We signed up for a prospective family tour and came with our son, excited to show him a potential…read morenew school. Unfortunately, the front desk staff were rude and inflexible from the moment we walked in. Rather than welcoming a prospective student, they spent the entire interaction explaining all the reasons he couldn't see the campus that day. A simple gesture -- "since you're here, let us take five minutes to show him around" -- would have meant the world to a child. Instead, we got rigid rules and zero warmth. If this is how a school treats prospective families during what should be their best foot forward, I can only imagine the day-to-day environment for kids. We made the decision on the spot not to enroll. I'd recommend other families look elsewhere.

As a parent who had a child enrolled here for a few years, I feel a responsibility to share our…read moreexperience so other families can make an informed decision, especially since the school sells itself to the outside very well. In our experience, school management is disorganized and unresponsive, and this often translates into emotional stress for the children. Communication with administration is difficult. It also appears that management does not support their teachers when conflict comes up with demanding parents, which is disappointing and, in my view, contributes to staff turnover and low morale. There were repeated incidents over time that raised serious concerns about supervision and overall school climate. Bullying and peer issues are an ongoing topic across almost all grades. Many families speak up now about mean, inappropriate targeting behaviors between students that feel insufficiently addressed. Common areas, particular bathrooms where students of different ages interact, feel poorly supervised. This adds to concerns about safety and creates a stressful environment for students, and was one of the reasons several families I personally know chose to leave the school. There also seems to be a difficult dynamic among adults in this school. Some parents regularly treat teachers poorly, and several strong educators eventually left. This kind of environment sets a troubling example for children, and in my opinion, contributes to a hostile school environment. Academically I find the program very weak. Class sizes are large (approximately 30 students with one teacher) and there appear to be limited additional professional classroom support. Many students who may have needed extra assistance do not have aides, which makes it difficult for teachers to meet the needs of all students. As a result, instruction often seems geared toward the lowest performing level in the classroom. In my experience, this causes the entire classroom to fall behind academically. By the upper elementary grades, reading and math expectations were well below what we expected. Many families I know privately hired outside tutors multiple times per week just to cover basic skills. Several families left to academic concerns. Day to Day classroom conditions are challenging. The classrooms are often very loud, and student behavior frequently feels out of control. During many volunteer opportunities, I personally observed that a large portion of the teacher's energy goes trying to calm students or get them to sit down, leaving less time for learning. Because the school seems to rely heavily on parent volunteers, adults without pedagogical training are frequently in and out of classrooms. While the intention might be to help, this often results in inconsistent, unqualified, or biased assistance, which does not support a productive learning environment. Finally, I want to note that my experience aligns with what other critical reviews have mentioned. Families deserve to know the full picture. This review is written to inform and caution parents, with the hope that it helps families ask the right questions and make choices that best support their children's well being. Please talk to multiple parents in depth who are still there or have left the school and you will hear about all these matters in person.

"Our experience at Walgrove elementary school has been absolutely wonderful! The large campus -…read morebeautiful wild-lands and Garden - theater, tap, steam studio, chess, etc. and the teachers are truly loving and dedicated. Parent involvement is strong, which creates a real sense of community. We feel incredibly fortunate to be part of such a supportive and enriching environment. Couldn't be happier!"

Awesome community! Academics are strong, plus great steam offering, amazing extra curricular…read more(violin, chess, ridiculously musical theater, etc) , plus a HUGE campus with lots of nature. Really don't know what more you could ask for!!! We've had two kids go through the school!

We love Grandview! Our oldest just graduated with a biliteracy award in Spanish. Our youngest will…read morebe in third grade and is just about caught up from falling behind during COVID. Their dual immersion program is the best. We don't speak Spanish at home but our kids are pretty fluent. Great teachers, admin and staff.

My son joined Grand View in the first grade and it was the best decision we could have made for…read morehim. We were concerned at first that he would struggle learning Spanish because we are an English-speaking household, but we're partway through the semester now and already he's excited and confident to practice his language skills. The teachers at this school are fantastic. They care about the academic success and emotional well-being of their students, and I am so impressed by the differentiated learning that happens. My son has been challenged in the areas where he excels and given extra help where he struggles. They also have so many extras: gardening, cooking, library, art, and more. The parent community is very passionate and there are many opportunities to be involved if that's what you're looking for. Basically, I can't say enough good things about this school! We left a highly competitive charter to come here and I'm so glad we made that choice.

My grandson is in the 2023-24 kindergarten class. The principal, administrative staff, the 5 TK/K…read moreteachers, & their teacher aides all work collaboratively. They are truly amazing professionals - not only smart, but well-educated, efficient, kind, proactive, inclusive, welcoming to everyone, creative, technologically advanced, & academically focused. We feel blessed by having him as a Mar Vista student.

