Kingsley Elementary School

Posted April 16, 2009

The school has serious challenges to face, as it deals with a very diverse community of learners and severe constraints (no foreign languages, very limited enrichment, and overall limited resources). Given all this, some teachers are truly outstanding and some are disappointing. Principal leadership has been lacking due to high turnover. Lack of leadership at the principal level has limited the ability to encourage weaker teachers to adopt stronger teaching practices (with the help of some of their outstanding colleagues), and/or encourage some weaker teachers to leave the school, attracting good teachers. The school is doing quite well in early grades (up to 2nd grade), it becomes weaker from grade 3 on.
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Posted January 27, 2009

Our child transferred to Kingley this year from a private school. We could not be happier with his and our experience to date. Our child regularly comments on how much he is learning in math and how much he enjoys reading and writing. The differentiated learning has been a very positive experience for him. And, we've been very impressed with how deeply differentiated learning is built into the curriculum. The PTA is very active, parents are very involved and the new playground is a hit. All schools have challenges but the current principal appears to have a solid handle on these and a measured approach to tackle them.
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Posted December 2, 2008

Our experience at Kingsley has been great in terms of the community of parents and teachers with common goal of improving the education of all kids. The diversity of the learning community presents both benefits and challenges. Expectations of teacher are extremely high and the pressure to continue reducing the achievement gap here as in most Evanston schools is significant. Thus far I have been extremely impressed with our kindergarten experience and while much more structure shows itself in 1st grade, my child continues to progress. I challenge the school and all of us to continue to be creative and keep the needs of children first as we tackle the difficult problems of educating in such a demanding and varied educational environment. I think Kingsley has some challenges ahead and hope the administration, parents and teachers will continue a great partnership to facing these challenges.
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Posted November 20, 2008

Kingsley is a very unique wonderful school. We have two daughters that transferred into the school from a private school (one at 1st grade and is now in the 3rd grade the other at kindergarten) and we could not be happier. The community is filled with loving families that share a common bond in that they want the best for the kids. Our kids respect their teachers and love going to school. The school offers many before & after school programs including chess, Chinese, Spanish and drama brownies, cub scouts, etc. The teachers focus on the love of reading (even while doing Math) and technology (The kids use Promethean boards and Apple laptops in the classrooms). The administration is focused on order and learning both inside the school and the playground. What more could you want?
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