Kindergarten!

We have a kindergartener! Last Monday Daniel had his first day at Coppell Classical Academy. So far, we seem to be missing old friends and teachers but settling in well and beginning to make new friends.

Our first day of school pictures:

That first morning kindergarten parents got to walk our kids in rather than drop them off in car line. Rebecca was excited to come too and see her brother's classroom. He hung his backpack up on the hook by his cubby and we went into the classroom. His teacher told him to take any open he wanted so he marched over to a table full of girls, started coloring a picture, and looked up at us like "ok, you can go now!"

That afternoon I came to pick him up and expected him to be excited to see me. Instead, he was disappointed I was there-he was having fun playing tag with his friend Adam (another Apostles grad) in the gym and wanted to play longer!

(Side note: this kid has wonderful natural running form. I see greatness there!)

We had a bit of excitement Thursday. He lost his first tooth a few weeks ago-one of the bottom middle teeth-and its neighbor had been wiggly too for awhile. It finally came out Thursday at school during after care. Apparently a friend bumped into him while they were playing outside and knocked it a little looser then, during snack time, he was eating a banana and out it came. It fell out on the picnic blanket the kids were eating on and he couldn't find it. One of the teachers, bless her, looked around trying to find it but to no avail. The tooth fairy "found" it though and left him a note and a treat anyway.

It's been a little bit of an adjustment for him and all of us going to a new school. He's excited about his new teacher and school but leaving the school, friends, and teachers that were a huge part of his life for 4 years is understandably hard for him. But when his new school uniform shirts came in weeks ago he started wearing them right away, he was so excited. 

I'm sure there must be moments he's happy about it and moments he wishes he was back at Apostles. I've tried to help him understand that that's normal and okay. As he settles in further and makes more friends, I imagine he'll come to love CCA more, and we've talked about making plans with old friends often so they can stay in touch. Anyone would find it hard to leave a place they've been and loved for 4 years, but for a 6 year old, he literally doesn't remember a time before he spent most weekdays at Apostles.

The school decision

So this isn't the public elementary school we're zoned for. How did we wind up here? (Note: this part's probably really boring for anyone not facing a school choice of their own...I just like to keep good notes on process so I can use for future reference.)

Last year we started looking into options. The public school near us, La Villita Elementary, was a good option, certainly one we could live with if we didn't find anything we liked better, but we wondered what else might be available. While we're in a good district (which is itself a tenuous metric, given that good test scores and affluent socioeconomic status seem to correlate pretty strongly), my concern was that even if my kids got motivated and talented teachers, those teachers might be constrained by budget and administration to a degree teachers in other types of schools wouldn't. Also, I didn't like that I couldn't find much detail about the curriculum despite a lot of research. Were they using scientific reading and math instruction methods, or were teachers just doing what they'd done in the past without critical examination of best practices? (Yes, I'm that nerd who doesn't work in education but read a book about educational best practices. Twice.)

There are some private schools nearby but we ruled them out pretty quickly. I'm a private school grad myself so I can certainly appreciate their benefit, but they are very pricy and we had to wonder if they were really THAT much better than other options to merit spending the cost of a new car on one kid's tuition every year (to say nothing of what would happen once Rebecca gets older). We'd happily pay the cost if we felt it was the best choice for our kids, but as we evaluated we found some other options that we felt offered similar quality for a far better price-free-charter schools.

Charter education is controversial these days, and for good reason. Some charter programs nationwide are excellent, on par with the best public and private schools, others are fly-by-night scam artists that provide subpar education or close overnight leaving students in the lurch. And there is fair concern that some programs may be cherry-picking locations to drive their results rather than filling unmet need or serving as a channel for controversial views. So when I saw there were some charter options near us, I was interested but wanted to learn more.

3 stood out as good options: North Hills Prep, Great Hearts Academy, and Coppell Classical Academy. All are lottery admission, so all we could do was apply and hope for the best. North Hills wasn't offering tours until winter and we knew that our odds of acceptance were slim, so we resolved to apply but not spend much effort on it till later. We scheduled tours with Great Hearts and Coppell Classical in November-by coincidence, on the same day.

Great Hearts was first up. Like many charters, it uses repurposed building space-in this case, a former nursing college. It serves grades K-12-lower grades on the 1st floor, upper grades on the 2nd floor. It felt...well, like a private school. The walls were full of art, the students in uniform, the lessons we listened in on were interesting, the teachers passionate, the students articulate and engaged. In each classroom, a student was designated to be the greeter, look each visitor in the eye, shake our hands, and introduce himself or herself. I found myself thinking I'd have loved to go to school at a place like this. The facility wasn't an obvious match for a grade school but clearly worked well, for the most part. It seemed they still had some finishing touches to do but it was definitely a good campus. Their curriculum seemed thoughtfully designed and sound and they were proud to share details about it. They seemed to welcome informed parent questions-no hiding the ball here.

There was a lot to like about it, no doubt. But I found myself thinking that as good of a school as it clearly was, it might not be the best fit for Daniel. It's big physically-big building, big classrooms, tall ceilings, and also a fairly large enrollment. Daniel had thrived so well at Apostles with its small class sizes and cozy space. I wondered if this might feel overwhelming to him. And the kids are taught to sit in "scholar position" in class- not a bad thing in itself, but given Daniel's ADHD, I felt that it might be too rigid of a setting for him. I could see it being a great fit in junior high or high school, maybe, but wasn't sure about it for elementary school. Kevin felt the same way-we both liked the school a lot but wondered if it was the best fit for Daniel. Still, we came away impressed and interested.