We are so happy that our daughter attends Mar Vista Elementary School! The teachers my daughter has…read moreworked with have been wonderful, dedicated and capable and Principal Choe is an excellent principal who makes the school the best that it can be every day. Our daughter enjoys attending Mar Vista as the academics and enrichment programs are top notch. The students and parents are great too--it's an amazing community!

Reviewing the Mandarin dual language immersion program: the school and strong parent community have…read morebeen amazing. The program is organized so that kids learn half the time in English, and half the time in Chinese. This is "double-learning" -- they go through a full elementary school program in both languages. The school also responded amazingly well to the pandemic, with teachers taking the initiative to send daily recorded lessons without skipping a bit before LAUSD even figured out what to do, then nearly a full year of Zoom, and now in-person learning with weekly testing. Kids are happy and learn lots. Can't recommend enough!

I recently enrolled my child in the Mandarin Immersion program at Braddock. Since I did my…read moreresearch, I had high expectations of the program, but surprisingly, Braddock has actually surpassed them. Not only do I feel Braddock MI is taking the best approach to individualized student learning (CGI math, writers workshop, etc), I also *very much* appreciate the progressive, light and flexible approach to homework. They get it. Moreover, the MI program is now also an integrated STEM program. Bonus! Putting the educational quality aside though, the absolute best recommendation I can give is this: we've been to three schools before Braddock (two "well-picked" preschools and one other STEAM elementary). My LO hated going to them all. Hated school. Cried when mommy had to leave. You get the picture. Braddock is legit the very first school that my child actually likes going to. The teachers are GREAT with the kids and actually make them excited to learn and be there (between you and me, I've checked in on the classrooms... shhhhh). LO actually walks into school while waving and smiling at me. You can't ask for more than that... bilingual, STEM, progressive, individualized high-quality learning, and a happy kid who's actually excited to go to school.

My oldest transferred here in 3rd grade right before the pandemic hit - we left UCLA Lab School and…read morehave really loved the teachers, staff and leadership of the school. The SEL curriculum and Cool Tools reminds me a lot of UCLA Lab's approach -but without the tuition. Last year my other son started kindergarten. He's young for his grade so we decided to repeat kinder and got full support of the faculty and staff to do this - they really listened to us and allowed us to lead what we knew was best for our child. The Faculty is also very diverse which was important to us - we were looking for a school with strong BIPOC leadership and CWC is exactly that - amazing folks for my kids to look up to and aspire to be like - that look like them. One thing I wish there were more of, is the arts - but we are working on it - it's a community with so much room to create and imagine a future. We are so happy we found CWC and aren't going anywhere!

Students to teacher ratio is horrible. They expect you to be available to pick up your kid any time…read morethey misbehave. Letting kids run free through the hall with no supervision. I've heard similar stories from other parents who have found better accommodating schools in the area.

What a joke this place is. We had to spend hundreds of dollars, go through interviews of us as…read moreparents, interviews of my kid, plus send him to be tested, all so they could tell us we are not going to be accepted. Throughout the process, they acted like they were doing us a favor to even talk to us. Meanwhile, the admissions department at Wildwood was falling all over themselves kissing up to a friend of mine, who happens to be very wealthy and has a well-known last name. Needless to say, her kid was accepted. All this school cares about is admitting rich kids from rich families who will make big donations I viewed some of the classes and was not impressed at all. English consists of a bunch of touchy feely questions, science involves learning how to hug trees, and math was the same exact thing the public schools offer. Waste of time and money, if you ask me.

My children, both currently in high school, have attended Wildwood since kindergarten. This school…read moreis the greatest--from forward thinking leadership, engaging teachers, and stellar programs, to out of box projects, confident students, and much more -- Wildwood is an amazing school where kids receive a brilliant education.

I'm still here with my younger children and honestly the school has lost its magic. It was a domino…read moreeffect starting with the influx of more private school families moving over to Richland with their entitled behavior, then Covid, then a few families with insanely litigious approach to dealing with the staff not meeting their demands. The principal and coordinator both quit because the families became just too much to deal with. We lost a lot of truly wonderful teachers. Now we have a principal who is rude and oblivious and always defensive. She's all talk and no action and has no energy whatsoever. Our former principal, who granted had some shortcomings as well, was such a positive presence on campus. He engaged with families and students in an upbeat and excited manner every day. I wasn't his biggest fan, but the environment that he fostered was really special. We felt like we had a voice. Like he cared what the parents thought. This new principal acts like we as parents are always in the way or annoying her or doing something wrong. She doesn't remember anyone who isn't constantly kissing her behind. I've had many face to face conversations with her and she still never knows who I am or who my children are. We used to be welcome on campus, it was such a warm and loving environment. Now you have to jump through a thousand hoops to get approved to volunteer and for some reason only the select few parents get approved.

No longer a neighborhood school. Terrible communication on the transition leaving many students and…read moreparents scrambling to figure out alternatives and options.