The School's Philosophy
Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School is committed to a rigorous and comprehensive college preparatory curriculum with a serious emphasis on art, music and drama. The academic program is structured and balanced within the liberal arts and sciences in order to develop a student's intellectual potential to its fullest for college and beyond. The program includes English, language arts, foreign language instruction, mathematics, the sciences, current and historical social studies, physical education, technology, and the fine arts. At the same time, the school recognizes its fundamental responsibility to develop good character, standards of conduct and a sense of social responsibility within the school community. The development of good citizenship in our students is regarded as a crucial and integral part of their education.
Our school is strongly committed to co-education and feels that a relaxed but structured social setting where boys and girls can learn together is the most effective educational environment. The school is also committed to a financial aid program designed to maintain diversity and balance--racial, ethnic and financial--within our school community.
Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School has a responsibility to its students, to their parents and society at large to help each child become a well-educated, responsible, caring and productive person. Cultivating our students' minds, supplying them with a substantial fund of knowledge and providing them with the basis for making sound ethical judgments remain the foundations of the school's philosophy and mission.
Diversity
Our school has always emphasized a multi-cultural curriculum. In the Grammar School, students study immigration and their family heritage, and African-American history is taught as well. Assembly programs are often used to emphasize multi-cultural performers and themes. In the Prep School, Africa, China, Japan and South America have always been taught on a nearly equal footing with the study of Europe.
Gender Equity
Committed to the benefits of co-education, the School has spent a great deal of time holding workshops and hiring professionals to guide us in this area. Efforts are regularly made to discuss the maintenance of gender equity in our school in order to provide the best and most positive education for boys and girls together.
Accreditation
Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School is a fully independent, non-sectarian school governed by a Board of Trustees composed of alumni and parents. The school is accredited by the New York State Association of Independent Schools, the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, and the New York State Board of Regents.