.
Foundations are customized to students for individual success, emphasizing critical thinking and the joy of learning. Not every student will go into the arts, but creativity and the arts provide a foundation for them as people. The foundations for learning are unique to each student as no two students are alike. The internal question “What is best for our kids?” is consistently raised and forms the basis for individualized foundations for success.
92%
Daily student attendance rate
3x
higher student ELA and Math proficiency than district peers
87%
Teacher Retention rate
I see how the work RA does improves Rochester by strengthening education and giving students opportunities that can break the cycle of poverty they might otherwise be stuck in.
-Community Organizer
RA gives students a warm, safe, and welcoming place, surrounded by people who truly value their role in shaping young minds.
-Corporate Sponsor
Our students
Our students are brilliant, creative, hardworking young people who come from primarily underserved and underrepresented communities.
92% of our students live below the poverty line.
Funding inequity
At Renaissance Academy, we are committed to operating with fiscal responsibility and efficiency. We educate each student at a cost of $17,272—less than half of the funding spent per pupil in the Rochester City School District. While this figure reflects only direct student expenses, the gap between per-pupil revenue and per-pupil expenditure is often used to cover broader administrative and operational costs.
At RA, we run a lean, agile operation where every dollar is stretched to support our students directly, and it shows. Our students consistently receive a high-quality, well-rounded education and significantly outperform their peers at their home district schools.
Because charter schools like RA do not receive the same level of public funding and receive no support for facilities, we rely on local contributions to fill critical gaps. Each year, we must seek additional funding to sustain essential programs such as teacher professional development, social-emotional and family support services, summer learning opportunities, and before-school programming, resources that would otherwise be supported by full and equitable state funding our students deserve.
