Beware if you place your child here. Expect to be the squeaky wheel if you want to have anything done for your child, and watch for changes in your child's attitude/behavior - investigate any issue your child brings to your attention. My coworkers grandson is still there as an effort to support an African American focused program, but he literally cries every morning and begs not to go to school. Same with a few others I know who's kids have developed varied emotions or anxieties surrounding these schools. My daughter has just recovered this year from the emotional and mental trauma she experienced from the teachers and staff.
My daughter attended here a couple years. She was previously at Allen Rowe, their sister school in Elk Grove, but had to transfer when I accepted a new job. This site in comparison is not what it was cracked up to be. It didn't compare at all to Allen Rowe. The teacher was overwhelmed, had no control of the class, come to find out wasn't even credentialed, and couldn't deal with kids of a different ethnic background, let alone kids from the Oak Park area. Eventually I transferred her to Fortune School for 3rd grade thinking that would be better but NOPE same experience as William Lee. I pulled her out completely mid year and gave up on the college prep program.
--My daughter had to learn to defend herself because when she was being bullied and told the teacher nothing was done.
--They pushed common core with an expectation to regurgitate information but didn't actually teach the skills to work through a problem.
--And the front office staff was rude.
--Teachers are not credentialed and haven't figured out how to discipline or function without the whole class suffering, or without kicking multiple children out of class for hours until they are able to address them, making them miss valuable learning time because of the teachers inability to deal with a diverse school population or various backgrounds/personalities.
The college prep focus took away my daughters inner child honestly. She was expected to SLANT when she was done with her work and sit still the entire time she waited for others to finish their work. If she didn't she was in trouble. If she read in class she got in trouble for "being off task" and was told to wait for others to finish. If she drew in class she was in trouble. My daughter was lead to believe that she couldn't do math because she couldn't regurgitate answers in a timed graded exercise - the truth was she could, she just had to solve it her own way and work through the problems. There was nothing wrong with that. The focus should be on teaching them the skills to solve the problem and work through it, not spit out info for funding purposes. She was an avid reader and writer and they couldn't even support that. And kids can't "slant" for long periods - they are kids, not robots.
I think in the beginning, during her time at Allen Rowe it was good because I was a single mom and needed the structure for her. As she grew older and her interests and curiosities expanded she needed the opportunity to be a child and build on those inner gifts. Fortune schools didn't offer that. It broke her spirit, and the lack of credentialed teachers, and placement of those that are still trying to figure out proper discipline and structure, let alone whether they even truly like kids, broke her confidence.
I watched friends pull their kids out and place them elsewhere, some stuck around to support something aimed at African American kids. We wound up at a public Waldorf School which has allowed my daughter to blossom into her creativity and have the opportunity to explore more opportunities while still learning all of the public school curriculum, just in more creative ways that reach each child where they are. She went from the focus being on learning what will get the school funding at Fortune/William Lee, to being able to have opportunities to think creatively, experience art, gardening, cooking, Spanish, play, instruments, etc and to BE A KID.
Kids learn differently just like we do as adults - Fortune/William Lee haven't figured that out. read more