Knowledge Enlightens You (Key) Academy

585 Willow Avenue

School District

Hayward Unified
Grade

K-8
Teacher/Student Ratio

1:20
Type

charter

School Map for Hayward Unified School District

GreatSchools Rating

The school rating calculation is based on four ratings: the Student Progress Rating or Academic Progress Rating, College Readiness Rating, Equity Rating, and Test Score Rating each designed to show different facets of school success. Learn more about GreatSchools Ratings

Reviews

Submitted by parent on June 29, 2024

This is a good school that welcome cultural and religious diversity. It serves mostly low income minorities. If you are a new immigrant from the Middle East or South America, your kids are very likely to be comfortable in this school. There is Spanish and Arabic classes which go extra miles to support kids who do not speak English as a primary language. The teachers are mostly extracted from this populations and most of them have kids or family attending the school. There is a lot of family involvement in activities, cultural day and religious holidays are well observed. There is also after school care and summer classes which is free and available for all students and will really benefit working parents. Summarily for low income Spanish, blacks or Muslims, you will enjoy cultural integration and your child will be very less likely to experience discrimination However, if you care more about teaching, learning, innovation and some sporting activities. This is definitely a wrong choice, especially because majority of the parents don’t really care much about those things. A lot of learning hours are wasted on play, frivolous activities, watching the television organizing the students in lines and enforcing unnecessary disciplines. There is little to no intellectually stimulating activities during after school or summer classes, no organized sports programs. Caucuses and favoritism is not uncommon because many teachers have family members attending the school and in other cases some parents are more involved with school activities than others. I am convinced that a district school rated merely 2/10 will easily outperform key academy in the area of academic performance. I really hope my analysis of fairly objective.I will definitely recommend for certain populations as I have explained. However it might be detrimental to leave your child here for so many years especially from elementary through middle school as he/she may become less academically competitive. If is also fair to note that kids are not the same and the amount of academic support from home could make a lot of difference.
Submitted by parent on August 23, 2023

Great school and great teachers. Director of the school is wonderful.
Submitted by student on February 15, 2023

The education in this school is great, great teachers and staffs. Just that the intern and middle school dean are just hungry to get someone in detention or in trouble, would recommend.
Submitted by student on September 08, 2022

I've noticed that most reviews aren't straight forward. They usually just complain about where the school sucked the most and dosen't make a straight point. KEY academy is an OK school. The teachers are mostly strict but fair. KEY is definitely evolving fast. We just moved into a new school and we are having individual classes in Junior High now, which is a big step forward. This school has a good special education, we are starting a music club; and for people struggling with English, we have the ELD program (helps people who struggle with english.) Now to talk about education. The education for KEY varies a lot. It really depends which teacher you have. Some teacher go off-topic and don't go by the curriculum. Some teachers teach, but give off a very bad example of what they're actually teaching. While the good teachers go by the curriculum perfectly, while giving a very good example. Overall, KEY is still evolving and is still pretty new to the school-base. I reccomend waiting before this school, because it still has some rough edges.
Submitted by parent on February 11, 2020

This is a safe school with teachers that care for the child as a whole. They are a small school and build great relationships with both students and parents. The staff is very friendly and really try to help solve whatever is needed!
Submitted by parent on August 31, 2019

I do not recommend this school if you have a child who came from a public school especially a school that was grounded with strong leaderships of teachers and role models to teach kids what it really takes to learn, that is taking the time to teach, increasing instructional control, placing healthy boundaries between teachers and child, following through with clear and concise expectations, and regularly communicating with parents with sincere, genuine and integrity. This school does NOT have integrity. They pick and chose which child is best for the classroom, disrespect those who are are good and reinforces those who misbehaves and show little to no interests for learning. The children as I have observed and received report are not thoroughly taught in classrooms. They are sitting ridiculing their teachers and are given misappropriate consequences that do not match their misbehaviors. Many of the children who attend the school have parents who are either a teacher for the school, a part of the PTA or somehow affiliated with the upper hands. Due to these conflict of interests, the children are certainly given special treatment over those whose children’s parents are not affiliated of the school or upper hands. If your child never has had an IEP, your child who misbehave like many of those surrounding children in the school will be targeted and as a result teachers will not take responsibility nor will the upper hands. As a latter, the child will be given reprimands and further consequences, impacting his or her self esteem and given an IEP for ever the first time. The psychological tests are bogus. The tests are not thorough and are rather brief and/or like supplemental to determining educational plans. Please if you care about your child’s future compare and contrasts schools in the area and surrounding cities, and if at all, it’s best that your child attends a private school like All Saints and the like or a public school which is carefully monitored by the district wherein your child will be given proper education and support. I do not even know how this school passed as a school when it appears to be a school consisting of a community of its own that is not regulated to follow the core teachings of the California state. I warn you please do not send your child here.
Submitted by teacher on January 21, 2019

High, I have attended there for 4 years.
Submitted by parent on September 17, 2017

Great school! A hidden gem within Hayward.
Submitted by parent on August 09, 2017

Aweful . not safe. I stayed a little with my son in his class teacher never stopped yelling at the kids.. Not a good environment.
Submitted by parent on July 27, 2016

KEY Academy offers you such a great and welcoming environment, it has a lot of extra support for students who are falling behind like my student was. I see that the teachers are very dedicated, they offer a lot of family events.
Submitted by parent on June 10, 2016

KEY Academy is a public charter school in the Hayward Unified School District. If you are looking for an alternative to the madness of public schools, and you want to get in right away , this is an option. KEY offers a dual language program, your child may pick up a few words of Spanish or Arabic. A lot of school activities and events such as sports, talent show, multicultural day, reading week, among other fundraising events. KEY offers after school homework club, free. The kids can get extra help on homework after school from 3:30-4:15. The culture is very peer oriented. Bullying happens more than it should. There is definitively a culture of favoritism going on with some of the teachers and students in the middle school grades, as well as lack of boundaries among some of the female students and young male teachers. Furthermore, there seems to be a gossip culture amount staff. In my opinion the teachers should be role models to discourage this type of behavior, and not modeling it to the children. The main concern should be guiding these kids to treat others with respect and not promote 'clicks' but the teachers themselves seem to be rather 'clicky' as well. Most of the teachers are quite young, and seemingly, have not surpassed "high school" culture. I will even go as far as to question the credentials of many of the teachers. The principal is not warm or welcoming. The general feel is to maintain status quo, a comple lack of innovation. Charter schools were meant to be “innovation labs” to test out new ideas and introduce those ideas into the traditional public school system, but that is not happening . There is no strive for growth and creative change of any sorts. No effort to change existing social structure to promote some sort of meaningful social values and ethics, which is what children so desperately need in these times of such political and social difficulties in the world. KEY Academy, I challenge you to root out these major toxic social issues, among staff and students alike, or else I'm afraid you are just another mismanaged, flaky, profiteering charter school.
Submitted by parent on August 22, 2015

This is an amazing school with an excellent academic program. They also have various after school clubs. The after school programs are extremely beneficial to the kids. The staff is very caring. Really happy my kids are able to attend this school.