Monthly Archives: May 2019

RSEC Academy Middle School students learn by impacting the community

Student learning experiences throughout the year focused on community engagement

Regional Services and Education Center (RSEC) helps students to understand their learning challenges. The RSEC Academy Middle School educates students in grades 5 through 8 in a personalized, competency-based learning environment that thrives on project-based and social emotional learning.

The RSEC Academy Middle School focuses on creating an environment for students that allows them to “learn to do.” This environment offers hands-on, minds on learning experiences for students that aim to increase their skills in critical thinking, creativity, problem solving, motivation, communication and cooperation.

Each year, RSEC Academy Middle School chooses an educational theme to focus on. This year’s theme was centered around how students can make an impact on the community. Students had various opportunities to go out into their local community and participate in service-based learning throughout the year. Some of the opportunities that students participated in included volunteering at Sunrise Children’s Center, creating an alphabet book for local veterans and participating in a beach clean up while engaging in math concepts of area and perimeter. Every community activity was a learning experience.

Throughout the years, RSEC Academy Middle School has held theme days where students choose a topic that they are passionate about and then they are able to share and teach that topic to their peers. In past years, topics have included everything from golf, fishing and gymnastics, to drawing and video gaming. “I really enjoyed the theme days and being able to teach my peers something I know,” shared one of the middle school students.

This year, to coincide with the community engagement theme, students chose topics that revolved around environmental concerns. Some of the topics included recycling, water pollution, climate change, endangered species and wildlife protection. Students then created cross-curricular research projects based on their chosen topic. These research projects allowed them to utilize their skills in persuasive writing and presentation building.

The RSEC Academy Middle School environment encourages curiosity when it comes to learning. The school offers an individualized experience for each student because they recognize that no two students learn in the same way. One of the students shared that, “I feel like there is independent learning at RSEC. Like in math, taking things and putting things step-by-step made learning better for me.”

Learn more about RSEC by visiting the website or contact academy@rsec.org.

The RSEC Academy Middle and High Schools Receive Approval to Serve Massachusetts School Districts

RSEC Massachusetts Students

Regional Services and Education Center, Inc. (RSEC) has received approval from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to accept special education placements for Massachusetts students at The RSEC Academy Middle School and The RSEC Academy High School. The approval creates additional options for schools that are looking for alternative educational opportunities for students with unique needs in settings designed to best serve them.

Located in Amherst, New Hampshire and under 10 miles from the Massachusetts border, The RSEC Academy has been serving students in grades 5-12 for more than 23 years with programming that is designed to develop individual learners with strong literary skills through individualized curriculums that help students overcome learning challenges. The new agreement makes it possible for RSEC to enter into contracts with Massachusetts school districts to accept students from the state.

“Given our proximity to Massachusetts and the specialized services we provide, we believe we can offer additional options to school districts, families, students and advocates who are looking for educational options that align with specific learning needs,” said Janet Reed, director of The RSEC Academy. “We are very pleased to receive this approval from the Massachusetts Department of Education and look forward to connecting with the school districts in the region to make them aware of these additional options.”

The RSEC Academy Middle School focuses on developing core academic and transition skills that form the foundation for future learning and self-advocacy. They are uniquely tailored to serve students with learning disabilities, ADHD, social skills deficits, autism, speech or language impairment, deaf or hard of hearing, social anxiety and those who require language support services.

The RSEC Academy High School is an approved diploma-granting day program that helps students gain a better understanding of their learning challenges and the communications skills they need to return to their school district, pursue post-secondary education, or start a career when they leave. The teaching focus of this school is evidence-based instruction and the results are reflected in the high graduation rate.

The new agreement with Massachusetts school districts is effective immediately and initially lasts for three years. The RSEC Academy Middle School and The RSEC Academy High School are only able to accept students that are referred directly by their school district. For more information, contact (603) 673-6656 or academy@rsec.org.