Tahoe Expedition Academy, Truckee | Fees, Rankings, Address, Admission, Vacancies, Reviews & More

We moved from San Francisco specifically to provide our daughters with opportunity to attend Tahoe Expedition Academy. Having worked in Bay Area schools as a mental health clinician for 15+ years, I have been increasingly worried about our nationwide youth mental health crisis. Students may be churning out excellent report cards but they are suffering tremendously with mental health issues. There is a way to raise healthy, resilient, happy youth that enjoy the journey of education vs focusing on a future goal that may not reap expected benefits. Research and experience highlight the need to reimagine education, as TEA has done. TEA’s administration, faculty and staff worked tirelessly to accommodate families’ differing needs during COVID. TEA’s ability to adapt quickly allowed them to focus on social/mental wellbeing while continuing to provide quality education. This year was filled with new achievements in mountain biking, skiing, cross country, snow shoeing, outdoor survival skills, and more. Braving these challenges fostered friendships, trust in their teachers and confidence within themselves. These foundations carry over into the classroom and have given my daughters a platform from which to excel academically. We are grateful for how much our 3rd and 6th grader have thrived academically and socially during COVID. We can’t wait to see what is in store for next year and beyond!

Full transparency on this review – I am both a parent and an administrator at TEA. I felt compelled to leave this review after reading through some of the others that were left. Additionally our daughter came home STOKED yesterday after spending the day cross country skiing to Chickadee Ridge on Mt. Rose Highway to learn about trees and the chickadees. She came home so full of passion and excitement to share what she learned about and was proud of the hard work they did to ski through bad weather and icy snow to get to this magical spot where the birds eat out of your hands (or off of your hat). Clearly this school is not for everyone and that is OK. This is not the experience most of us had in elementary/middle/high school. This is way more hands on. Way more student driven. Students are intentionally pushed physically, emotionally and intellectually to help them grow. This style of education is not the norm, but the collective group of students, parents, faculty and staff are looking to change that. And in these crazy times, we’ve appreciated the intentional focus on developing soft skills like adaptability, perseverance and resilience. This is whole child development. So if you’re only concerned about academic rigor, this isn’t the right fit for you. But if you’re looking to grow a love of learning and self confidence, I encourage you to learn more.