Best SF Middle Schools?

September 18, 2008 10:07 PM

SFMiddleSchoolFilter. Help me figure out which are the best and worst San Francisco middle schools

Everyone in San Francisco with 8-9 year olds (I have twin 9 year old boys) has the same intel: there are 3 good public middle schools in SF, and if you don't get into those you pretty much gotta go private. SFUSD's site provides information but little context. (GOD I have government websites) and there's a lot of advertising driven sites like greatschools.net which have a lot of info, but they also have little context.
My kids currently attend Miraloma- lots of parental involvement, great school. My kids have done well there. I'm sure there are middle schools with lots of parental involvement. I'm not hung up on them going to a super academic school. Just want a good school, run by nice thoughtful people, who care, and have room to care. Anecdotal information is greatly appreciated, but context in the wider picture is also great.
I"m willing to think about private, and I'm also collating information about that too, but before I commit to that, I want to know the public landscape.

posted by asavage to education (3 comments total)

The Berkeley Parents Network has some discussion on SF K-12 schools, and they also link to this SF site that may have more info.

Good luck with your search.
posted by zippy at 10:29 PM on September 18, 2008

The three middle schools everyone refers to as "good" are Hoover, Presidio, and Giannini. My kids went to Hoover, and we felt it was a good experience, on the whole. But don't assume that your kids will only enjoy one of these schools. Every kid is different, and the big 3 are really big (enrollment size, that is). The size thing can be both exciting and a bit overwhelming for kids to come out of small elementary schools and be plunged into a big school. You know - lockers, passing times between periods and all that. One of the big pluses about the big schools are the extracurricular activities. Hoover's big draw was the music program - like 80% of the kids were part of it and they all took great pride in making awesome music. Also, there was LOTS of parental involvement at Hoover, but it's not quite as easy as in elementary schools. For one thing, your kid will not be so enthusiastic about you being there! There were many good teachers, and a few not-so-good ones. The administration was both supportive and firm - both are important qualities.

I can't emphasize enough that you should check out the schools with your child. All SFUSD middle schools have tours and some have special nights for prospective students. It's really fun to go to these events. We have friends who went to Aptos and they felt really good about the experience. The school is somewhat smaller, and the family felt that it was better for their kids to be in a smaller place. The kids certainly learned just as well as our kids.

Horace Mann used to be good, but has gone downhill, or so I hear (though my data is from several years ago). We had heard good things about Roosevelt, but upon touring thought we hadn't ever seen such a depressed place.
posted by jasper411 at 10:51 PM on September 18, 2008

You might want to consult the Calif Dept of Ed's DataQuest site, which has all the official information on school performance throughout California.
posted by SPrintF at 12:11 PM on September 19, 2008