Our experience with Sterling Classical School has been incredibly disappointing and, honestly, exhausting,for both students and parents. The part-time structure creates a significant mental strain on students. They are expected to manage a heavy academic load largely on their own, with minimal guidance or support. If your child cannot independently master material--and if you, as a parent, are not prepared to essentially take on the role of a part-time teacher, this is not the right environment. Communication is one of the biggest failures. Multiple follow-ups with teachers and even the dean, Ms. Taggert, often go unanswered. There is little accountability, and concerns frequently go ignored unless escalated to a larger group. For example, an entire class was failing a course this year, and it wasn't addressed until multiple parents brought it forward collectively, and even then, the administration seemed completely unaware. Student life is practically nonexistent. The workload leaves little to no room for social interaction or participation in outside activities, including sports. It's an isolating experience that can take a toll on a student's well-being. There is also a noticeable lack of stability within the school. Teacher turnover appears high, likely due to low pay, and student retention is equally poor. That alone should raise concerns. Another issue that stood out during our time there and even during tours is the lack of attention to basic standards. Hygiene concerns among students go unaddressed, and classroom environments can be unpleasant, which is surprising and concerning for any school setting. Finally, a serious warning: do not pay upfront. Families are locked into tuition with no refunds, and there have been issues with transcripts being withheld, adding unnecessary stress to an already difficult situation. There were many red flags that, in hindsight, we wish we had taken more seriously. If sharing this helps even one family avoid the same experience, it's worth it. read more

Our family paid Sterling Classical School $13,000 in advance for our child's 2025-2026 tuition using funds from our 529 savings plan. Due to an unexpected period of unemployment, we had to withdraw months before the school year began. Despite our financial hardship and ample notice, the school refused to return even a portion of the money -- citing a no-refund policy buried in their paperwork. We reached out multiple times, including through an attorney, and were met with a dismissive response. The school even said our child could re-enroll but still refused to return any funds, even though no services were provided. It's deeply disappointing that a Christian school would choose policy over fairness and compassion. I share this so other families can be aware of how Sterling handles situations of hardship and withdrawal. read more

This is our second year at Sterling and I can't say enough good things. All of my children's teachers have been above and beyond anything I could ask for. I know that the administration prays over every child and every teacher before admitting and hiring & placing the students, and it shows! There have been some changes made with staff and curriculum over the last year & the school went from great to even better in my opinion. There is a HIGH amount of parent involvement, so if that is not what you're looking for, then this is not your school... but we love that aspect. My children are receiving a higher level classical Christian education at a comparatively more affordable price & I could not be more grateful. read more

A gem of a school, great philosophy, dedicated staff, & genuine community of families. Beyond grateful my child is receiving the best, growing in confidence, & in his love for learning at Sterling. read more

My daughter has attended this school for 2 years and I have been very pleased with the academics and the depth in which they study topics. No school is perfect but I love the hybrid nature of Sterling. The teachers are fantastic and the academics are far superior than the private school we switched from. The small class sizes let the teachers actually assign writing assignments/projects and give feedback. My daughter has definitely grown at this school. read more

I agree with the previous review. There is no such thing as a perfect school. I believe the teachers, staff, and families at Sterling are amazing! If you are looking for a classical university model Sterling is your place. read more

We have attended Sterling for 5 years and all 4 of my kids love it! We have experienced every grade from preschool to 6th grade so far and been very happy with our experience. We love the Christian environment where students learn about Bible characters, memorize scriptures, and focus on a monthly character trait. They even learn The Lord's Prayer in Latin! My kids love the Charlotte Mason hands on learning style and as a parent I love the Classical model which immerses them in the time period they are learning about. For instance, in second grade they learn about the Medieval times. They do several projects on this time period than have a big Medieval festival with food, costumes, and games outside. My son fell in love with this time period after learning so much about it that he insisted on having a medieval knight themed birthday party! I love that several of my kids had the same teacher as they moved up; they already know them from their siblings having them in the past and feel comfortable from day one. A blessing to our family has been the University Model which means they are at school 2-3 days a week and do work from home the other days. It gives the benefits of homeschool without me as a parent having to come up with lesson plans or curriculum. We use Fridays as adventure days to get outside or visit museums for cultural learning. My kids love being able to do their work at home and I'm especially thankful my kids had a part-time Kindergarten experience which is hard to find these days. We also get a month off at Christmas which slows down the season for us and allows for more quality family time as well as travel. Because I'm part of their education I know exactly what they are learning and I also can see where they might be struggling. One of our kids has Dyslexia and I've been so thankful for how Sterling has helped us navigate that. They educated us on how to get him tested, put an Individual Education Plan in place for him, set him up with on-site tutoring, and even gave us free access to Learning Ally so he can listen to his textbooks audibly. Every teacher has encouraged our son and worked with him to help him succeed. Both our older kids have been active in sports and I also love the extensive elective opportunities for all students. Orchestra, extreme science, lego lab, STEM, art, and PE are my kid's personal favorites. We just can't say enough good things about Sterling and recommend it all our friends. read more

