In early Fall 2022, Park Academy announced the phasing out of its high school. While this decision has allowed us to focus on earlier interventions, serving more students in our elementary and middle school grades, Park Academy continues to lean into what it means to be a school of transition. Follow the new page on our website Supporting the High School Transition, as we highlight key resources for our current 8th-grade families, and join us as we reconnect with Park Academy 8th-grade alumna, Alice Waldeck, and her mother, Robyn, as they reflect on their experience transitioning from Park Academy to Edison High School: why they felt ready, how they felt supported, why Edison, and how it is going now!
There became a growing and notable trend on why many of our students felt ready for a transition to high school, and Alice’s experience is no exception. Park Academy’s mission is to provide an inclusive community where evidence-based practices empower students to reach their highest academic and personal potential. While students often come to Park Academy with school-based social and academic trauma, we found we were having dramatic and profound impacts on their academic ability, self-esteem, and confidence, leading to broader high school opportunities. Reflecting on her time before Park Academy, Alice felt, “…like nobody thought I was smart. It was frustrating…I wanted to listen to audiobooks but one of my teachers would just give me little kid books that I had already read.” Alice’s mother, Robyn, also noted similar frustrations, “Before Alice started 6th grade at Park Academy, she was miserable at school… instead of being provided with adequate accommodations, Alice was frequently given less and less challenging work…we were repeatedly told that Alice was not failing enough for the school to intervene.”
In many traditional school settings, students are excused from challenging tasks to preserve their emotional safety, an important priority, at the cost of academic and personal growth. At Park Academy, we believe both can be accomplished. We need to provide a culture of safety and belonging, where students feel comfortable trying hard things, taking risks, and making mistakes, and use that to leverage our evidence-based interventions. When Alice transferred to Park Academy for her middle school years, she felt a sense of belonging, “it was so nice to finally be with kids who seemed like me” and gained a whole new perspective of herself as an individual and a learner, “Teachers at Park Academy actually helped me. My grades improved. I also felt more confident.” Robyn noted similar academic and personal growth, “Not only do we credit Park Academy with turning around Alice’s academic trajectory, but it may have saved her life…She was eager to share her work with us, she’d regale us with anecdotes about classes and friends, she’d tell us how she had advocated for herself in class, etc. Park Academy not only gave Alice the tools to express her interests and skills but also the safety and comfort to stumble without feeling like a failure and to admit that some things were still hard.” Alice’s experience teaches us that it is possible to do both, to feel challenged, yet safe, and empowered to access her potential and even begin to imagine a future beyond Park Academy.
Park Academy has always supported the transition to high school, whether students chose to re-enroll or explore other academic options. Alice and her mother, Robyn, felt well-supported in this transition. Park Academy’s approach to the high school transition is twofold. While our mission is to empower students to achieve closer to where they are capable, we also need to recognize that there is no “cure” for dyslexia. One important goal is to facilitate the development of self-advocacy and translatable tools and skills. Alice said, “Park Academy made sure I had an idea of what I would need going into high school. Like the different supports that I could advocate for to help me with academics. My teachers helped me with this specifically in 8th grade so that I would know what I needed to ask for when I needed help. They helped me understand what sort of teaching style works for me.” Robyn reflected, “it was hard to believe that we could replicate the success that Alice had at Park Academy. Nonetheless, she arrived at Edison with a sense of confidence in her own abilities, a deep understanding of how to advocate for herself, and a willingness to push herself beyond her comfort level that was far greater than what we had seen when she was younger.” Although starting at a new school was scary, Alice was able to translate the skills she learned beyond Park Academy and replicate them in another setting.
The second important goal is to keep Park Academy students and families well-informed about their academic options and what kinds of support they may need. We have seen our students transition successfully to a variety of public and private educational settings. Located in Beaverton, OR, Edison High School, where Alice is now a sophomore, is one example. Neveen Hurd, Director of Communications at Edison, speaks to why Edison can be a smooth transition for some Park Academy Students. “Both institutions recognize the importance of building students’ confidence and self-esteem, essential factors in their overall academic success. Edison High School fosters a sense of belonging and support, acknowledging the diverse backgrounds and educational journeys of its students, and continuing the important work the students started at Park Academy. Students from Park Academy come ready to learn and are able to feel comfortable in our small classes. They are often aware of their learning differences and already able to advocate for themselves in many ways.”
The similarity between Park Academy and Edison was part of the reasons why Alice chose to transition to Edison High School. Robyn explained, “We selected Edison in part because it seemed in many ways like an extension of everything we loved about Park Academy: small classes, skilled and dedicated teachers, a deep understanding of neurodiverse learners, and a focus on layering supports with the ultimate goals of self-advocacy and independence.” Additionally, Edison also offers different experiences than Park Academy that intrigued Alice, such as their connection to Jesuit, where she can get the support she needs through Edison as well as the broader high school experience through Jesuit.
Alice is currently a Sophomore at Edison High School and has continued to grow and challenge herself in many different ways. From once feeling underestimated in her skills, given less challenging work, and lacking appropriate support, she now utilizes her self-advocacy skills, pushes herself out of her comfort zone, and feels confident to explore new areas of interest. Robyn expressed, “Alice continues to impress us with her ability to advocate for herself even when dealing with not atypical doubts about workload and time management.” Since being at Edison, Alice has taken on rigorous academic classes, while getting the support she needs through Edison, and has also participated in a number of new activities including Tech Theater, SCUBA Club, and Student Council. Alice has especially thrown herself into Tech Theater, which has provided her with an opportunity to thrive. We cannot wait to see all the wonderful things she does beyond high school and in life!
Alice and her family’s story is unique to their own, and in many ways, speaks to the experience of so many navigating school and the world with dyslexia. Alice’s story is also one of connection, to know you aren’t alone in this experience, and one of hope, to know that the story can be rewritten and what is considered “normal” in traditional settings can be redefined to benefit all students. Park Academy is so excited to be able to be a part of these students’ stories as we continue to serve students in grades 3-8 in our school program and through our community outreach branch, The Park Center.