132 Aster Way
East Palo Alto, CA 94303

Having attended Carlmont High School myself I find many of this school's teachers to have the wrong approach to learning. Nearly all classes are based around memorizing and busywork, close to zero focus is placed on developing useful life skills other than in math and science classes. I personally felt my talents to be completely wasted at this school and have even heard teachers gossip about students to other teachers which cannot possibly be acceptable. Test scores and ratings for this school are high because the students here come from wealthy and successful households, I personally found myself to have learned more from my parents than from the teachers at this school. Key evidence pointing at this is that those students who come from underserved communities or have parents with low incomes tend to perform poorly, whereas the wealthy students with good home environments perform well. Secondly, this school didn't educate me at all about the benefits of the community college system, only placing it as "that's where you go if you can't go anywhere else" which is a completely wrong approach if you actually understand - most reading this will likely disagree, aka you don't understand how the transfer system works.Counselors at this school would take over two weeks to respond to inquiries which I find completely unacceptable, and even though the office staff cares about the students the thought of replacing teachers who don't do their job properly appears to never cross their mind. I know many here, primarily parents, idolize this school and find it to be the best ever, I personally graduated early from this school and have had exposure to different systems, even hearing from past Carlmont teachers and other adults who truly vocalized critical viewpoints. If you are a student and want to do well, or a parent of a student here, don't waste your time on AP classes, the college board is a for-profit organization and MANY flaws have been found about this system. (A correlation between lengths of essays and higher scores even if they were poorly written has been found - plus many schools don't even accept these anymore). Instead, start taking concurrent enrollment classes at community college as soon as you are mentally ready and developed far enough, I can guarantee you won't regret it. Even if continuing to a private 4-year institution starting in freshman year of college - you'll want college counselors, not Carlmont's.

M-A is an impressive place, especially given the extreme socioeconomic diversity and varying high school readiness of its student body. The curriculum provides for courses ranging from remedial to AP and beyond. There are extensive resources for academic help (ranging from office hours to after school help to peer tutoring), a huge number of clubs and extracurricular activities, highly competitive athletics, nationally-ranked debate, award-winning orchestra and jazz bands, the list goes on. Students are given opportunities to participate and excel regardless of family financial situation. And this is borne out in the college outcomes - the majority enter college, and many go to Ivies, Stanford, MIT and top UCs. Most importantly, I have found that the teachers work hard and really care about their students - not just their academic outcomes but their entire well-being. During the pandemic, many teachers went well above and beyond to ensure that their students' mental and physical health was secure. It is a hard thing to measure, but, as a parent, heartwarming to see in action.

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Los Robles Ronald McNair Academy is a jewel in our community. The teachers and staff are so dedicated and genuinely seem to enjoy their work and love their students. The principal takes the time to respond to every parent communication and make himself accessible to the school community. He also gets in the classrooms and supports his teachers, so he has a real pulse on what’s happening in his school. My son is so happy to go to school everyday. The attention to each child as an individual, as well as the focus on social emotional learning make Los Robles feel like such a great place to be everyday. The teachers also go above and beyond to organize field trips and other special activities. After a very negative experience in a neighboring district it was like night and day coming to Los Robles. To be honest, it was a very difficult decision for me to trust my child to a Ravenswood school based on the district’s history, but I am so glad that I took the risk. My decision is affirmed everyday by the smile on my son’s face when I pick him up from school. My son also has an IEP and I have been very pleased with the support so far. It’s not easy to find special Ed staff that can provide services appropriately for a dual immersion program, so kudos to the principal and the district special Ed team for hiring and retaining a strong team.