As a teacher and administrator for the last 5 years, I thought I would put in a few positive words for Sterling Classical School. Prior to coming to Sterling, I worked as a head of school for three other classical Christian schools in the country. Since coming to Sterling I have worked as an Athletic Director, and taught upper school history, logic, government and economics classes. In August of 2018, in preparation for moving to Sterling's beautiful new facilities in the Travisso area of Leander, I also assumed the responsibility of Director of Operations and Facilities. I thoroughly enjoy working at Sterling. The longer I work here the more I enjoy it. It is a down to earth, family oriented working environment, with educational leaders who are strongly dedicated to the mission of combining the Charlotte Mason and Classical approaches to learning. I particularly enjoy thinking critically with students about history and the world around us. I also appreciate the commitment to using primary documents and project based learning. This allows students to engage more in the subject matter. Finally, I appreciate the commitment to reading good books, writing and oratory, especially in the English and History classes. One of my favorite education quotes is from Francis Bacon, the enlightenment philosopher. He said, "Reading maketh a man full, writing maketh a man exact, and speaking maketh a man ready." I believe Sterling classical School is providing these important skills for primary and secondary students in our community today. In addition, the school is teaching important critical thinking skills, in the context of a solid Christian worldview. I hope many people like you join the Sterling community and it continues to prosper and grow for many years to come. It is truly a blessing to the Leander and Cedar park communities. Sincerely. Tim Moon read more

We really love this school! My children adore their teachers, have always received the help and guidance they've needed from leadership, and have excelled in the university model. The school has set my children up for success in many areas... from academics, to opportunities to be involved in a variety of sports, and socially with meaningful friendships. With the model, study days at home are so important to our family dynamic. I know these are years that we will never get back when raising our children, and to have this opportunity to bond as a family is amazing. The school has a true family feel which as a parent I really enjoy. It is so helpful to know the parents of your student's peers. There are also great events, from daddy daughter dances, to mother son events, orchestra classes, and a variety of electives and extra curricular activities; there is a place for each type of student to find their niche. This is a loving atmosphere, amazing community, and I am thankful to be a part of this school! read more

Both our children went to Sterling for a period of time. BEST. EXPERIENCE. EVER. The teachers LOVE the kids. The fellow parents are unlike any others. We look forward to sending our younger kids back. And now they have a new facility...! read more

When our family moved to Cedar Park last summer, we were so happy that we found Sterling right away. This school made it a seamless transition from our daughter's previous university-model school in north San Antonio. We love the small class sizes at Sterling and feel that the teachers really have a chance to get to know the students. We've also enjoyed the growing athletic program at Sterling. Our student has been able to try several new sports in the past two years! The coaches are such a blessing to their athletes! read more

Extremely disappointed in the way management treated us. The owners/directors are very cold and did not hold up their end of the agreement upon signing up. When I found out shortly before school started that my son would have been the only one in the 4 day program, we asked to be let out of our contract. We were originally told that he would be in a class with other kids his age and this was just not the case. I feel like most schools would let parents know that the class didn't make and would offer a refund. I'm not sure if they are hard up for money or what but they refused and insisted that my son still attend. I told her this was not what we agreed on and not what we imagined for his first year of school and then I was told that I "was asked to pray about it". Not really happy with her choice of words and it honestly it seemed like a weird thing to say. We paid them 4,275 dollars and my son never attended one day at this school. They are still harassing me for more money, which I find really disgusting. I'm hoping no one else gets pulled into the same situation. Another friend of ours mentioned other families having issues with management also. read more

