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Why Choose Ashbrook?

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From our Parents:

From a very young age we knew we had a precocious girl on our hands. At the age of 2 she was drawing portraits and asking philosophical questions about what species would be on earth after humans were extinct. She was interested in learning about everything from dinosaurs to the different galaxies in the universe. When she wasn’t reading about them, she was drawing them.

This all changed after enrolling her in public school. After her first day of kindergarten, I asked what she learned and she replied softly, “I learned that people yell and push.” For 2 weeks we watched our little girl lose interest in learning and then school all together. She had been so excited to start kindergarten but began crying every time we got in the car to go to school. Public school is fine, but we knew we couldn’t keep her in that environment so we started to ask friends what we should do. One close friend had her daughter enrolled at Ashbrook and told us that she knew Emma would love it.

She was right. Overnight we had our daughter back. She was excited to learn again and wasn’t overwhelmed by an overcrowded classroom. Her favorite thing about school was having art every day. She would come home laughing about something Mr. Olson had said, and it was such a joy to see her enjoy learning again.

Emma is now in 5th grade and still loves Ashbrook. Because of the pandemic we have all been through a rough storm, but Ashbrook has been our rock. The staff has done everything in their power to keep the children on track with their education. We are so happy to have found Ashbrook.

~Rachel, Ash, and Emma (5th grade) Terry

We have loved Ashbrook since day one. Our journey with Ashbrook Independent School began with a teaching position in 2015 and now continues with our son in the preschool class. We knew from early on in our experience at the school that it would be a dream to enroll our kids. We love the passion the teachers and staff bring to their students and the familial culture that makes Ashbrook feel like home.

The students are encouraged to do their best and are challenged at appropriate levels. They are held accountable and taught what it means to be active and productive members of their community. We love that Ashbrook places importance on the celebration of many cultures through their foreign language program. There is also an emphasis on the importance of physical and health education as well as music and art that gives students a holistic learning experience. Ashbrook incorporates character building and cross-curricula lessons in the daily learning experiences that make it interesting and applicable to students’ lives.

We know that when we drop our son off at school that his small class size and highly capable teachers will allow him the opportunity to reach his potential. He will be met exactly where he is and will be in a safe community whose first priority is their students. The janitorial team, the culinary staff, teachers, office staff, families, and other students work closely together to create a strong sense of community. We know that we will be kept informed beyond our expectations about his progress and how we can support him at home. We chose Ashbrook because they go above and beyond to create learning opportunities that would be hard to compare.

~The Chambers Family

Ashbrook is part of our family.  Like every family, we have been through many good times as well as some challenging times.  The dedication, enthusiasm and continued support of the Ashbrook staff to provide a nurturing and challenging academic environment for our children through thick and thin has reinforced our loyalty and commitment to the school.

We enrolled at Ashbrook 8+ years ago for the same reason most families at enroll:  guaranteed small class sizes, foreign language, physical education, art, music, and creative electives.  We are thankful for this diversity every day as we watch our kids expand their knowledge and experiences.  They are learning to manage academic rigor, think critically and self-advocate; all characteristics that will help them in high school, college and future life endeavors.  Furthermore, the desire of families and staff members to volunteer time and resources to the school is amazing.  Ashbrook has so much hidden (and overt) talent!  Our entire family has built relationships with staff, students and parents that very well may last a lifetime.

In our opinion, a moral, emotional and educational foundation is critical for a family.  Ashbrook has helped foster these characteristics in our children and we are thankful.  Ashbrook will always be part of our family.

~Matt, Krista, Connor (8th grade), and Keira (5th Grade) Lindberg

2020 has been a very challenging time for so many; practicing gratitude each and every day is one small thing we can all do to manage these stressful times.

One of the things we are truly grateful for is the stability that Ashbrook Independent School has brought to our family during this time. For the last 6+ years we have been surrounded by a community of wonderful people that share the same passion for a well-rounded and diverse education built on a foundation of strong character development.

We joined the Ashbrook community because we love the small class size, the access to language, music, physical education and the fantastic elective options. We were also excited to be in the presence of innovative, passionate, skilled educators not bound or discouraged by a legislated educational system. Even though virtual learning is not the most ideal learning environment, we feel very fortunate to have the wonderfully dedicated Ashbrook staff delivering quality educational content in a small virtual classroom where every student can get the personalized support they need.

A BIG thanks from the O’Connor family to the Ashbrook staff for living and breathing the Ashbrook mission to nurture our academically capable students every single day!

