5/2: Update: It's a different school now. The below review no longer relevant. I have no knowledge…read moreof the current school. The most amazing "little school that could". My son just graduated and we were looking back at what he achieved. It's simply incredible. School plays, lego league, chess, debate, technology club, VEX Robotics World Championships competing against high schools in California and of course solar cars, where Woodlands come home with armfuls of prizes. Great teachers who really care and classes sizes you wouldn't believe. (4-6, but not above 8 was our experience). He learned a lot and turned out a most polite young man. Would strong recommend - contact me for any more details!

A hidden gem! We…read moremoved to Castle Pines in January (from out of state) & only recently found Woodlands Academy in Castle Rock. I wish I had found them sooner. My 10 year old had been in the gifted program at her old school, had been doing well & loved school. While Douglas County school district has an open enrollment policy and a ton of charter/magnet schools, you can't actually get into any of them when you move in the middle of the year (in addition to missing the lottery for the following year). Our neighborhood elementary school was awful. I had a bad feeling about it the first time we visited it & have learned my lesson about listening to myself. It got worse over time until I was desperate to find another place (& had to promise my daughter that she would not have to go back there for 5th grade--no matter what--just to get her to be willing to get up & go to school every morning). She never had any homework, including math, and never had any make-up work when she was out sick--including a whole week she was out when we finished moving which the teachers knew about ahead of time. No assignments whatsoever. And there was no communication about anything they were studying or about any tests/projects/grades or anything. Luckily, I happened upon the Woodlands Academy while looking for another school for the following year, having promised my daughter that she would not have to go back to her old school. After applying, she went to shadow at the school to see if she liked it, while also giving them the opportunity to test her to see if she would be a good fit for their academically accelerated program. As it turns out, we were lucky that a new charter school had opened close by and had taken a lot of their students, so they had openings!!! The school was so fabulous I couldn't believe it. Very small classes with lots of one-on-one attention. They have lots of outside activities like going to the opera and hiking local places. It was so impressive that I withdrew my daughter from the local public school and am having her finish out the year there. I wouldn't normally think that would be a good idea, but she wasn't learning anything at her old school, so I couldn't imagine it being negative in any way. She went to shadow and never went back to her old school. Thankfully, the small classes allow the teachers to help catch my daughter up in things that she missed learning during her months in public school (important things that all 4th graders need to know for future school success). She loves going to school again! Now she comes home excited about debate class, learning a foreign language (they offer Spanish, French, German & Latin) and building a battery powered car (the middle schoolers designed solar powered) in technology class. If you are looking for an alternative school choice for an exceptional 1st-8th grader, I highly recommend Woodlands Academy. We are excited to have a great place lined up for next year. If I had found them sooner, or my about to be 8th grader hadn't already gotten into the STEM School & Academy for next year, I would pull her out of her enormous middle school and gladly send her to the Woodlands Academy where she could get the attention she deserves as an above average student who is clearly not getting enough attention focussed on her with her classes of 30+ students at the local middle school (which had great reviews, btw).

There isn't much this school has going for it. Take advice from a former student (me, now a…read moresophomore in high school) who had come back to this yelp page to give good feedback for the school and advice for parents thinking about enrolling their student. First, don't base the enrollment of your student off this review but please take note as to what your child might experience at this school. Now, into my insight on this school. Though I had been there only from 1st-6th I had to transfer due to poor ability to put kids in the right classes and an awful 1:35 male to woman staff employment. As you can tell, it is very uncommon to have very little male staff members, and you might be wondering "could this school give more opportunity to succeed for a girl rather than a boy" the answer is yes. many sexist teachers flood the school every year and they seem to have a vendetta against male students. Though this could be blindly overlooked when your student is younger, by 5th grade, it becomes very obvious. Second, the teachers' ability to teach proper lessons is awful. The school hires younger teachers so they can pay them less, in hope to save money. It also seems that training doesn't exist at this school because some teachers seem very clueless as to what new students might need for resources. In all, this school should not be your primary choice but feel free to overlook this comment

AVA has been a great experience for our children. top notch teachers, an active PTO that provides…read moreplenty of volunteer opportunities, strong academic and sports programs are plentiful overlayed with character education at the center of everything. When combined with an amazing principal and school administration that always puts children's needs first, it's easy to see why this school has been voted Best of the Best for the last two years! https://coloradocommunitymedia.com/stories/best-of-the-best-2019,282899

