CEDARWOOD WALDORF SCHOOL
3030 SW Second Ave
cedarwoodschool.org
ENROLLMENT: 267
TUITION: $6,215–9,975
You haven’t really lived until you’ve heard 30 fourth graders strum ukuleles and sing the White Stripes’ “We’re Going to Be Friends”—all in front of a blackboard inscribed with Chinese characters and conversions of pounds to ounces. At Cedarwood, arts and music don’t just coexist with other subjects—they glue the 267-student school’s curriculum together.
“We don’t do ‘arts,’” says Cedarwood head Elizabeth Nugent. “The arts are infused into everything we do, and we see our kids become quite skilled.”
The Waldorf education system is a complex, and, in Portland, increasingly popular approach that stresses creativity and an immersive social environment. Kids start knitting and other practical handwork in first grade; all must choose a stringed instrument by third grade. By eighth grade, they’re crafting gorgeous rustic stools worthy of craft bazaars like Saturday Market. Throughout their education at the Lair Hill school, students draw and write their own “textbooks” for subjects like history, and they celebrate seasonal festivals with performing and visual arts. Perhaps we can put in an early request for another White Stripes ode for the upcoming May Day festival. —Zach Dundas
NORTHWEST ACADEMY (6–12)
1130 SW Main St; nwacademy.org
ENROLLMENT: 123
TUITION: $15,750–17,750
It’s fitting that Northwest Academy’s somewhat anonymous-looking downtown headquarters used to be a comedy club. Inside, free expression runs riot. Striking black-and-white photos hang outside an old-school darkroom. Jumbles of cables lie next to the recording studio’s mixing board. A high school junior helps direct an eighth-grade production of The Tempest. Daily life at this 15-year-old school, which divides 123 students between middle and high school, melts the traditional boundary between “academics” and “arts.”
“What the kids do in arts is central to everything they learn here,” says NWA admissions director Lainie Ettinger.
In practice, this means students compose songs about geometric proofs, design marketing materials for Edgar Allan Poe stories, and explore linear progression in drawing class. More than half also sign up for NWA’s Arts After Hours program, in-depth seminars in everything from advanced tap dancing to figure drawing, taught by professional artists like successful local painter Sean Cain. Plus, the downtown location lends NWA students easy access to urban annexes like the Portland Art Museum, the Portland Center for the Performing Arts, and Portland State University.
But none of this is playtime. The school’s rigorous curriculum (which includes a 30-page humanities thesis for seniors) helps graduates advance to colleges as diverse (and prestigious) as Duke and the Rhode Island School of Design—not a bad encore. —ZD
HONOR ROLL
AGIA SOPHIA ACADEMY (P–5)
14485 SW Walker Rd, Beaverton
Beaverton’s Orthodox Christian school tunes kids early with a three-day-a-week music curriculum based on the Kodaly Method, an approach built on singing and a carefully chosen folk and classical repertoire.
PACIFIC CREST COMMUNITY SCHOOL (7–12)
116 NE 29th Ave
This 75-student school with an alternative bent prides itself on integrating music and arts into every aspect of campus life. A typical high school student might start the day with drawing and end with dramatic writing.
Published: February 2011
Yes, I’m sure that a parent’s first thought when sending their daughter to St. Mary’s Academy is that it would be great because they are “intimidated by boys.” Certainly not because it offers arguably the best education in the city. Yes, I think the likes of Rite Aid’s CEO & federal district court judges (some of the alums of SMA) are probably glad to have attended St. Mary’s to cure their “awkwardness”.
Retracting my subscription,
David
I share in the almost unspeakable oversight of St. Mary’s Academy from your list. It is on par with both OES & Catlin Gabel in the quality of education as witnessed by test scores, extra curricular opportunities, the universities its students are accepted into, and many more such items of comparison. It has an equally rich history and prestigious reputation as the aforementioned. It is not properly analogous with Central Catholic in reputation or material quality. Rather, Central Catholic is better put in the category of La Salle. La Salle has yet to live up to the reputation of OES, Catlin Gabel, and SMA. If one were asked what distinguishes it outside of the La Salle community, it would be hard to pick something. This is not the case for OES, Catlin, and SMA which have many fine points of discussion. Central Catholic, once a far greater institution, is waning in educational quality. Amongst Catholic community members it is respected absolutely but there are many now who would rather send their children to a well regarded public high school instead. Central Catholic is known as the “private public school” whereas Riverdale is known as the “public private school.” It does cause one to wonder if the said journalists took into account anything the rest of the Portland community would in regard to judging these institutions correctly.
I might add to Jesuit’s already noted strong community service, that it is also an environment for strong academic and athletic accomplishment.
This list reeks of a compromise in journalistic integrity. I don’t think its a coincidence that every school featured in depth happened to buy an ad in this issue’s “Special Advertising Section.” It appears a private dealing with Portland Monthly is the only way to make it onto the list. Two large and well-regarded private schools, Central Catholic and St. Mary’s, were almost completely disregarded by this guide. Central Catholic, with an enrollment of 788 students, is a potential option for many Portland students looking at private high schools and demonstrates a high commitment to service with their Christian Service program. St. Mary’s is certainly more then an option for girls “easily intimidated or distracted by boys,” it boasts higher test scores than Jesuit, Central Catholic, or Valley Catholic. St. Mary’s also offers financial aid to 42% of students and 16% of students are black or Hispanic, while a school such as OES offers financial aid to 18% of students and 5% of students are black or Hispanic.
As the two editors who oversaw the private schools feature—and as two journalists with more than 40 years experience between us—we would like to assure you and our wider readership that no such relationship between advertising and the editorial decisions of the magazine exists. It’s worth pointing out that of the 23 schools who bought ads in the issue, 10 were profiled. And of the 19 we profiled, 11 bought ads. At no point did either the advertisers or the editorial team have any knowledge of what decisions the other was making.
With every issue of Portland Monthly, we have to make difficult choices between many worthy stories. In the private schools feature, we worked hard to sample a wide spectrum of schools based on factors such as location, grade level, diversity of education philosophy, religious affiliation, and past coverage. Of course, many area schools offer high quality programming in a variety of categories. Certainly Central Catholic and St. Mary’s are among them; in fact, we profiled Central Catholic in our December 2006 education issue. But the simple fact is we had to leave some excellent schools out of our more in-depth coverage. For that reason we hope our comprehensive list of private schools with accompanying statistics and scores will help parents begin their journey toward making what is ultimately a highly personal choice about the best fit for their child.
Kasey Cordell, senior editor
Randy Gragg, editor in chief