Why Sage Ridge School?
Our students’ experiences are guided by our Mission Statement:
Sage Ridge School graduates curious and confident citizens who embrace rigorous scholarship, respect the dignity of individuals, choose integrity, embody courage, foster a compassionate community, and ultimately thrive in college and in our global society.
With this mission as a guide, something special happens at Sage Ridge.
Experience the SAGE
RIDGE difference
Small class sizes and personal attention make a difference.
At Sage Ridge School, our students are seen and known. Our average class size is 11 and our student-teacher ratio is 8:1. Teachers know students' names, strengths, weaknesses, and potential. Students and teachers work together to cultivate the intellect and character needed to be successful in our changing world.
Students know their teachers. The relationships between students and teachers is central to the education students receive. Students collaborate with faculty in a safe, compassionate environment strengthened by common values, self reliance, and optimism. Because of the individual attention and one-on-one support they receive, Sage Ridge students achieve notable success with their coursework.
Teachers know their students. No one falls through the cracks here. Our outstanding teachers use our Pillars of Scholarship, Respect, Integrity, Courage, and Community as a framework for class discussions and culture. Ultimately, we create an environment in which students feel supported, respected, included and safe.
We Learn with Our Hands
Research, labs, dissections, modeling, and experimentation.
Our teachers know that children learn best when they construct their own knowledge through tangible practice and investigation. Whether it be through lively literary discussions, debates on ethics in science, virtual reality explorations of ancient civilizations, human cadaver dissections, or guest lectures from experts in the field, our students experience the best teaching methods research can verify on a daily basis. And the accomplishments of our alumni are changing the world.
We bUild Up our athletes
Our students embrace hard work – in the game and in the classroom.
Our alumni swim for Yale, play basketball at Stanford, play soccer at Duke, and play volleyball for Brandeis. Sage Ridge School employs high-caliber coaches, provides supportive team experiences, and cultivates the leadership skills necessary to be respected champions.
We EMPOWER our ARTISTS
Our students exemplify our pillar of Courage as they take the stage.
Our theatre performances have been selected to perform at Nevada's Thespian Competition. We've had students win awards for performances, singing, playwriting, monologues, short films and more. Sage Ridge School employs local artists and performing arts professionals to help foster our students' creativity and passion for the arts. Whether it's painting, sculpting, graphic design, singing, acting, or stage managing, our students have the opportunity to try it all!
WE DON'T RUN THE SAME AP PROGRAM AS EVERYONE ELSE
93% OF OUR STUDENTS EARNED ap scores of 3+.
You may hear other high school students say they are taking 5-7 AP classes a year. But are they really taking a college level class? Our AP classes result in students who can pass their AP exams, thus validating our curriculum as equivalent to a real college course. In addition, all our students who receive AP credit on their transcripts are required to sit for the exam. This means that our pass rates are the highest in the region even with all our AP students taking the exams!
Skills that Last a Lifetime
Our alumni continually tell us how well prepared they are for college. When our alumni return to campus for our annual Young Grads Return event, they share with current students about how connected they stay with their classmates and teachers, and how Sage Ridge provided opportunities to develop the values and character they apply in everyday life. Our students develop the courage and confidence to aim high with 100% of all our graduates not only going on to four year colleges or universities but also well over half going to the most competitive schools. And beyond undergraduate success, our alumni are making a difference in the world.
WHY INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS?
Sage Ridge School offers the chance to cultivate both intellect and character through Liberal Arts curriculum in an Independent School setting.
While many people use the terms independent and private interchangeably, there are important distinctions that emphasize the importance of being independent. Independent schools are governed by a board of trustees, not a public school board or a religious organization. They are primarily supported by tuition payments, charitable contributions, and endowment revenue.
Financial independence and governance gives our school four critical freedoms:
- the freedom to define our own unique mission
- the freedom to admit and keep only those students well-matched to our mission
- the freedom to define our qualifications for high quality teachers who will provide the teaching and learning environment for our mission to thrive
- the freedom to determine our curriculum and how we will best assess student achievement and progress.
(National Association of Independent Schools)
A NAIS-Gallup Report on NAIS Graduates (2017) found that compared with graduates of other high schools, independent school graduates complete their degrees more quickly and are less likely to transfer during their undergraduate careers. This is critical because consistent progression through college is linked with financial advantages — lower student debt and higher starting salaries – as well as higher career satisfaction and well-being later in life.
Independent schooling is truly about making a choice. We believe committing to an independent school education prepares students to make the most of the rights and responsibilities they are given.
Why a Liberal Arts Curriculum?
Liberal Arts and Sciences is much more than college prep.
It is a concept rooted in the ancient and medieval past from latin liberalis "free" and ars "art or principled practice”. Thus, the liberal arts are those subjects and skills that were considered essential for a free person (liberalis is literally “worthy of a free person") to know in order to take an active part in civic life.
This imperative and privilege is more important than ever and this is at the center of our mission to produce graduates that will “ultimately thrive in college and in our global society.”
Our current students are preparing for careers that have not even been conceived of yet.
Alec Ross, author of The Industries of the Future, argues that the skills and disciplines that are focused on in a liberal arts education are the ones that future careers will need as people will need flexibility and open-mindedness to approach new problems that no amount of content expertise will be able to address.
The ability to discern new patterns, critique arguments and research, and communicate collaboratively - as well as with authority - while being ethically driven, will be incredibly important for success in our future society.
At Sage Ridge our valued traditions are still a key to future success.
College Ready
Each year our graduating seniors matriculate at a wide range of best-fit colleges and universities across the country.