I am here to complain about the inaccurate grading, grades are currently decided on measures that…read moreactually only test your ability to parrot not your actual ability. Like a portfolio, it is a collection of work, but it does not test what you have learned. It only shows how well you can keep track of papers, and it is truly demonic because you are double tying grades. The tests test our knowledge of the book via obscure details, how it should be done is the overall story arc and more specifically the themes that the book explores. Instead you end up just doing the same things over and over and over again, which is both extremely boring, ineffective, tedious, mean, and taunting. The overall projects for the most part are trash, especially for ELA. Math projects are reasonably good, science is rather effective at teaching you the concepts, and for history they are actually some of the best. For Tabaka not Stern, she has you teach as the project, which is more effective The current educational landscape is built upon a fundamental misunderstanding of cognitive development where the traditional grading system serves as a hollow metric for compliance rather than a true gauge of intellectual capability. Scientific research from institutions like Harvard University has definitively shown that there is a massive disconnect between how students feel they are learning and the actual neural encoding of information. This phenomenon occurs because traditional lectures are smooth and easy to digest which makes students believe they are mastering the material when they are actually just passive observers. In reality deep learning is inherently difficult and requires active engagement which feels frustrating and messy to the student but leads to significantly higher retention and understanding. The standard practice of grading based on a collection of work like a portfolio often fails because it measures organizational skills and the ability to follow instructions rather than the actual acquisition of knowledge. This creates a double taxation on the student grade where they are penalized for the process of learning rather than the outcome. Furthermore the reliance on testing obscure details rather than overarching themes and story arcs fundamentally cheapens the educational experience. When tests focus on rote memorization of book facts instead of the critical themes and philosophical explorations that the material offers it turns education into a tedious cycle of repetition that is both mentally exhausting and pedagogically ineffective. This is why active learning classrooms where students are required to solve problems in real-time and engage in peer-to-peer instruction produce vastly superior outcomes. The psychological shift that occurs when a student is asked to teach a concept is profound because it forces the brain to organize information into a coherent and logical structure. This is known as the protege effect where the mere expectation of having to explain a topic to another person leads to better recall and a more sophisticated grasp of the main points compared to those who are simply preparing for a multiple-choice test. While subjects like science and history have occasionally embraced these effective models through projects that simulate real-world application much of the English Language Arts curriculum remains stuck in a cycle of ineffective tasks that prioritize busywork over genuine insight. The persistence of these outdated methods despite overwhelming evidence that active involvement and teaching-based models work better suggests a systemic failure to evolve. Schools continue to value the superstar lecturer who makes students feel smart while doing very little to actually improve their cognitive skills. To truly fix the system education must pivot away from the pressure of arbitrary grades and toward a model where the student is an active participant who learns by doing and teaching rather than a passive vessel for obscure facts. This transition requires acknowledging that the most effective learning strategies are often the ones that feel the most challenging because the effort required to process information deeply is exactly what builds long-term intelligence and true mastery of a subject. The psychological superiority of the teaching-as-learning model stems from a fundamental shift in how the brain encodes information when it moves from a consumer mindset to a producer mindset. When a student prepares for a standard test their cognitive focus is often narrow and defensive centered on identifying what might be on the exam and memorizing isolated data points to avoid losing marks. In contrast preparing to teach forces the brain to engage in high-level organizational processing because to explain a concept to someone else you must first construct a mental map of how different ideas connect to one another. This requirement for coherence naturally leads students to seek out the overall story arc and the un

absolute buns DO NOT send your children here I went there for 7 years. I was treated horrible by…read moremost staff. I got my head pushed down BY A SUB, i was told to sit under a desk by a teacher in 4th grade. The ONLY reason this school gets any stars is because its the minimum. There was one teacher who broke CMAS RULES to ask why i was leaving... For her info it was stuff like that, that is the reason i left. In my French classes i got taught NOTHING over 7 years now at my new school i've already learned more. The admin does NOTHING about bullying. I was in the principals kids class and he thought he could do anything and truthfully he could because admin is useless. Mr haslick suspended multiple kids for no reason. The admin here has NO buisness running a school. The only reason people get hired is because the are friends of the principal. One of my friends went home crying because bullying gets so severe because they no admin does nothing. You also learn nothing from this school because half the teachers arnt even qualified. They some how have an award that says "distinguished improvment" but if anything it gets worse and worse every year.

