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Schools

New Head of School Promotes 21st Century Learning at Ross

Newly appointed interim head emphasizes local and global community.

"At Ross, what you see is a school that's living right out on the edge of educational theory," said Gregg Maloberti, the newly appointed interim head of . "Here's a school that is pushing hard on the concepts of 21st century learning skills."

The Ross Institute Board of Trustees and the Ross School Board of Overseers recently appointed Maloberti for the next two years, beginning July 1, 2012. The decision was the result of a comprehensive search conducted by the trustees and the search committee, composed of faculty, parents, administration, and staff.

Maloberti, who has a doctorate in education and has 25 years of experience working at independent schools, is coming to Ross from in New Jersey where he served as dean of admission and financial aid.

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Maloberti has "tremendous communication skills," said Ross parent Andy Boyland, who served on the Advisory Search Committee. "He understands the need for community building and good solid community relations and brings to us fantastic experience from Lawrenceville in the areas of development, admissions, and communications."

According to Maloberti, 21st century learning skills include the concept of globalism and the concept of critical thinking — doing analysis of a written piece as opposed to preparing for a multiple choice test.

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"Twenty years ago, Ross said that's exclusively what we are going to do," Maloberti said. "We are going to be thinking about things from a multitude of perspectives; we are going to consider an Eastern philosophy, a set of historical events and perspectives that come from all over the world. Ross is committed to the idea of looking at culture broadly from around the world."

He said that the newly announced Mandarin Language Initiative is in keeping with Ross's learning philosophy. "Ross is saying to its students, if you really want to understand the world better, learn a second language, and we are favoring Spanish and Chinese, because if you look at the population that's what people who are not speaking English will be speaking in the next 25 years."

"We've been very pleased with the Chinese language program at Ross," said parent Elizabeth Laytin. "Our daughter has had two different Chinese teachers and they have both been wonderful. We thought it would be hard for her to learn the language, but she is in her third year and is writing and speaking the language proficiently."

"We are now really focusing not just on the language piece," Maloberti said, "but also on culture. We have a rich history of teaching Asian culture and teaching Chinese history so that the kids are beginning to see a context for this language. We are also doing some really sort of charming things like sending our international students from China down to our lower school campus and having lower school kids sing them Chinese songs, and letting the lower school kids hear the upper school kids speak in native Chinese accents. It's fun for everybody and it's real as opposed to a sterile academic approach."

During the 2012 winter session, Ross high school students were also offered the opportunity to travel to China.

"Globally ... every economy in the world is interacting with China," said Maloberti, explaining the focus on China. "China is in an emerging moment."

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