The Magnolia School

The infectious enthusiasm of the staff here for their mission is immediately apparent when you step through the doors. More often than not, you will hear the chorus of children answering lesson prompts in unison, or if you peek through the doors, you will find a small child-​teacher ratio (our pre-schooler’s class is about 4:1) enabling a teaching style highly tailored to each student.
We visited an open house out of curiosity, and I was quickly drawn to their philosophy: their thresh-​hold for adopting «what works» starts at quantitatively, scientific method-​verified, established techniques. If you work in a STEM field, or are into anything similar to the Quantified Self movement, then The Magnolia School’s implementation of Precision Teaching and Direct Instruction will resonate strongly with you. If you are an involved parent, you will be thrilled with the opportunity to get daily, detailed feedback, instead of waiting for parent-​teacher conferences many weeks apart.
Example: We are largely a laptop/​phone/​tablet household, so no desktop with computer mice to speak of. Our child’s primary teacher, Meghan Housemann, passed along commentary on the very same day she observed that the child was not progressing as quickly through the computer-​based lessons as they normally did, and suspected lack of familiarity with the mouse, which we confirmed. Result: we were able to remedy the shortfall within days, and get back on track within the same week.
The small class sizes mean the teachers very quickly (within just a few months in our experience) become finely attuned to each child’s idiosyncrasies. I was able to confirm first-​hand they use this knowledge about each child. The school has an open-​door policy that parents can step in at any time without having to reserve an appointment to peek in at their child, using a baby monitor so peeking in doesn’t present a distraction. This is very useful to me personally and I appreciate and take advantage of it because I can only do this during school hours when my schedule unexpectedly opens up, like with a cancelled conference call. What I saw on the monitor was the teachers subtly changing how they interact with each child; for example, a softer voice with some of the more timid children and a louder voice with more boisterous children.
The quantitative approach the school takes means that parents see progress charted on a daily frequency. Baseline trends and ongoing trends are watched for by the school, and deviations (down OR up) are immediately brought to parents’ attention. Simple example from preschool-​level: the child’s rate of accurate numeral recognition over a 30 second period is consistently charted over time, and parents can immediately tell what progress is being made from the scatter plot graphs the teachers are only too happy to share. This not only provides information for when remedial reinforcement can be encouraged in the home setting, but also avoids children from getting too bored when the data shows they are consistently outpacing the material, and so the teachers know the material can be introduced at a faster rate.
These factors put actionable backbone into the oft-​claimed «individualized attention».
The quantitative orientation, small class sizes enabling highly focused teachers to engage each child’s unique learning style, devoted hands-​on involvement of the founders of the school, and all the teachers’ zeal for sharing detailed, frequently-​updated progress information with parents combine at The Magnolia School forming a potent, education powerhouse combination. The school’s eponymous flower is a symbol of purity and perfection, an apt metaphor for the staff’s uncompromising, unstinting pursuit of perfection in their craft.
Our child loves the classes, and revels in using in daily life the new skills and knowledge the teachers so generously encouragingly share. The positive social environment amongst the other children supervised by the staff allows our child to express fresh personality aspects that lay hidden just beneath the surface, nicely complementing the academic strengths.
Before selecting Magnolia, we considered Montessori, foreign language immersion, International Baccalaureate-​style schools, private tutoring, and homeschooling; our own backgrounds are no stranger to academic rigor, having attended various private schools, so we have an idea of what goals and environment to expect. This school is a real gem, and I highly recommend it, as they have met all our expectations and then some in the 6+ months we have worked with them.

We’re so lucky that we found this school. The staff is absolutely amazing and have worked wonders with my son. They go above and beyond when it comes to tailoring to each child’s individual needs. We love them!

We couldn’t be more happy with the group at The Magnolia School. Their program provides something for our little one who attends that makes her LOVE to get ready for school in the morning (this wasn’t always the case before Magnolia). Almost every day we see a little more coming out of her that we know she’s picked up from her time at the school. We have been made to feel more than welcome to ask questions, follow up on her progress, and the school has been diligent to keep us informed of her growth in the classroom.
We are only a few months into the school year at this point, and we really can see the difference her time in the classroom has made. High five Magnolia, you guys truly delight us.