PARKER LOCATION: My grandchildren attend this school. We…read morecould not be happier with the outcome of their education. Teachers are above excellent and I can't say enough about this school. Uniforms are required and they have many extracurricular activities that your children may be able to participate in. If you are looking for the best charter school in the south area, make sure to look into American Academy's new Parker facility. You won't regret the education your child receives at this school. The teachers are AMAZING. The ability grouping teachers are phenomenal. Wish I could give them a score of 10 stars. A rarity for me to give this high score.

Leman was a good school until it wasn't. I've heard multiple stories. of different kids leaving…read morebecause of bullying. most of the bullying was towards kids who didn't fit in. But the bullying got really bad in middle school . With all of the bullying and other issues that were going on half of the kids who were there in sixth grade had left by the beginning of eighth grade year.

very good school and my kids love it the education is excellent and the values are the bestread more

Trinity has been such a blessing to us. The small class sizes and amazing teachers and staff make…read morethis place something special. Our kids have thrived socially and academically. We are thrilled to be a part of this community.

Trinity Lutheran Church and School has been like a second home to me. After graduating from the…read moreschool, the church has remained a stable part of my week. They really make you feel at home whether it's your first time going or you're the third generation in your family to attend. In the school, everyone, from the students to the teachers to the rest of the staff, are some of my closest friends and best mentors. The education allowed me to excel in high school, college, and beyond, all because of the Christ-founded, challenging curriculum. I couldn't be more grateful to be part of the amazing legacy of Trinity's church and school!

I cannot say enough good things about this school. We moved to Parker a few years ago and left…read morebehind a wonderful school in our prior hometown. GRE has exceeded all of our expectations. Dr. Brown, the principal, is so invested in her school, the teachers, and the students. The front office staff is wonderful and friendly, and every teacher my kids have had here (3rd through 5th grade) has been fantastic. The PTO is likewise supportive and involved without being clique-ish and overbearing. This place is truly the BEST.

I can't say enough great things about Gold Rush Elementary School. They just Rock! The principal is…read moreamazing and it's clear, she is well appreciated at the school by all of the teachers and staff. There is no doubt in our minds that she cares for all of the kids, teachers and staff as I'd they all were a part of her own family. Or son is a kindergarten and has grown so much in the last few months. Our son has hearing loss and the teacher does a great job of communicating with him and the entire class. We are incredibly thankful that our son gets to learn at Gold Rush Elementary School.

I am a graduate of DCHS from the 90's and sent my kiddo here as we live close and I had a good…read moreexperience. However, my son had a terrible time at DC. He is a good student, super social, has great friends, is in student leadership and government and is a great kid. While at DC he had a group of girls use safe to tell as a weapon against him, they had his car vandalized, they posted they wanted him dead on social media and the school did virtually nothing. In fact the school pulled him into the office, searched his body (with no reasoning, I was told this is protocol for being in the office), left him in a room for 4 hours with no bathroom or access to water and then sent him home without contacting his parents not caring what happened to him he left. My jittery teen was near tears, almost had an accident and was lucky to get home safely. This is a small snippet of what we dealt with over the course of a year. Administration is inept at DC in my opinion. I work in another school in the district and have never seen such behavior from a group of adults. I moved my son to Legend and now he is getting straight A's, the admin is lovely and the kids are kind, he's really shining. I wish I could do it all over again. If your not sure about DC do yourself a favor and try searching Instagram for DC related pages where you will find student owned anonymous pages where they post terrible and illegal photos of each other on campus doing horrendous things with the DC logo as their image. DC doesn't seem to care about this happening on their campus. In fact bathrooms at DC are closed right now because students are masturbating into the drains and blocking up the system, don't know about you, but I would rather not send my kids somewhere like this.

I graduated from DCHS in '74, our youngest son graduated this year. We have lived all over the…read morecountry, and of our 4 children, our youngest was the only one to go to the same high school as I did. It is nice to see that standards haven't changed. I loved this high school, way back when it was the only high school in Douglas County, Highlands ranch didn't exist and Dry Creek was a dirt road. The teachers were what made this high school and I feel very fortunate to have gone here. Thank you Mr. Gammon and Mrs White. I miss the "old days" when teachers could reach out and hug you, when you and your best friend decide to "miss the buss" so that you didn't have to take the scheduled test 1st hour, your science teacher sees you walking up front street, stops his car to find out why you are walking, insists you get in the car so you don't miss first hour and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. You certainly wouldn't see that today! Thank you DCHS for the wonderful memories!