I was a Sterling parent for 9 years starting at Pre-K. Sterling teachers good to awesome. Sterling administrators Bad to Horrible--Dishonest, Haughty, Condescending, Disrespectful to others. THEIR TREATMENT OF OTHERS As far as treatment of others it has not been pretty. There has been a clear history from the administrators of disrespect for employees and faculty and is so bad that it overflows to parents who get on their bad side or question any aspect of the school as well. Employee turnover has been evident, since school year 2012-2013 Sterling is on their 3rd Dean Of students. A previous employee review on Sterling from a job seeking website. Her "Pro's" for working at Sterling were; Great hours, good time off, pay per hour is better than at most schools. Her "Con's"; Leadership is very hard to please and take everything very personally. They demand far more of those working for them than they are willing to do themselves. Respect is earned by treating others with respect. Try not to ask more of those working for your business than you are willing to do as the business owner. I also know of one teacher who was let go or fired by email. She was let go because the next school year was not going to have enough enrollment to keep her class open. Very cold and unfeeling and unappreciative of an employee contribution to be fired by email. As far as disrespect for families I know of 1 mom's experience of trying to humbly and sincerely work out a conflict she was having at Sterling and was treated like a 2nd class citizen. Instead of trying to work with this parent in a humble and respectful way she was rudely told that if she didn't like it... there's the door. No mercy, no grace, no understanding. A classic --I don't care what you want or need, get in line or get out. My Way or The Highway. THEIR DISHONESTY As far as integrity of the administrators we had experienced outright dishonesty with regards to their words. On numerous occasions were told outright falsehoods concerning particular events and details of events that we were involved with personally. There was also at one-point parent speculation of creative interpretation with student scores for the sake of the school's scholastic image. There was also an incident concerning campus and student safety that quite a few parents felt the police needed to be called. The school administration chose to call a friend who was a policeman rather than the Leander police to try and keep it under the radar all the while representing in an email sent to all the families that they contacted the police. It took a parent calling the police to get involved and by the time they got involved it was too late to file a report. There is a history of being more concerned with image or optics over telling the truth or doing what's right. Then you have the heavy-handed email that went out to families prompting the giving of 2.5 million dollars to their "FOR PROFIT SCHOOL" under the auspices to pay for the renovations of the Angel Side campus. The link below is from Travis County Central Appraisal office and the entire Angel Side property as of 2019 is worth 3.375 Million http://propaccess.traviscad.org/clientdb/?cid=1 Property ID 447947 Saying that renovations-( move a few walls, paint and new flooring) cost 2.5 million is unabashedly dishonest because you could have bull dozed all the existing structures to their foundations and rebuilt them for 2.5 million. There are many examples like this but I only have a limited character count when posting on this type of format. The purpose of this review is my need to share and warn anyone considering Sterling for their children's education what to possibly expect and experience if they choose to enroll. If you are the kind of person who can overlook a company's deceitful manner and customer contempt and disrespect, you should be fine at Sterling and can get a somewhat adequate education. ***(I say somewhat adequate because SAT scores are not published and are a closely guarded secret) *** But if your Christian conscience has a problem with supporting an organization that uses the name of Jesus all the while acting and behaving like the world then you might want to think of looking elsewhere for your children's education. Lying and treating people with utter contempt is a clear break from Jesus's teaching of loving your neighbor as yourself and is an outright hypocrisy. It speaks to a deep character flaw in the leadership of a school claiming to follow and represent Jesus Christ. This hypocritical behavior from the administration will always trickle down and adversely affect you and your children and their education. Mathew 15:8 read more

Terrible experience!! We signed our son up for Pre-K 4 in Noveber of 2019 for the 2020 school year. We paid his tuition in full to get the 3% discount. Fast forward to March 2020. We were given the option of holding him out, homeschooling or sending him to campus based on the current pandemic. We decided to keep him home since it was only Pre-K and to let things with the pandemic hopefully blow over! Besides it was almost certain that they would switch to an online homeschooling! There's ABC mouse for that! It was a hard decision for us because we were excited for our boy to start school! We asked if we could put his tuition from this year towards his next year?(Kindergarten) We were told "NO" that he would have to reapply! We were trying to give the school good faith by letting them keep the money for the following year! The school told us if we decided to keep him out by 6/1 we would get the tuition back. Long story shorter they kept 1000 bucks because they said we had to pay for April and May and then for 30 days after we decided to hold him out (June)!!!! The last time I checked the school was not even open during these months!! WE basically paid 1000 bucks plus 250 registration fee for a tour of the school!! So disappointed in this school administration! I guess better to learn about this school sooner than later!!! Unfortunately it cost us 1250 dollars for nothing!! Sterling is not the upstanding school they claim to be! At least the school admin!! read more