Do NOT send your child to this school full of lying (while smiling to your face), fake, thieving, bullying, non-inclusive, scamming, cheating, staff and students. The food and extra curricular activity offerings are awful. Most of the staff pretends to placate, but are incredibly disingenuous with their concern. The kids stay in the same class all day long (even for lunch) except for one special per quarter and the *occasional* outdoor recess on a rooftop without any equipment. They have a Behavior Analyst on site, but no school counselors for the kids benefit. Their 504 program is a sham and a joke. You will be given the run around on everything and need to keep your own meticulous documentation with pictures in order for your child's grades and records to be kept accurate. All that shimmers is NOT gold. Do your family a favor and don't fall for the likely fake, over-inflated, online hype.

Anonymous wrote:I worked there. Very intense- I wouldn’t send my child there with the huge focus on academics so young (my friend was a kinder teacher there and was teaching her students how to write paragraphs...). The social emotional learning is very much so “this is how you should act” - from sitting up Straight, walking silently in a Hallway and consequence if you even whisper. I have a lot of guilt about the things I enforced teaching there. If a kid even tries to talk about what happened they are seen as “talking back” and will be handed another consequence. So many rules were unnecessary and harmful to children. Very controlling environment.

Same, in terms of the guilt. A LOT of guilt. I started my career there and stayed for three years. If any teacher tried to enforce the rules we did with my own children, I would never go for it. The environment thrives on compliance. Parents are seen as second class citizens and not listened to. Teachers are overworked and underpaid. They survive on first year teachers and people who don’t know any better. Myself and former staff members literally refer to ourselves as “survivors.” Don’t do it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One thing I always find intriguing is the comment or negative connotation that seems to be levied at certain schools re. Teaching to the test. The upper NW schools seem to have high test scores but are never accused of teaching to the test. I went to an extremely strong school abroad that had the International Baccalaureate degree program. We did practice exams all the time in all subjects. Writing essays from past years exams all the time. Our school was not unique and was a historically very strong IB program. Somehow I doubt such schools would ever be accused of teaching to the test. So what gives? Truly what gives?

I imagine you can see that there's a difference between working on thought provoking essays for an IB exam for a high schooler and holding multiple practice sessions and a pep rally for a multiple choice PARC test for a fourth grader.

I honestly am not familiar with PARCC as we are not at a public school. So is that the only test that these schools are spending all the time preparing for? And is that really what is happening at these schools - they are solely focused on preparing for a multiple choice test? I'd love to hear from the educators who've worked at these schools on this matter as it is an often cited complaint against these schools.