Sacramento Country Day School

The simple fact is that Country Day has the best college prep program in the Sacramento area. A beautiful tree-filled campus, classes limited in size, superb faculty that have a lifelong positive impact on students' self-concept, academic skills, creativity and personal values, full participation sports, superb college counselors with the best college placement record in the area,...these are a few of its many virtues. You have to see it to understand the difference. Make sure you visit the classrooms to see what full engagement in learning means. The focus is on mastery of concepts; the work load is reasonable for your average bright student. We sent all of our kids to Country Day and it was the most important decision we ever made for their education. They flourished at the university level due to excellent critical analysis skills and academic competence developed at Country Day through daily close interaction with bright dedicated faculty and motivated peers.
--Submitted by a parent

I attended Sacramento parochial schools in the Arden-Arcade area growing up and was offput by the attitude at my alma mater toward my daughter; so I decided on Country Day. Best decision ever. The atmosphere is wonderful. The parents are warm and the teachers are proud to be teaching at this fine school--they are clearly paid well and values; and this reflects onto the jobs they do. Ms. Elena Bennet is a city-wide treasure, hands-down. I recommend the summer camps for parents who can't afford the pricey tuition--which we DO go back and forth about every year. But the parent/teacher conferences we attend solidify the decision for us to stay and sacrifice the home redo, the two-week island vacation, the expensive new cars every year. Every parent at this place is here because he/she wants the best for his/her child. The teachers know they are dealing with many parents who are making huge sacrifices to write out those tuition checks! and parents are treated accordingly.
--Submitted by a parent

Our children have attended SCDS since their Kindergarten year and have thrived in numerous ways. They've become self-directed and self-motivated students managing and organizing their time efficiently. The curriculum at SCDS is well rounded where each and every day my children are exposed to all kinds of learning. Along with Mathematics, English, Reading and History they also can learn and express themselves through Art, Music and Foreign Languages. Also included in the everyday curriculum is Physical Education. Athletics, Performing Arts, Elective and AP courses round out an excellent and challenging program for both Middle and High school students. Small class sizes for every grade (Pre-K through 12th) are instrumental in giving each student an opportunity to express themselves in ways a student may not be able to in larger schools. Student : Teacher ratio is absolutely outstanding at SCDS. If it were not for a few parents wanting something different for their own children in 1964, Country Day would not be what it is today.
--Submitted by a parent

Simply Wow! This is our first year here, in middle-school, and boy o boy what a difference. The teachers blow me away -- They have the kids drinking up the academics like it was coolaid. I asked my daughter why she liked school so much (not always been the case) and she said "the teachers make learning stuff fun." So far this year they've shot rockets into the air integrating science & math lessons, they've spent almost a week in Sequoia trekking about and learning the flora, fauna and wildlife identification. They're studying mezzo american history now and writing poetry and reading books that amaze me. I could go on and on. Oh yeah, they're wired-up doing much of this on the school-provided iPads too.
--Submitted by a parent

We relo'd to the Sacramento area from an overseas International Bacchelor school. Our daughter was warmly welcomed into the classroom with teachers went out of their way to get to know her and monitor her integration. Given the outstanding experince at SCDS so far and the certainty of years of slashing of funding for CA public schools, we give SCDS an unqualified thumbs up as the highest value education in the area. We've researched all private schools in the area, and there are four categories -- religous, bookworm, whole person and earth child. SCDS is the only Ivy league prep whole person school here. It deeply challenges and grows a kid who's sharp, creative, humanistic. The school has seen it's enrollment hold strong during the recession, which says a lot. The only improvement I see is expanded langugage beyond french, spanish, latin, chinese.
--Submitted by a parent

As one of the new families to Sacramento Country Day School this year, we have found the students are not accepting of new students, especially new girl students. Bad language and behavior is tolerated by teachers and students. Along with the constant requests for additional cash donations (after $17,000 per year tuition), SCDS is more like public school with small class sizes. However, the curriculum is good
--Submitted by a parent

Excellent school with terrific teachers, small classes and a rigorous college prep program. My kids have been at Country Day since pre-K and are now in high school. What I am most impressed with is the level of engagement on the part of the teachers -- which translates to more committed and successful students.
--Submitted by a parent

For those other review stating Country Day School is not a good college preparatory environment must have overlooked the fact that the school has the highest SAT scores in the whole area.
--Submitted by a parent

My two children attended SCDS through lower, middle, and high school and loved it. The school lived up to its mission of excellence in every way. SCDS's curriculum is innovative, engaging, and appropriately rigorous, and comes alive through the school's extraordinary teachers who embody both mastery of and passion for what they teach.. The emphasis on reading, writing, oral presentation and critical thinking at all grade levels prepared my children exceptionally well to matriculate confidently at the highly selective colleges they chose. At SCDS, my children explored and developed talents and skills that at another school would have gone unnoticed or untapped. They found their personal voices and learned to use them kindly, respectfully, and wisely. They emerged true to themselves, with a love of learning that has enriched their lives immeasurably.The school promised an education for a lifetime and delivered. My children have thanked me many times. I thank SCDS.
--Submitted by a parent

The best school ever. My sons, now in 4th and 6th grades, have been at SCDS since kindergarten. The teachers are amazing -- most have advanced degrees and endless energy, enthusiasm and experience, and the small class size means lots of individual attention. We love the creative, developmentally appropriate independent curriculum and couldn't be any happier with the school. Our kids' total enthusiasm for school is the icing on the cake.
--Submitted by a parent