The Vanguard Elementary School, Colorado Springs | Fees, Rankings, Address, Admission, Vacancies, Reviews & More

To sum things up, The Vanguard School is fantastic!

My son went to one of the highest rated schools in D11 (Steele Elementary rated 9/10) for K-1 and as a result was really struggling with reading. I approached Steele about this numerous times and they didn’t have any plan to help him improve other than telling me to ‘just read more’ with him. Well, we did that and it just wasn’t cutting it. My friend told me about The Vanguard School and how they helped her son advance his reading tremendously in just a few years. So we decided to give it a try.

Initially, my son tested in reading at the Kindergarten level, when really he should have been going into 2nd grade! When Vanguard called to tell me that news, they were immediately equipped with a plan for him to study/practice a particular reading curriculum for 2 months, then retest the summer before school started. Well, wouldn’t you know it, we did their curriculum for those 2 months and he retested into 1st grade at The Vanguard School! So he re-did 1st grade at Vanguard and excelled exceptionally quickly! To give you a success metric, he went from reading 18-20 words per min to over 80 words per min in only 3 months on their curriculum! Now those are great results!

Now my son is in 3rd grade and I couldn’t be more proud to have him at Vanguard. Over the last 3 years I’ve come to learn that it is an academically rigorous and challenging school. They aren’t just teaching the students reading and math, but building their confidence and character to become responsible and accomplished leaders and members of society.

I also very much appreciate the traditional but unique approach to education The Vanguard School takes. They teach discipline, respect, integrity, and personal responsibility that quite frankly is missing in public schools these days and lacking in society. There is a reason kids leave this school and become so successful in life and it’s goes way beyond their academic aptitude. The Vanguard School fosters the growth which results in productive young adults exiting it’s doors and entering that next chapter of their lives.

If you’re on the fence about having your children attend The Vanguard School or even considering it, I urge you to give it a shot. We did and are so grateful to have found the best education around.

When I was hired here, I uprooted my children from Turman Elementary to attend The Vanguard Elementary School out of convenience. When I did the application for my youngest daughter, I did not understand that speech therapy was considered an IEP. I even googled it to be sure and it didn’t come up under IEP, thus I chose the “No” radio button under the question about IEP. However, when I did the final paperwork for their enrollment, I asked about speech therapy upfront and Mrs. Blanchard, in short, told me that she needed more information. Three days into my children’s attendance there, I receive notification that my youngest can’t stay, because she has an IEP and their caseload is full. Though, I pointed out that her paperwork actually stated that she didn’t need it, they insisted that she could no longer attend that school, because the federal law states that she can’t be in school with an IEP and not get services. I was shocked, because she was already demoted to kindergarten upon entering the school, around other kids who spoke like her and I heard nothing, but great reports from her teacher. Long story short, I had to quit my job to find a school for my girls and my girls now attend Giberson Elementary, where my youngest has yet to take speech therapy though Vanguard insisted that she had to. After that incident, I did research and found that this school has a reputation of discriminating against IEP students. I spoke with the district superintendent and he told me that, if it was any other school in the district he could help me, but because it was this school, his hands are tied, because they are an independent school. So, in short, this school is great for kids who do not have an IEP.

I have gone to this school since kindergarten. It was amazing up till 6th grade when teachers become rabbi and front desk people won’t let your sick child go home. I recommend going to this school until 5 th grade. The Super Attendant lies to the kids saying ” you make this school #1 in Colorado” we were number one…back in 2013 since then this school has plummeted down the ranks.