Brecksville-Broadview Heights Middle School

Our children went to Independence Primary. The staff is so friendly and caring. They make remarkable improvements academically from being exposed to the caring teachers at the school. We loved it!

Our family has had one child at the school since kinder and one since the toddler room. The younger grade teachers are excellent. We personally loved that music and Spanish are included from younger ages.The teachers/curriculum until about 3rd grade are ok. Most teachers are able to provide differentiation for more accelerated students or some support for students that are struggling. The school does not have the capability to help students that are really behind/struggling.The Upper Elementary program needs attention. During the time our children have been at the school there have been at least 3 total turnovers in the Upper El teaching staff. The current Upper El staff includes one teacher who is only 1/2 of the day in the classroom. There are two full time Upper El teachers. One of these teachers is an experienced teacher without a Montessori background. The other Upper El teacher only has experience with preK students and she doesn't seem to have much compassion towards older or more outspoken students. During the past year, multiple students have expressed their distrust of this teacher. They have been bullied, yelled at and picked on by this second teacher. There is also a real lack of concern about covering when teachers are out. Our older child noted that his advisories were canceled if teachers were out and lessons were often skipped for a week. Over the course of four months of school, this resulted in 4 weeks of our child not having a lesson which is basically missing a month of learning. Academically, the math program leaves a great deal to be desired. From one year to the next year, one student dropped from the 70th percentile to the 10th, a friend dropped from 95th percentile to 70th and another student dropped from 75th to 50th. The school did not believe that this indicated any issue with its math curriculum or teaching.The head of school is an ineffective leader which has only gotten worse over the past 6 years. Issues that are brought to the attention of the head of school such as student to student bullying, including physical abuse and issues with unprofessional teaching behavior are ignored. SSMS has been asked for over 5 years to develop an anti-bullying curriculum and has not done so. This year started with 38 students in Upper El, 2 left mid year and at least 12 (possibly more) are not returning in the fall.As a parent, my greatest failing is that we didn't leave the school sooner.

We are so happy to have our child at Assumption Academy. We are repeatedly impressed by the school's emphasis on living out our Christian faith seamlessly throughout life. From the classroom to the sports field, students are encouraged to show God's love to one another. We are also surprised again and again at how welcoming, caring and supportive the community is. Add to that the strong academic progress our child is making and we are very satisfied with the education that Assumption Academy is providing.