417 E Durham St, Philadelphia, PA 19119

We have a first grader this year and absolutely love our school community. I have volunteered at the school for some of the extra curricular activities including last year’s school musical and spelling bee. Being on-site I found it remarkable how loved these kids are by all the staff. You can tell in this small community, each member of the Houston team knows the kids personally and cares about their success. That’s the most important part for me, but I’ve also been impressed by how they meet each child’s learning needs. My son came in reading at a fairly high level but he left Kindergarten reading at an early second grade level according to his assessments. That’s largely due to the school and their teaching methods. This year, I’m amazed by how excited he is to learn. He comes home everyday with some strange factoid from STEM or social studies and it’s clear he’s being engaged with the content. And finally, they also clearly teach the kids how to be good community members to one another. During the musical, the eighth graders were incredibly kind and encouraging to all the kindergarteners and younger kids. My son comes home clearly having learned how to be supportive of his peers. Houston teaches kids not only how to be good scholars but also how to be good humans. We need this level of commitment and care for all schools!