Why Choose KapKa

Founded in 1989, KapKa Cooperative School provides an exceptional progressive, integrative education for children from kindergarten to fifth grade. The name KapKa comes from a Klamath word meaning “young pine.” At our school, we cultivate a child’s academic, social, and emotional growth in a supportive community. Our experience-based curriculum is developed through annual themes that inspire the students, providing an engaging vehicle through which they master fundamental academics.

These are the key elements of our unique educational approach:

• Joyful learning! We strive to create lifelong learners by helping students discover their passions and intrinsic motivations. At KapKa, children explore and ask questions to find answers, as opposed to passively receiving and recalling facts. They learn by doing and become flexible problem solvers. KapKa educators create a safe environment, a place where children feel confident taking risks and challenging themselves.

• A respect for the individual. Sending your child to KapKa ensures that they will be known and seen. Children are respected, not only by their teachers, but by the entire staff, as well as parents and their peers. KapKa’s teacher-to-student ratios are about 1:8, with small class sizes of 12-16 students. And with additional parent volunteers, we can support every child to reach their potential. Because each child learns a little differently, KapKa teachers offer students multiple paths to reach their educational goals. Children are able to find routes that resonate with their learning styles.

• Students are empowered and responsible. Students help guide the direction of their studies and the school’s social aspects, so that children are personally invested in their own education. Students are encouraged to advocate for themselves and their values, communicate their intentions, and think deeply about the impacts of their actions. KapKa children learn how to assume leadership roles and how to collaborate as a team.

• Teachers are accountable and free to shape curriculum. Teachers are accountable and free to shape curriculum. KapKa’s teachers believe in following educational best-practices and are not limited by outdated, entrenched approaches or held back by slow-moving bureaucracies. They have the professional freedom to adjust the curriculum as needed. Instructors are eager to engage parents and explain their teaching strategies, methodologies, and objectives.