Achieve Academy

There is a lot of support for under resourced kids and they build great relationships

My child and I were looking forward to her starting school, but it has been a nightmare and the facility and staff have fallen extremely short of my expectations. Some of the other children in her class are completely out of control, pushing the other kids (not just my daughter) down the slide, hitting, biting, etc. If she had not found a few great friends, I would pull her out of this school. There are also issues with parent to teacher communication, disagreements on how difficult situations should be handled, singling out children that had little to do with a disturbance, and who determines what the children eat. My daughter was told on multiple occasions by her teacher that she couldn't eat the snack her and I packed; as a parent, this is unacceptable. The teachers have no right to tell a child they cannot eat, especially when there are no allergy issues in class and a snack that is already okay-ed by the parent. I am also not thrilled with the curriculum, as I have yet to see my daughter challenged in order to grow. Scheduling anything with the teacher is impossible, and I feel a large part of it has to with personal opinion and prioritizing those who are not Caucasian.

Technically, I am a grandparent whose granddaughter is in 1st grade at Achieve. It is our community school, which her father and aunt went to when they were young. The Mapleton district has designed many focused smaller schools instead of 2 larger schools and this approach seems to have worked. The class sizes are small, the teachers are excellent, and it is STEM focused.. Parent involvement is good and there is extensive support for ESL families if it is needed. Part of the reason their state scores are low is that they are a new charter system, but it seems to me that they are doing a good job. They make what little funding they have stretch a long way (vote yes on ammendment 66!) and have inventive fundraising throughout the year (not catalog based thankfully). They emphasize student involvement in the school as their own little community and this approach is working well with my granddaughter and her friends. All things considered, our extended family is pleased with the job Achieve is doing and my granddaughter looks forward to school, learns a lot there, and enjoys going, which I think is important.

Horrible! My son was relentlessly teased because he is white! My daughter had to be taken out because all they did was cater to spanish speaking. I would like my children to grow up in a diverse atmosphere but this was ridiculous!