Commonwealth Academy

My child's experience was terrible. The teachers were nice but they did not teach kids with dyslexia as the advertised. This school wasted years of education and money.

We enrolled our son at Commonwealth Academy (CA) mid-year, when our local school was having issues meeting his needs. He has a learning profile of ADHD, language processing difficulties, and executive function (EF) difficulties. We were very excited about CA’s stated focus on executive function, and the admissions head also felt it would be a great fit. Our experience was horrific and ended when staff members unfairly took action with potentially devastating legal consequences for our family. The nature of what they did cannot be shared here due to the TOS, but be assured it was very serious, unwarranted, and we have strong evidence it was done in retaliation for disputes we had with some staff. We think the staff involved are senior level at CA. The school has been uncooperative in our efforts to rectify the situation.For a school that supposedly focuses on EF, they offered our son almost nothing in the way of support there, and made it very difficult for him (and us) to figure out what his assignments even were. There was no consistent place where or how assignments were listed; some were online, some were emails, and some were given in class. This is a nightmare for someone with EF difficulties, and set him up for failure. The school was also slow (three months) to implement an assisted listening device, provided by us, that we had discussed with CA prior to enrollment. One of us is a licensed counselor and former teacher with years of professional expertise and success in helping children with profiles similar to our son’s. We tried hard to work with the school on how best to serve our son, offering interventions to help him access the curriculum and get through the day. The school put up considerable resistance and foot-dragging and at one point the head of the middle school told us that we were no longer welcome to email them. They were not only not interested in the resources we offered, and even seemed offended by it.There were also repeated and inappropriate suggestions from staff that we should get medical diagnoses and/or therapy for our son. We provided evidence that we have in fact involved his health care providers in addressing his in-school challenges. We complained about this to the head of school, who responded very supportively. It was immediately after this that the action which cannot be named was taken. Parents considering Commonwealth Academy should know it is not a safe environment for their children and families.

This school does not prepare you for college. They lock your phone away for the entire school day, they have cameras everywhere, some of the teachers act like they just want to go home, they don't honor accommodations, and the overall school is subpar. As a former student, I would look for a different school that values you more.

Commonwealth Academy is above and beyond what anyone could possibly imagine for their child. After our older daughter finished elementary school we knew we needed to find a small, specialized school so that she could thrive and succeed. It was a thrill to find such a warm, inclusive atmosphere filled with dedicated administrators and teachers. My daughter has an anxiety disorder and OCD. Every single teacher, and I mean every one of them, CARES. The atmosphere that they have created is unmatched. The classrooms are small and quiet, the teachers understand that each child is different and the patience and commitment they display for each student is amazing. My daughter flourished at C/A. Without the chaos and fear of a big school, she got over her nerves that held her back and learned to speak to adults and advocate for herself. She had warm and nurturing advisors who saw her potential and appreciated her strengths. C/A the teachers take care of your student all day. From daily check in’s with their advisor, homework done in a study hall with a teacher who is ready to help, your student comes home without a worry that something has been forgotten, or there is more homework struggle ahead in the evening. High School students will get homework that goes home with them so they are prepared for college but for the most part they’re done, and what’s more, you know that everything they’ve done during the day has been checked and gone over. C/A teachers give weekly grades and inform you should your child need some extra help. My daughter recently graduated and has gone off to college. This process could have been truly stressful but C/A provided us with a fabulous College Advisor who took senior parents step by step through the process the entire senior year and was basically a dream come true. Our daughter was a member of the National Honor Society, scored in the 94% percentile on her ACT and was admitted into a university whose acceptance rate was 9% in the Fall of 2020. Our younger daughter began at C/A when she graduated elementary school and I’m delighted she gets to have the same experience her sister did – going to school where students are inspired, motivated and encouraged to be themselves no matter their learning style, a school where teachers are dedicated to making education fun and making every student feel they matter.

Commonwealth Academy has provided our child with a great education and positive experience throughout middle and high school. Although small, it offers dedicated teachers and a strong curriculum for children with learning differences. In fact, Commonwealth’s size is a benefit and helps create and bolster an atmosphere in which the teachers can be proactive in addressing our child’s needs, including helping with executive functioning challenges. Commonwealth’s curriculum is strong in all subject areas, but we have been most impressed by the math teachers who took a kid who struggled in math and made it into a favorite subject. We also cannot say enough good about the art teacher. Now that our child is in high school, we have seen further steps that Commonwealth is taking to enhance opportunities for its students, including hiring an excellent and experienced college counselor to assist with preparation for and applying to college. It is also important to note that Commonwealth effectively conducted distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic without missing a beat. From the start, Commonwealth has made our child feel welcome and valued as a student and has made a difference in our child’s life.