Cora Kelly Magnet Elementary

My son has gone to school here since Kindergarten. He is now in 3rd grade. The teachers are incredible, hardworking and loving; everything is student centered and all decisions are based on what is best for children. From the moment you walk in the door, there is a sense of family because the staff makes the students feel so loved. The principal; Jasabi Crews and vice principal: Lauren Holthaus truly lead by example. They literally know every student by name and make a point to establish loving relationships with all the kids. They are hard working and want what's best for kids always. Their dedication to the students and their staff is admirable. I am so lucky that my son has had the opportunity to go to this school.:)

This school has terrible overall test scores for students. Do not send your child here. My child's grades suffered the entire time there. My child regressed academically from where they were when they first entered. The staff does not work with parents. The staff actually confused my child with another child when I called the front office. They made an incorrect assumption that my child was in the court system and mentioned that on the phone. They sent out information about my child erroneously. Entire staff is very unprofessional and do not care about truly helping your child. They will quickly move the child on to whatever's next so that they don't have to "deal" with them anymore. Do NOT send your children here.

We are starting our third year at CK, with two kids in the school, and we have had nothing but positive experiences. One particular strength of the teaching is willingness and ability to differentiate teaching approach for individual students' needs.

I taught at a similar school for 10 years, so I'm familiar with the challenges and some of the ways you can face them. The administration and staff are doing a lot of these things right and where there are struggles they are looking to improve. We could afford a private school, but he gets a lot of resources and diversity at Cora Kelly that I don't think other schools could offer. They've ramped up the focus on technology and so I happened to observe a class where he and another student were working on sequencing and reading in a single exercise. He had basic letter recognition when starting Kindergarten and now reads at a 1st grade level. If you are willing to get involved and encourage your student there are opportunities to be had. The staff has been very communicative and I'm looking forward to next year. There are schools with more parent involvement, but I think that's something the school wants to improve and they have been very welcoming to me as a first year parent.