Puget Sound Community School

Posted: January 21, 2025

Posted: January 21, 2025

Posted: January 21, 2025

Posted: January 21, 2025

Posted: January 21, 2025

Posted: January 21, 2025

Posted: January 21, 2025

Posted: January 21, 2025

Our family’s time at PSCS was nothing short of a gift—one we continue to be profoundly grateful for. The impact of this incredible school on my son’s life has been lasting and transformative. Since graduating, he has traveled across the world, performed music on stages both big and small, taken on a leadership role at a local semi-professional soccer club, and excelled in his first year of college. But more than his accomplishments, it’s how he moves through the world that stands out—a reflection of the values he cultivated at PSCS.
Wherever my son goes, he builds community. He leads with integrity, acts with courage, and fosters meaningful connections. These aren’t just skills he picked up—they’re values he internalized during his time at PSCS. I cannot overstate how deeply this school influenced the way he chooses to engage with his life, take responsibility for his choices, and connect with others.
As a parent, I always knew my son was surrounded by a caring, supportive community of adults who genuinely saw him for who he was and who he could become. His teachers held an image of his best self and gently but firmly guided him toward that potential. PSCS gave him the freedom to explore, the courage to take risks, and the safety to grapple with tough questions. He experienced joy, had brave conversations, and learned what it means to live authentically.
The maturity and leadership I see in my son—and in every PSCS graduate—comes from the trust, responsibility, and respect this school extends to its students. Adolescence is such a critical time for young people as they shape their identities and discover how they want to impact the world. At PSCS, this process is nurtured with care, intention, and a commitment to creating empowered, compassionate individuals—the kind of people our world desperately needs more of.

Posted: February 12, 2021

PSCS has been a great fit for our child, who has never experienced "traditional" education and has always attended very small intimate schools like this, where the focus is as much on socio-emotional development as on academics.

To give a sense of our experience, our child is extremely self-motivated in particular areas of interest, primarily the arts. He has never been one to care much about what others think he should be interested in, so we did not think traditional education would be a good fit. We have worried about academics; however, now that he is in high school we can see the pay-off in allowing him to focus on his interests and only insist on a minimum of academics he was not interested in. His advisors at PSCS have slowly increased their expectations, and he has developed an enormous amount of respect for them. He is now choosing to take classes that he isn't particularly interested in, but knows are required both for graduation and for college admissions, and for the possibility of him choosing an unexpected career path. We don't need to remind him to complete homework, and all on his own he is getting better about not procrastinating. The consequence of disappointing his teachers and advisors is a strong one for him, despite (and I would argue because of) not facing punishment.

In our case, we haven't worried terribly about academics because his focus on his areas of interest (and both family and school support of this) has allowed him to develop skills that will allow for a successful career/work life. I can imagine that for any child who has a deep interest that they pursue aggressively and deeply, this could be the case.

But I also think this is a good school for children who are on the other end of that spectrum, without specific deep and sustaining interests. Here, children can explore without fear of failing or pressure to achieve perfection; instead, they can discover interests and then develop them on their own terms, and they are given the time to do so.

I have been impressed with the children, their excitement for learning (especially in high school), their comfort with adults, and their kindness with each other.

The mild criticisms I would offer are things that I think the school is working through with new leadership and transition. They are increasing their STEM offerings, and updating their approaches and expectations.

They have been particularly effective with the move to online!

Posted: February 12, 2021

Posted: February 12, 2021

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Posted: January 8, 2021

PSCS was excellent for my child, and it must be a good fit.

Homework may or may not be had in a class, and students can choose with that knowledge.

The teachers are excellent, and many volunteers also contribute.

There could be more diversity of core offerings.

The current leadership is excellent, though this has not always been the case. If my entire experience were with the current leadership, I would give five stars.

Character is the real learning objective of the school. Students are self-responsible, but not globally responsible. They much know themselves to do well, and the school helps with this, but if they choose not to, or are trained not to, they may be challenged, and responses will vary.

The ability to support students with learning differences is being expanded effectively, and still has a way to go, though it will work well for many.

No bullying.

Posted: January 8, 2021

Posted: January 8, 2021

Posted: December 15, 2018

The teaching staff has the flexibility to assign meaningful homework that is intended to enhance the experience and learning of the students, rather than having it exist as simple busywork. The staff also has the choice to not assign homework for a class if it doesn't serve a clear purpose. This pliability allows for a tailored educational experience, and not necessarily a rote, pre-scripted curriculum.

Posted: December 15, 2018

Small class sizes, and an overall small school, allows the teachers to develop real relationships with the students, which includes knowledge of their strengths and weaknesses, their passions and their triggers, all of which creates an environment where the effectiveness of the teacher is as high as the willingness to work on the part of the student. There is an agreement made between the staff and student when each term begins where the student agrees to a set of agreements that must be upheld, lest they may be asked to not participate in the class further. I should add that each class is optional for the student, so their presence in the class has come from an initial desire to be a part of that environment. The effectiveness of the staff comes from having a true, informed relationship with each student, as well as the power to hold students accountable for their own learning.

Posted: December 15, 2018

The Core Concepts of PSCS are as follows: Practice integrity. Engage the community. Act with courage.

