ROXBURY CENTER FOR LEARNING & LEADERSHIP
Powered by cutting-edge brain science, the Roxbury Center for Learning & Leadership (CLL) is a premium offering that enhances student learning and growth toward the school’s mission of developing purposeful global citizens.
The Roxbury Center integrates the latest, best research from the field of Mind, Brain, and Education—or MBE. This is where neuroscience, psychology, and pedagogy converge to give us unprecedented insight into how adolescents learn, grow, and flourish.
The science is clear: If you understand how your brain works, you can better unlock your potential. You’ll develop metacognition, self-awareness, and agency. You’ll transform, becoming the architect of your own learning.
That’s where Roxbury comes in.
Every faculty member at Cheshire Academy is trained in adolescent learning science and integrating brain-based learning principles across every classroom, every advisory, in athletics, and throughout residential life.
With the launch of the Roxbury Center for Learning and Leadership in Fall 2026, you can tap into that expertise in a personal way through new pathways and levels, including collaborative options that harness the power of peer-to-peer learning.
Whether you’re a top scholar, an English language learner, an aspiring college athletic recruit, a burgeoning leader, or looking for tactics for staying on top of your busy schedule, Roxbury has a specific program – with customizable pathways and frequencies – for you.
You’ll develop as a resilient, self-aware learner who recognizes and applies their own learning strategies across academic, athletic, and leadership pursuits. You’ll match your strengths and goals with the strategies and support that will help you reach your fullest potential.
You’ll be part of a culture of curiosity, connection, and growth, where every member of the community has tools to learn effectively, think critically, succeed comprehensively, and flourish.
A Proud History of Academic Coaching and Support
The story of Roxbury begins in the early 1900s, when Cheshire Academy was known as The Roxbury School—a pioneer in personalized learning, utilizing one-to-one instruction modeled on the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. At the time, the school was a direct feeder academy for Yale University, which also used these tutorial models on its New Haven campus.
In 2000, in recognition of this important part of the school’s history, Head of School Gerald Larson appointed Leah Stancil as the first director of the Roxbury Academic Support Program, designed to benefit those students who needed extra supports to reach their academic potential.
From 2000 to 2025, Roxbury grew to support upwards of 20% of the student body. Its work became ever more grounded in research-based approaches, and the program adopted a data-driven, five-point academic coaching model and a focus on social-emotional learning.
Roxbury’s Next Evolution
On the heels of Roxbury’s 25th anniversary in 2025, the program began its next chapter, with a new, mission-driven focus that honors the program’s history of providing one-to-one and small-group instruction, coupled with a deep understanding of adolescent brain science.
The expanded program provides Personalized Pathways for different student goals, as well as customizable levels to meet each student’s specific academic coaching needs.
Personalized Pathways
This pathway is designed for students striving to be top scholars. Whether you are a full International Baccalaureate® (IB) Diploma candidate, earning your Global Citizenship Diploma Distinction, or charting your own rigorous path through CA’s curriculum, the Academic Excellence pathway will serve your needs through:
- Executive coaching
- Stress management
- Executive functioning
- Task prioritization strategies
Work with your Roxbury instructor either one-on-one or in a small group to push yourself to the top of the highest level of challenge for which you are ready.
Offered at Premier, Signature, Collaborative, and Classic levels
This pathway is designed for our scholar-athletes – elite performers in a particular sport, those working toward college recruitment, and busy multi-sport varsity athletes.
This pathway will serve your needs through a focus on sport psychology and managing the dynamics of being a highly driven athlete in an academic environment. In addition, the Student Athlete pathway focuses deeply on Roxbury’s longstanding emphasis on healthy habits of body and mind, time-management, and stress-reduction.
Offered at Premier and Signature levels
This pathway is designed for current and emerging leaders. Our mission’s focus on purposeful global citizenship draws many of our students to be problem solvers and leaders, and demands of them judgement, ethical decision making, and analytical discernment.
This pathway provides guidance in:
- Balancing academics and leadership
- Executive coaching
- Relational dynamics
- Complex decision-making
Offered at Premier, Signature, and Collaborative levels
This pathway serves the purpose the Roxbury Program had at its core for its first 25 years: helping those students who want or need dedicated academic coaching support to help reach their potential as students.
Our signature five-point, high-touch model is the core of the Academic Support pathway, with feedback from teachers and reports home at the appropriate cadence for each student’s needs.
This pathway is focused on:
- Executive functions
- Habits of mind
- Development of transfer skills
- Real-life learning and success strategies
There is also a heavy emphasis on social-emotional learning and confidence building.
Offered at Premier, Signature, Collaborative, and Classic levels
This pathway has all the benefits of the Academic Support pathway, but is designed specifically for those students who require or want enhanced support as they learn English.
Offered at Signature, Collaborative, and Classic levels
Custom Levels: Choose Your Frequency and Engagement Style
Our four-tiered support model—Premier, Signature, Collaborative, and Classic—puts each student in control of their learning journey, with customizable paths designed to meet their unique academic goals and evolve with them as they grow.
The expanded program provides Personalized Pathways for different student needs and goals, as well as customizable levels to meet each student’s specific academic coaching needs.
This is the highest level of Roxbury we provide. Students meet one-on-one for coaching sessions with their Roxbury instructor for the same number of hours as for a full-credit course. Students receive weekly feedback from each of their teachers, coaches, advisors, dorm parents, or deans depending on which pathway they are enrolled in, and weekly reports are sent home to the family by the Roxbury instructor.
The Roxbury instructor serves as the student’s personal coach for the pathway in which they are enrolled.
At the Signature level, students meet for their one-on-one coaching sessions with their Roxbury instructors one or two times per week. Like the Premiere Level, the Signature level includes weekly feedback and reports home, and the Roxbury instructor serves as the student’s personal coach for their Roxbury pathway.
The Collaborative level offers students enrolled in certain Roxbury pathways the opportunity to collaborate with other students along with their Roxbury instructor. Groups meet one-to-two times per week with a maximum of three students and their instructor. Feedback home at the Collaborative Level comes in the form of quarterly progress reports sent home by the Roxbury instructor.
The Classic level offers students the most freedom and flexibility within the pathways for which it is offered. Students in the Academic Excellence pathway may enroll directly in the Classic level. At this level, students meet with their Roxbury instructor generally once per week, with feedback from faculty and reports home every other week.
Note: A student in the Academic Support or the Academic ELL Support pathway may not enroll directly in the Classic level, but must be recommended for it as a step-down from the Collaborative level.
