Moscow State School 57 (Russian: Пятьдесят седьмая школа) is a public school located in the Khamovniki District of Moscow, Russia. The school was founded in 1877 and is best known for its specialized secondary program in mathematics and its alumni.
Contents
History
Founding and School 4 (1877–1968)
In 1877, Karl Masing, a Russian engineer and educator, founded a realschule in Maly Znamensky Lane, which soon became one of the most progressive vocational schools in Russia.
After the October Revolution, the realschule was converted into a boarding school with courses in aesthetic arts and renamed to School 4. It became popular with the Soviet establishment, with top government officials sending their children there.
In 1936, the school was transformed again, converting back to a vocational school and acquiring the number 57 in Moscow's educational system.
Math classes and new campuses (1968–present)
In 1968, Nikolay Konstantinov, a Russian educator in mathematics, established specialized math classes at the school. Konstantinov's teaching methodology still is used in these classes to this day and has been shared with other educational centers.
The high school offers specializations in humanities, biology, and mathematics, as well as a general track. In 2008–2013, the school merged with two other schools in different locations of the Khamovniki District of Moscow, in conformity with recent reforms in educational policy.
Enrollment
The school has a total enrollment of over a thousand students, entering first, eighth and ninth grade.
Admission to elementary school is competitive and based on test results of the students previously enrolled in the school's tuition-based mandatory preschool program.
In 2015, the admission committee considered over a thousand applicants for 130 positions. By maintaining good standing the students can guarantee their further education in the school's general track middle and high school.
School 57 has general track classes along with its specialized programs and holds a separate admission process for specialized classes in mathematics, humanities and biology, a joint project of the school and the Faculty of Bioengineering and Bioinformatics of Moscow State University. The admission committee considers a few hundred applicants for 20–25 places in each class.
School 57 launches two math classes each year, with four- and three-year curriculums, each admitting around 20–25 students who have demonstrated the best problem-solving abilities during the application process. The school organizes free preparatory courses that help interested students to develop said abilities. A portfolio that includes prizes from math competitions can strengthen an application.
Academics
Students in the specialized classes receive extensive training in their areas of expertise, often covering college-level material in their junior and senior years. Graduates of the specialized classes often go on to pursue college degrees in Russia's best universities, including the Higher School of Economics, Moscow State University, and the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.
Physics classes
One of the faculties in the school. The specialists in STEM subjects work with students from 8th to 11th grade to prepare them for the All-Russian Olympiad of schoolchildren. The academic curriculum includes calculus (differentiation, integration, number theory, etc.), advanced mechanics, optics, molecular theory as well as the English language for academic purposes.
Mathematics classes
Individual approach lies in the core of the specialized math classes' educational process. Teaching the specialized math classes isn't limited to faculty staff – additional instructors, many of whom are volunteering alumni, are involved in order to give every student necessary attention. Rather than having to learn the material from a textbook, students discover it through solving sequences of problems. Solutions are presented by the students to the instructors in one-on-one discussions. This method, introduced by Konstantinov, proved to be effective and was adopted by other educational institutions in both Russia and abroad, including School 179, the Independent University of Moscow and the Faculty of Mathematics at Higher School of Economics. Several School 57 teachers have also written textbooks that follow the method.
Awards and recognition
The school is consistently ranked among the top 10 Russian schools. In 2016, school 57 was ranked fourth in Moscow by the Moscow Department of Education and fifth in Russia by Uchitelskaya Gazeta (Teacher's Newspaper), the leading educational periodical in Russia. Several teachers from the school received honorary awards, including the President's award. The school was also awarded grants by the George Soros' Open Society Foundations and the American Mathematical Society.
In 2016, fifteen students of the school received awards of the All-Russian Mathematical Olympiad.
Extracurricular activities
School 57 offers a number of free courses for middle schoolers preparing students who intend to apply to the mathematics, humanities and biology classes. The math program includes weekly problem solving sets for sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders, some of the courses are published. The biology track includes lectures in math, biology and chemistry for eighth graders, and future humanities students study literature and history. The school also offers a course preparing for TOEFL and IELTS standardized English tests.
Class vacations, including those involving intense work (lectures, presentations, field trips), are popular in the school, though not mandated by the administration. Math classes usually tend to have mountain hiking journeys, while humanities classes organize urban trips, focusing on cultural and historical studies. Since 1996 the school worked together with the Tauric Chersonese museum to organize volunteers from the number of students and alumni to work and learn on different archaeological sites in the area.
Open Oral Maths Olympiad
School 57 holds an annual math competition for sixth and seventh graders from Moscow schools, sometimes accommodating more than 300 students. During the competition, students interact with professors, as well as mathematics graduate and postgraduate students of Moscow universities. The competition consists of two rounds and a series of lectures on various subjects by school teachers and alumni professors.
Summer Мath Сamp
Since 2012, the school has been hosting a mathematical summer camp for high school students, where university professors offer a number of introductory courses in different areas of college level mathematics. School 57 students are admitted automatically, students of other Moscow schools receive a spot in the camp based on results of a competition. The Summer Мath Сamp is jointly organized by the school, the Higher School of Economics and Yandex. In 2016, the Summer Мath Сamp had 15 courses and 80 students. The topics covered in the camp's course include the Young tableau, knot invariants and Schubert polynomials. Students who have the School 57 math camp's honors certificate have a better chance at getting into the Higher School of Economics.
Lectorium
In September 2016, a series of lectures by notable alumni was launched in a joint effort by the school's alumni and students' parents. Lectures take place in all three buildings of the school, the speakers include Alexander Barulin and Anatoly Starostin.
Logo
Classical School 57 logo contains a mathematical root symbol hidden in its counterform.
Notable people
Alumni
Among the notable alumni, most work in the field of mathematics. However, the list also contains well-known scholars in other disciplines, as well as politicians, businessmen, and public figures.
Vitaliy Arnold (1968-2017), leader in mathematics education
Pavel Bardin (born 1975), film director, screenwriter and producer
Boris Barkas (1953–2007), poet, songwriter, author of songs for Alla Pugacheva and Mashina Vremeni
Valentin Baryshnikov, editor of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Roman Bezrukavnikov (born 1973), mathematician, professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Alexei Bondal (born 1961), mathematician
Alexandre Bouzdine (born 1954), theoretical physicist, professor at the University of Bordeaux
Maxim Braverman (born 1966), mathematician
Grigory Bubnov (born 1970), economist, president of Moscow Technological Institute
Elena Bunina (born 1976), mathematician, professor at Bar Ilan University former head of Yandex in Russia
Dmitry Dolgopyat (born 1972), Russian-American mathematician, professor at the University of Maryland, College Park
Ruben Enikolopov (born 1978), economist, former rector of New Economic School.
Alex Gerko (born 1979), founder of XTX Markets, a trading firm.
Faculty
The schools faculty includes a mathematician and professor Alexander Shen, an educator, geometer, author of several geometry textbooks Rafail Gordin, director of the Moscow Center for Continuous Mathematical Education, head of development of Unified State Exam Ivan Yashchenko.
Former faculty includes poet and novelist Igor Vishnevetsky, mathematician and Soviet dissident Tatyana Velikanova, biologist, founder of the biological classes at School 57 and other Moscow schools Galina Sokolova.