Whittier Elementary School

Posted October 5, 2009

Whittier Elementary School is a low-income school with a high percentage of ELL students. (Primary language is not English). This year is the first year 1st grade is developing a dual language program. Early prep in Kindergarten started the process and 1st grade is creating the foundation to develop students who will be fluent in English and Spanish as Whittier continues to advance the program. With Idaho ranked at the bottom for teacher compensation, the amount of effort, sacrifice and dedication these first grade teachers are giving - Whittier Elementary School gets my vote for one of America's Favorite Schools.

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Posted August 26, 2003

I realize that the test scores for this school are well below where they should be, but I don't feel that they are a reflection of the school's ability to teach. A majority of students come from low-income areas of town, where both parents are forced to work full time, thus giving the students less help with homework and such at home. I don't say this to judge anyone, because we were one of these families! After moving to a high-income area of town, we were shocked to see just how much was taken away from us by leaving the Whittier school district. My daughter has a slight learning disability, and learned in leaps and bounds at Whittier due to its abundance of remedial programs and tutoring programs. When we moved, we were told that this help would no longer be available to us at our new school! My daughter spent her entire 5th grade year at this nice, upscale school learning absolutely nothing, because no one would give her the help that she needed. When I complained that she could not learn at the same level as her fellow classmates, the school's answer was to give her 4th grade level work instead, so that she would receive passing grades. When I begged them to hold her back at the end of her 5th grade year, they refused, saying that she had received passing marks in her subjects (Cs and Ds based on 4th grade work). I have since pulled her out of her school and chosen to homeschool her, basing my teaching style on that of the teachers who lead the remedial and special help programs at Whittier. We never would have moved from Whittier if we'd realized just how much help this school had to offer! The downside to Whittier has been a higher incidence of minor violence and smoking, and the area surrounding the school is not one that I would want my daughter to walk to school through. I felt that that part of town was dangerous, which is why we moved.
Submitted by a parent

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