Every moment that the staff and students are present in the school, these elements fall front and center as the focus of the day. Treating each other with kindness, respecting themselves and the fellow members of the community, and holding themselves to act with integrity is often much more important than the classes they may take part in.

Posted: December 15, 2018

If we are talking about the effectiveness of the administration, they have been what has turned an experimental high school in the mid-nineties to a stable, 21st century middle school and high school. Leadership in a broader sense is present in most moments of the school day. The leadership displayed by the teaching staff is tested and proven with every successful course, every successful relationship with the students, and in how much leadership is promoted as an act that the students can embody. The individual student has the option to offer their own class, designed by themselves, and led by themselves as well. Stepping up to offer a class on a subject that they are passionate about develops the sense of strong and empathetic leadership, which often inspires other students to lead their own classes at some point.

Posted: December 15, 2018

Each student is their own person with their own mind and their own unique way of thinking and processing information. One of the major founding ideas for the functioning nature of the school was that every student experiences "learning differences", and that with a genuine connection to the student, they can be successfully educated, along with every other student in that class. There are some learning differences, which i'm guessing this question is actually trying to address, may or may not fit in with PSCS or many other educational platforms, but that depends on the individual student and their needs.

Posted: December 15, 2018

A small community the size of PSCS cannot allow bullying. Currently, i believe that there are fifty or so students, so bullying would not only be painfully apparent, but quickly handled. I'm sure there have been moments of bully behavior that have arisen in the past, but with a Core Concept of "Practice Integrity", that kind of behavior would assuredly be addressed immediately.

Posted: December 15, 2018

Puget Sound Community School fundamentally shaped my life as a 16 year old, high school drop out. It was with the guidance of the founder, Andy Smallman, and the staff at the time that I learned to love education. The ability to study what i felt a passion for invigorated my sense of purpose, leading me to my own path of being an educator. I will say, without any histrionics or embellishment that PSCS set me on a path of success and satisfaction that, at the time, i would have been unable to achieve otherwise.

Posted: October 17, 2018

The school does not enforse any homework.

Posted: October 17, 2018

STEM at this school is VERY sub-par

Posted: October 17, 2018

Posted: October 17, 2018

Posted: October 17, 2018

PSCS does not do a good job supporting students with learning differences.

Posted: October 17, 2018

Posted: October 17, 2018

I graduated. This was a terrible expierance.

Posted: August 17, 2018

Given the opportunity, I would do it all over again, but not because of the staff or any of the learning polices. The only thing that made this school tolerable and a positive experience was the group of friends that I accrued through the years. These students and I, faced with the common enemy of an utterly incompetent staff, learned much about the way the world works, and how to get results in high pressure situations.

Posted: August 17, 2018

There are no grades, so the staff generally don't care if you don't complete your homework, setting students back weeks at a time.

Posted: August 17, 2018

They are effective at teaching the subjects at which they like to teach, but many other subjects are needed for students to be ready for college.

Posted: August 17, 2018

Posted: August 17, 2018

Andy Smallman is amazing, but recently was forced to step down over some petty complaints. Now the leadership is weak and forced, with a parent who removed both of her students from the school.

Posted: August 17, 2018

Posted: August 17, 2018

Posted: February 10, 2015

Thank you for all of these honest and helpful comments. As an employee at PSCS, I want to make a quick note: Although, the PSCS curriculum is designed to help students become self-directed and self-motivated adults, PSCS does not identify itself as a Democratic School. While there is absolutely nothing wrong with the philosophies that bolster Sudbury schools, PSCS does not adhere to that particular educational model ("where students have complete responsibility for their education and the school is run by direct democracy...and there is no predetermined educational syllabus, prescriptive curriculum or standardized instruction"). The Advisor/Student relationship is an integral part of the PSCS experience. Courses and activities are pitched by teachers and volunteers based on student input, but also on their own interests and expertise. Although there are no letter grades offered, and student input is highly valued, rules and structure are often determined by the staff for the betterment of the community. Lastly, while I continue to hope we can be more transparent in the future, in the 2014-15 school year, 23% of our 50 students received almost $90,000 in Tuition Aid.

Posted: June 26, 2014

PSCS Forgot that they are a "democratic" school. They have set their prices so high that only rich kids can attend. Even though they claim to offer tuition assistance, the process is not transparent, and few families are ever granted it. All of these schools need to figure out how to offer a low, set fee for everyone. Or if they could become charter schools, so the taxes we already pay can be applied, that would help too.

Posted: January 22, 2014

PSCS is a great school that works to prepare kids for all aspects of their adult life. Staff work closely with each and every student to build the skills they'll need to be smart, community-oriented, confident, motivated people in the world. PSCS is not a school whose staff is primarily equipped to work with students who have Asberger's or are on the Spectrum. It is a school that can occasionally meet the needs of kids with these learning diagnoses, depending how they manifest. Staff works hard to see how each new individual might best further the growth of the entire community, not just how PSCS might be beneficial to one particular kid. Check out Dan Pink's book "Drive: What Really Motivates Us" for a write up on PSCS and more info on why this model works.

Posted: November 27, 2010

Excellent teachers; compassionate focus; challenging academics, respect for each student's learning style and timing, a respectful learning environment established and upheld among students.