Estancia Valley Classical Academy, Edgewood | Fees, Rankings, Address, Admission, Vacancies, Reviews & More

Honestly, I am shocked that the NM Public Education Department doesn’t enforce some civil liberties at Estancia Valley Classical Academy. Our family started at EVCA hopeful for the classical education they promise, but our experiences couldn’t have been further from the marketing. The toxic way they seemed to orient to women bothered me most of all. My daughter got in trouble for being “busty” in physical education class and was told to wear multiple sports bras so as to “not distract the boys.” At the school play, the boys were allowed to “pinch an inch” to enforce the girls’ costumes for modesty! No student, male or female, should be allowed to touch another student without permission, but especially not for the sexist enforcement of this school’s warped ideas. What is that teaching our children- men to act that way and for women to accept it?! EVCA is a charter school, receiving public funds, and who by law are not allowed to include religious curriculum. However, let’s just say it felt like if you didn’t fit within the mold of the founders/teachers’ religious ideals, you were the black sheep. The academics appeared to be very one-dimensional and they were not able to offer hardly any sports, activities or creative pursuits. It seemed that many of the teachers were completely new to teaching and there appears to be a high turnover rate of teachers as well. The class of 2018 started out with approximately 50 students and only 14 graduated from EVCA. The families we knew that pulled their kids out were highly motivated, successful students, with many in the gifted program. It was certainly not the challenging academics that caused that many students to leave. And I think that should speak for itself about the experiences students have at this school.

I wouldn’t recommend this school to my enemies, the teachers participate in bullying and give demerits often to students for any reason, they state they teach the values of our founders and then resist anyone who questions their authority. My kiddo broke her leg on the playground and the teacher said she was being inappropriately whiny! They believe in a distraction free environment – pushing parents and all visitors out so their teachers are free to bully the kids. After enough parent complaints they created a contract stating that all visits had to be approved.

Amazing school. My son has been attending and is now in upper school. With a 504 plan, we were worried by reviews we had seen, but after our own experience and his, we have seen a 504 plan respected and followed.

My son is excelling and getting an amazing education! He is developing friendships that will last forever! He is happy and loves the school.

This is a much better education than public school, and it does require that kids work hard and study hard. It is worth it!