After lunch, it was on to Coppell Classical. Like Great Hearts, it's also housed in a repurposed space-a former church building. It had student artwork on the wall instead of the classic prints Great Hearts had, and its classrooms and hallways were smaller and the space felt more casual. I liked it though-it felt cozy and cheerful. Here, as at Great Hearts, the kids were also in uniform, alert, and seemed engaged, but the atmosphere was a little less formal. The director led our tour himself (and had personally called to respond to my email asking for information) and went into a lot of detail about the curriculum (similar to Great Hearts' in the classical education focus, phonics-based reading, and Singapore math), but also talked about how, while the school's test scores were excellent, they were careful not to put pressure on the kids and didn't put much focus on the state tests. It was clear they encouraged a thoughtful educational environment, but also a warm one.

I asked both tour guides that day the same question and the different answers they gave were instructive. I asked how they attract and retain top teachers, given that teacher quality is one of the biggest drivers of educational attainment. At Great Hearts, we were told, the school sought out people who knew their subject matter well and actively encouraged them to further their own studies as part of their development as educators. Not a bad answer-knowing your kid's teacher is spending part of an in-service day reading Plato seems like a good thing. I'm my own boss and I take continuing my own education quite seriously, reading way more CLE articles than I need for my annual credits just because I'm always looking to become better. If I were a teacher, a school that encouraged that would be quite attractive.

The Coppell Classical director's answer was a little different. He said that in the past they had let go of several smart teachers who knew their material well but weren't effective educators, and their focus was on finding excellent teachers who kept up with best practices and really had a heart for the job, who looked at the students in their classes as being like family, and also fostered strong camaraderie as a staff. Of the two good answers, this one resonated more with me. As board chair of the preschool, I feel strongly that the best draw we have is our teachers-ladies who truly love teaching and are passionate about it. I liked hearing that that was valued at Coppell Classical and could see how it would attract good teachers who really want to teach, not just do test prep.

The day actually reminded us of when we had been touring preschools 4 years ago looking for the right fit for our almost 2-year-old. We looked at another Montessori earlier in the day and then to Apostles. The other school was nice, in a new facility, with a greenhouse, computer lab, and Spanish and Mandarin classes. It was a good school and I could see why they were proud of it. Apostles is in an older building with smaller classrooms and fewer amenities, but the minute we we walked in, we could feel that it was a place where the kids weren't just taught and cared for, but really loved. I knew Daniel would love it and couldn't wait for him to start. We felt the same way 4 years later about Coppell Classical. On paper, in some ways, Great Hearts was the more attractive option, but the feel of Coppell Classical was what we were looking for, and it was at the top of our list after that.

Now all we had to do was apply in the lottery and hope we got in. We applied to all 3-well, 4 actually. Coppell Classical has a sister school in Carrollton which we listed as our second choice. We figured if we only got into one, that's where we would go, and if we were lucky enough to have 2 or more options to pick from, so much the better.

I don't know what number we were on the waitlist with North Hills, but apparently we were so far down they didn't even bother to send us a letter or email and I only saw we hadn't gotten in from their website. I wasn't too upset about that. It's only a block from the house so certainly had the convenience factor, but it had a reputation for being overly rigorous-not really what I was looking for.

Great Hearts had us in the 90s on their waitlist (now up to 39, apparently). Given that we didn't expect 90+ families to pass up a spot, we didn't pin our hopes on that.

Then there was the Responsive Ed lottery for the Classical Academies. We got admitted to Carrollton and number 24 on the waitlist at Coppell. I was glad to have an acceptance in hand but hoped we'd get in to Coppell. Mr. Sisk, the director, saw me at the lottery event and recognized me from our meeting months earlier, and told me to be optimistic because 20s on the waitlist were likely to get in.

While we were in Disneyland in February I got a call from someone at Carrollton telling us we had till the end of the day to either accept our seat or release it, and if we accepted, we'd be removed from the Coppell waitlist. Hoping for the best, we turned the seat loose and hoped the Coppell waitlist came through for us. 

Over the next few months we moved up the list little by little (though through some technical glitch, they weren't tracking us properly for awhile, but were able to sort out when I called). Finally, while I was sitting in the Detroit airport in June about to board our flight to Montreal, I got the email we'd been waiting for-we were in! We were about to enter the land of limited data plans so I quickly responded that we accepted.

It's funny, as much as I'm a logical, Type-A person, I've found that I always make big decisions pretty much the same way: I use research to narrow to a few options, then go with my heart. It has generally served me pretty well, and I think that process led us to the right school for Daniel. Any of our options would have been an excellent academic school, but I feel like he'll best thrive in a smaller setting with teachers committed not only to teaching but to really nurturing their students. So far, it feels like a good choice.

The good news is that assuming we're happy at CCA, as I expect us to be, we shouldn't have to go through this again. Rebecca will have sibling priority so will get in easily when her turn comes, and the school system goes all the way up through high school so we just keep moving along to the next campus-no reapplying to get in. Knock on wood, we may have done all our school admissions till college!