Riverwood International Charter School

I had the WORST experience at this school. Most of my teachers were terrible and did not care about the well-being of their students. Riverwood was full of cliques so I spent most of the year sitting alone at the lunch table. The principals attempts to get students to accept each other failed miserably and I feel as though many students just like me are being threatened by undisciplined who don't follow the rules. Most of my classmates would agree that some of the teachers need to be re-evaluated because putting us in their class is setting us up to fail.

We are nearing the end of our first semester at Riverwood so this review is hopefully preliminary, but so far, our experience has been deeply disappointing. I’m writing in the hopes it spurs some action because, among my many frustrations, I have no idea how to have a conversation with anyone in administration and not feel like I’m being shoo’d out the door. Our son is a magnet student and is taking two honors classes and an AP. I expect the workload to be intense, but what I don’t appreciate is a pace that expects my kid to teach himself material so that he can complete projects. Example: Last weekend, we had to teach him DNA transcription for an honors bio project due the day after this material was scheduled to be taught. This isn’t an exception in this class, which has repeatedly leaned on technology in place of actual teaching. I don’t know if the teacher is disorganized or incompetent or both, but it’s shameful. As for learning differences, our son has ADHD and dyslexia and as such, has a 504. At the mandated meeting with teachers to go over his directive, the teachers who bothered to show up seemed impatient and in a hurry to leave. I did not feel listened to, and it’s clear from the way they’re managing their classes, they’re not interested in helping a freshman with working memory issues find his footing. Finally, teachers here rely on technology in a way I’ve yet to experience at any other school. Because there’s no standard, my son navigates five different platforms nightly to review upcoming assignments and turn in homework. I’m hopeful much of this is just a tremendous ramp up to a large public high school, but so far, this is experience has fallen far short of what we’d hoped for him.

Overall a great experience with teachers and staff who really care about the students.

Excellent! We moved from California and purchased a house in the area just to attend Riverwood International Charter School. We were not disappointed!