Khalsa Montessori Elementary School - Phoenix

I have been a proud parent of two Khalsa kids. My daughter is finishing 6th grade this year and moving on to middle school - her biggest concern is "will she be bored with her next curriculum" Khalsa has given her the tools to succeed anywhere she goes. My younger is in lower elementary and I feel he is such a curious and free thinker because of the class environment and encouragement from his teachers. I have never had a problem with administration. It seems parents who are complaining about their children being held back should look in the mirror - standards for school can only be held so high for the education of our children.
--Submitted by a parent

Part II: Not only is there nothing wrong with her (except that she needs glasses and she has ADHD), she is actually excelling. She's forgetful and sometimes disorganized, but she's sweet and kind and well-mannered, too. Oh, and she just turned SEVEN. We are leaving this school now in complete disgust. The mis-assessment of her abilities was bad (get someone in the school that is capable of assessing children, please), but what they have done to her self-esteem is criminal. No child should be made to feel that they are bad or wrong for not already being perfect.
--Submitted by a parent

My children have gone to Khalsa for 8 and 6 years respectively. I would like to address a thread in some of the comments i am seeing in the evaluation of this school. One in which children need to be given only praise. This is a disturbing trend to me, and not reality at all. A child with only praise does not understand when they are not picked out as the prettiest, or the best. Khalsa does not focus on the best or the prettiest or even the correct, but attempts to guide the child to evaluate the options, make the best possible decision based on information or circumstances and then understand the consequences of those decision, in all aspects of their day whether it be academic or social. They do emphasize respect for the individual and work on community problem solving. All attributes that want my child to have, all attributes that more of us adults need to work on. I cannot speak to the comments by other parents- but our children have thrived at this school. In general it is only the unhappy who leave comments- so I feel that the comments here are unfairly skewed. This is an excellent school and the teachers here are great.
--Submitted by a parent

I am very dissapointed about this school, the major reason why I selected the school was because of the great rating it has as well as the quality education it offered for my child. As I attended the student's orientation I found out that a child is never great enough for them. They judge a kid without even knowing the student. Every parent knows the capacity of their children; I believe in my son's capabilities and abilities and by no means I would ever take any of my children back to Khalsa because I know that here he would be treated as mentally ill because at the moment he does not speak a fluent english.Children are like sponges they absorb learning in such a short period of time especially when the child is brilliant and has no problems when learning takes place.I really cannot expect anything from a school that does not believe in a child, and also when the staff is not capable enough of understanding that children go to school to learn and to expect challenges when learning; these people were expecting failure from my child when they don't even know him.My child is such a happy kid and I would never send him here because I know that his happiness would turn into unhappiness

I've gone to Khalsa for four years, before I went to Arizona School for the Arts. I truly regret going to to Khalsa, because it wasn't pleasant at all. One particular teacher, which we all probably know, made me feel like I wasn't good enough. She wasn't encouraging and she held me back, for being 'not ready'. It wasn't because I wasn't intellectual enough, it was because I wasn't ready. I passed everything and of course I didn't try my best as i could, I was A KID! And now because of her I feel like I don't want to try, because I feel like I'll just fail. Also this school says you're being taught individually, NO YOU ARE COMPARED TO EVERY OTHER KID. Going to this school was one of the worst chapters of my life. I wish I wasn't kept after I was held back. Also every kid that went here, is now socially awkward. The teacher I had is truly traumatizing. She also treats you like you're an adult, when you're just a young kid, so you didn't feel like you were good enough for her.

My family was in this school for six years. My youngest daughter was not allowed to matriculate to first grade, even though her teacher went to bat for us, insisting to the administration that she was ready. We were curtly informed that we didn't have the right to discuss this with her teacher. It seems that there were 30 slots in 1st grade and 50 kids in Kinder, and therefore 40% of that year's kinder were informed that their children weren't up to snuff. We moved all three kids to Encanto and Clarendon Spanish Dual Language. It is amazing how much better kids can thrive when given a happy environment. We love the other parents at Khalsa, the teachers were hit and miss, but the administration needs to listen to parents.
--Submitted by a parent

I just found out about this site. It's amazing to me too see that these problems go back to 2003. I only wish I had seen this before enrolling my children. We are now experiencing the same problems that others have been writing about for years. The teachers are wonderful, but are bound to the policies and procedures the administration has put into place. With so many upset, and so many leaving the school, I am even more amazed that the administration has made no effort towards change.
--Submitted by a parent

The teachers of this school are the only reason to be at the school they put their best effort out. It's unfortunate that the administration, particularly one female administrator, is it part of the school. Children get held back for not being excelling students instead just average students. Children are called learning disabled or learning delayed yet when forcing the school to test them the children come out advanced. Children are brought into rims without parents permission and spoken to by a female an administrator who practices therapy on the children. This is not only wrong it's also illegal. If your child is not top of the class do not put your child in the school.
--Submitted by a parent

Our family's been a part of Khalsa for 9 years. There's an amazing amount of good that could be, yet horrific administration smother the good. We're leaving Khalsa for that reason. I'm a certified Montessori teacher & am not giving "misstatements" when I state that 1 particular administrator puts fear & self doubt into children. She is emotionally & verbally abusive to children. I have heard horrible things said to my 1st child which later had to be corrected through therapy who is now VERY succeful & loves school. She did her 8th grade "Evaluation of Learning" & focused on the trauma that Khalsa's administrator placed on her. Retention rate is high! My 2nd child was retained & was denied advancing in areas she didn't need to be retained for, this is NOT Montessori a philosophy! Most retained labeled learning delayed by this administrator yet the child is never officially tested. My 2nd child was formally tested & was above her grade levels in all areas & at her grade level with the area I was told she was being retained to improve. Khalsa needs to open their eyes & stop dismissing parents (mis)Statements on this site! It shows true character of Khalsa's administration.
--Submitted by a parent

The only "misstatement" here is to refer to Khalsa and Montessori in the same sentence, unless Montessori is about holding children back in order to achieve 100% averages on test scores. Instead of the teachers at Khalsa raising their own bars, they lower the bars for our children by holding them back a grade. Shameful behaviour. The State should close the loophole this school utilizes in order to obtain grants, state funding, etc. Dumbing children down by holding them back a grade is not worthy of and should not qualify this schools as one of the top 10 schools in the state; rather, Khalsa's policies of holding children back as pawns so they will score high on standardized tests and ultimately score KHALSA a boat load of cash should qualify this school as the #1 worst school in the state. How many children are being held back this year Khalsa? Every parent who has a child that was held back should post. We need to help each other out and expose the truth, not hide it. Our children deserve better than this!
--Submitted by a parent