8425 SE 39th Street
Mercer Island, WA 98040

The math and science department have long been problematic. Post pandemic, the district spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on a new math curriculum, without providing the appropriate professional development and training for teachers to properly implement the curriculum that is supposedly more inclusive to all learning styles. So, no improvement in learning skills or mastering concepts. Over 100 students, at $8000 a math class, take math classes at a private learning center instead of at the high school. That says it all about the math program. Many teachers are not engaging, not preparing students for college or careers and vocations. They teach the lowest bar math in class and send kids home with more rigorous assignments to do with math tutors. Any success you see in math or science is because students are being tutored and parents are paying for that. While MIT and other prestigious schools for math and technology once accepted students from Mercer Island high school, they no longer do. They know the science and math program is a joke, there’s not even a STEM program. No engineering. Nothing for tech either. Come to Mercer Island and get a math and science education your parents did in the 80s. Oh and, you’ll need to hire someone to teach your student how to use their laptop — each student gets a Xerox Alto. The district isn’t going to help them learn how to use technology tools for the 21st-century. They do have a class to learn how to use the Cotton Gin though!

Epicenter, ground zero for brain washing students, from the student body to the teachers to the administrators. Harmful, shameful curriculum and classroom practices. After having two students enrolled here, I homeschooled them and eventually moved to a more conservative state all together. I sat in on zoom classes during Covid hearing things that shocked me. Truly listening to their social priorities over core academics- only serves to set the students back further. My neighbors on the island expressed regret they didn’t take their kids elsewhere. The high school and junior highs on the island give meaning to voting on school choice !

We have been so impressed with how Northwood has navigated all the changing policy over the past few years. The education is great with a lot of focus on individual differences. Wonderful teachers, faculty & parent community.