Thoughts on Atlanta Classical Academy (how much, home, elementary schools)

[samiwas1]

Our son just got accepted to Atlanta Classical. I read through a thread on here with some extremely varied viewpoints about it, but that thread is almost two years old.

On the one hand, I think the tougher curriculum might be great for our sponge of an ASD child who taught himself to read and write at two and was doing math by four. On the other hand, some of the stuff I've read makes it sound very, how shall I say....conservative. I, myself, attended a private school many years ago which is probably similar, but there wasn't nearly as much "founding father"-style talk as I see attached to this school.

I want our child to receive a great education, but I still want him to be a kid.

Does anyone here have children in the school, or know people who do, who can give more insight into what it's like?

[AtlJan]

Originally Posted by samiwas1

Our son just got accepted to Atlanta Classical. I read through a thread on here with some extremely varied viewpoints about it, but that thread is almost two years old.

On the one hand, I think the tougher curriculum might be great for our sponge of an ASD child who taught himself to read and write at two and was doing math by four. On the other hand, some of the stuff I've read makes it sound very, how shall I say....conservative. I, myself, attended a private school many years ago which is probably similar, but there wasn't nearly as much "founding father"-style talk as I see attached to this school.

I want our child to receive a great education, but I still want him to be a kid.

Does anyone here have children in the school, or know people who do, who can give more insight into what it's like?

Sounds like you need to tour the school to get a feel of whether it is right for your child. How old is your child? I know a lot of kids who go there. It is on the conservative side, both in worldview and teaching philosophy. That being said, I do know liberal families whose children go there. It offers a smaller school environment than large public schools--the opportunity to stay with the same group of kids/admins on the same campus for many years. It depends on what your other options are. Definitely tour the school.

[samiwas1]

Originally Posted by AtlJan

Sounds like you need to tour the school to get a feel of whether it is right for your child. How old is your child? I know a lot of kids who go there. It is on the conservative side, both in worldview and teaching philosophy. That being said, I do know liberal families whose children go there. It offers a smaller school environment than large public schools--the opportunity to stay with the same group of kids/admins on the same campus for many years. It depends on what your other options are. Definitely tour the school.

We do have a tour set up for next week. I just wanted to get opinions from people who have experience there, as a tour is going to put the best light possible on all aspects.

[atl parent]

Caveat: I've never been to the school. I am familiar with the principal's work and general orientation and I like the idea of the curriculum (i.e. something akin to a core knowledge curriculum). One red flag is that their growth numbers have been generally terrible (Georgia Student Growth Model), which I find surprising but also concerning (were I considering sending my children there). A well-taught, content-rich curriculum should produce much better growth numbers for ELA, social studies, and science. It makes me wonder how well the school is run and how well material is being taught.

[AtlJan]

Originally Posted by atl parent

Caveat: I've never been to the school. I am familiar with the principal's work and general orientation and I like the idea of the curriculum (i.e. something akin to a core knowledge curriculum). One red flag is that their growth numbers have been generally terrible (Georgia Student Growth Model), which I find surprising but also concerning (were I considering sending my children there). A well-taught, content-rich curriculum should produce much better growth numbers for ELA, social studies, and science. It makes me wonder how well the school is run and how well material is being taught.

I think it is important to note as far as their numbers are concerned, that the school is brand new and the demographic at first drew largely from the surrounding, very affluent area. The student body has become increasingly more economically diverse over these first few years of its existence so I think the growth numbers reflect that more than anything about the teaching.

Also, on the link provided, I did not see Atlanta Classical Academy listed. Where did you find it?

[AtlJan]

https://schoolgrades.georgia.gov/atl...ssical-academy

Here is a good look at the numbers for Atlanta Classical Academy. I think it gives a good picture of the school to see that a higher percentage of the students are scoring in the green/distinguished and yellow/proficient levels for actual achievement than is the average for APS. It is a school of high performing students, clearly. It is sometimes hard to measure a high achieving school on student growth vs. a lower achieving school with more room for that growth.

[atl parent]

Originally Posted by AtlJan

https://schoolgrades.georgia.gov/atl...ssical-academy

Here is a good look at the numbers for Atlanta Classical Academy. I think it gives a good picture of the school to see that a higher percentage of the students are scoring in the green/distinguished and yellow/proficient levels for actual achievement than is the average for APS. It is a school of high performing students, clearly. It is sometimes hard to measure a high achieving school on student growth vs. a lower achieving school with more room for that growth.

Growth numbers are actually the best way we have to tell how well the school is teaching its students and it enables us to distinguish mere achievement correlated with demographics from learning that happens in school. It's an apples to apples comparison. For example, you take a kid who scores, say, 600 on math in 4th grade Milestones (a high score). You then compare that student's math score in 5th grade with the 5th grade scores of every other kid in the state who scored 600 in 4th grade. It's not perfect, but it tells you a great deal, particularly if you look at trends over the course of a few years.

So, if you click down on the growth numbers on the GA DOE site (through APS to Atlanta Classical), you see, for instance, that ACA has an 8th grade math median growth percentile of 17. That means if you take all the 8th grade kids at the school, compare them to all the other SAME scoring kids from 7th grade across the state, their median growth percentile is 17. That is terrible. Absolutely terrible. The _median_ kid in that grade learned less about math than 83% of his peers in the state.

[AtlJan]

Originally Posted by atl parent

Growth numbers are actually the best way we have to tell how well the school is teaching its students and it enables us to distinguish mere achievement correlated with demographics from learning that happens in school. It's an apples to apples comparison. For example, you take a kid who scores, say, 600 on math in 4th grade Milestones (a high score). You then compare that student's math score in 5th grade with the 5th grade scores of every other kid in the state who scored 600 in 4th grade. It's not perfect, but it tells you a great deal, particularly if you look at trends over the course of a few years.

So, if you click down on the growth numbers on the GA DOE site (through APS to Atlanta Classical), you see, for instance, that ACA has an 8th grade math median growth percentile of 17. That means if you take all the 8th grade kids at the school, compare them to all the other SAME scoring kids from 7th grade across the state, their median growth percentile is 17. That is terrible. Absolutely terrible. The _median_ kid in that grade learned less about math than 83% of his peers in the state.

I'd ask a few more questions, such as does ACA use the same curriculum as the test? It could be they are covering different subject matter. Also, if the school has a high number of students achieving in the highest level of difficulty that the test covers, the test may not be able to measure their growth as well. These results do merit questions, I'm just saying don't write off the school because of it. I have talked to many parents who much prefer it to the schools they were in previously at APS.

[mmcgrayland]

I do not have a child at ACA, but we are on the wait list for K. I attended an orientation last year, and also got the vibe that the school is very conservative. It actually reminded me a bit of Westminster (which I attended grades 6 through 12). I know some families who are extremely happy there, and have heard of (but do not personally know) others who already have or plan to pull their kids out to return to their APS elementary schools. I do agree that a tour will likely shed a lot of light on the general feeling you get from the school and administration. I would be curious whether/how much technology is utilized at ACA because, although I think there can be too much of a good thing when it comes to technology, a dearth of exposure seems equally problematic in today's day and age.

Other anecdotes - ACA is apparently very home work heavy. Approx. 10 mins per night per grade level, so an hour nightly by 6th grade and much more in high school. I also think it is interesting that they teach Singapore math (and are one of the only schools besides Westminster to do so). I think in two years, when students have SAT scores and start applying/getting accepted to college, there will be a lot more clarity regarding the quality of education.

[arjay57]

I think they've got some pretty good people running that place.