~Pat, Stephanie, and Nora (6th Grade) O’Connor

We’ve been very happy with Ashbrook for 7+ years (Liam is in 2nd grade, Natalie is in 6th grade) and we’ve stayed with Ashbrook because of the great community, the small class sizes, and a greater ability for teachers to flex to the needs of our kids.

Also, with the way the school year has started, we’re really thankful that we can send Liam onsite and we’re really impressed with the quality of the online delivery of instruction for Natalie. It’s great to be here at Ashbrook – there is so much potential for all kids at all grade levels, not only academically but for the whole child!

~Tze, Debby, Natalie (6th grade), and Liam (2nd grade) Yong
Why choose an Independent School? An Independent School is independent in two critical ways:
Independent in governance: The schools are organized as not-for-profit corporations governed by a self-perpetuating board of directors, as opposed to being “owned” and run by the government (public schools), by a church or synagogue (parochial schools) or by for-profit entities (proprietary schools).
Independent in finance: The schools charge tuition and raise money to operate themselves (as opposed to being supported primarily by public monies or religious subsidies).

From Patrick F. Bassett, Winter ’98 ISACS Newsletter Insert:

It is the independence of independent schools that offers to them the four essential freedoms that make independent schools strong:

  • The freedom to define their own mission (why they exist, whom they serve).
  • The freedom to regulate admissions (admitting only those students appropriate to the mission).
  • The freedom to define teacher credentials (hiring, particularly in the middle school and upper school grades, liberal arts graduates who have majored in a discipline and who have a passion about teaching the subject)
  • The freedom to teach what the teachers decide is important (free from state curricular and textbook mandates).

It is important to note that independent schools are not “elitist” in any way except in terms of academic expectations: The typical independent school often has more diversity (racially, ethnically and socio-economically) than the neighboring public schools (many of which are quite homogeneous). The socio-economic diversity of independent schools, for example, is supported by a significant commitment to financial aid: Independent school students come from all family income levels, and 25% of them typically are supported by financial aid.

Although independent schools continue to attract “legacies” (i.e., relatives and siblings of graduates and current students), the largest contingent of independent school students now comes from erstwhile public school families, sometimes refugees from public schools that are failing in one way or another but increasingly converts from “good public schools”: i.e., those public schools privileged with an economic base and socio-economic demographics that make them otherwise comparable to independent schools.

Now, longitudinal research confirms the wisdom of choosing an independent school. Comparisons of independent school students with those from “privileged” suburban public schools reveal the pattern for success that favor those who attend independent schools. Roughly speaking, students from independent schools are about twice as likely (or more) than their counterparts in “privileged suburban schools” to…

  • Take Algebra I and foreign language in the eighth grade.
  • Enroll in an A.P. course as a sophomore.
  • Study with a teacher who has graduated from a “Top 100” college.
  • Complete pre-calculus or higher level of mathematics.
  • Play on a JV or varsity sport.
  • Participate in extracurricular arts, academics, and/or community service.

Sources: Powell (Lesson from Privilege), Heath (Schools of Hope), NCES

The patterns indicated above begin in our elementary schools, which place a strong emphasis on creating a positive learning climate for each child, and are sustained through our middle and upper schools, where children are “expected” to do well academically and “needed” to participate extracurricularly.

Why are these patterns important? Because they reflect two critical elements that make independent school students well prepared for college and for life:

  • Mastering of a serious academic program.
  • Being a team “player.”

The “lessons” of the research are clear. College admission is dependent on the two factors indicated above, since what is most important to college is evidence that a student can undertake a program of rigorous academic study and indication that the student can and will contribute to the community outside of the classroom. The ethos of independent schools contributes to this equation, since “everybody” is expected to work hard and succeed academically and since “everybody” is expected be “a team player.” (The latter is particularly significant, since the greatest predictor of success in college and thereafter is not grades or S.A.T. scores but involvement in extracurricular life, where the life skills of “playing fair,” “being a team player,” “winning and losing gracefully,” “performing in front of an audience,” etc. are developed and nurtured.) Since independent schools tend to be small (averaging around 400 students–even in larger schools, the divisions of lower, middle, and upper school tend to be around 400 or fewer students), it is necessary for everyone “to be a player.” The outcome of this necessity is that even average kids end up to be exceptional contributors, a pattern in independent schools that translates into success thereafter for our graduates.

Finally, independent schools are different as well in terms of the effectiveness of the partnership between parents and schools: We speak in a unified voice about a common set of goals and values, and it is this coalescing of parental and school voices that points students, like a clarion bell, towards achievement and guides them towards decent behaviors and good citizenship.

For additional information concerning independent schools you can visit their website at http://www.isacs.org/

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