18 E Forest Ave
Columbia, MO 65203

I Went to School For 17 Years. 13 Because my mother made me to 5th grade twice, and I hypothetically when to college for 4 years. I was supposed to go to rock bridge high but, this school was closer to me. I will say that this is the best school I ever went to. The school in general was cool. Purple is not my choice of color but I delt with it. The teachers were cool; they helped me get through all 4 of my years. Some of them I still keep in touch with. My guidance counselor was the best. He saw something in me that nobody else wanted to admit... The students were decent, some of them had potential... They really only bad thing that happened is that a student stole my $300 headphones one night in junior year, sadly the police never caught him.

Average school. Ok Students. Ok Teachers. That's why I gave this rating a 3 out of 5, meaning average. Well, for most of it, it's an average day at the middle school. Too many bad kids at this school. They are some good students at this school, but the bad students population inside Jefferson middle school is > the good kids population at Jefferson middle school. The Bad kids outshadow the good kids inside Jefferson MIddle School. Well that is normal for a middle school to have a lot of bad kids. Too many kids who don't care about the real meaning of school, which exactly happens inside every average middle school you hear of across the U.S.A. This is the true meaning of school: You come to school to work, and then you study for your test, and get good grades, and listen to your wise teachers in class. That's what school is made for! Not for messing around with other students or screaming inside the hallway! This is the reason why many students hate school.

Benton Elementary was not a positive environment for our child. The school faces a difficult challenge, due to the clientele that it primarily serves. The majority of the students are unfairly burdened with challenges that stem from their low socioeconomic households. Education frequently took a backseat to inappropriate social behavior, causing the curriculum to be unexplored in depth.The faculty contained zero percent of the predominant faces that the school serves. The administration did not create opportunities for the parents outside of the PTA to feel welcomed on a daily basis, or to become involved in being a resource to the teachers in real-time. The building was run like a youth custody rehabilitation center, where the main focus had been shifted toward free lunch. There were no school wide programs communicating and/or dealing with appropriate social interactions concerning behavior expectations. Every day seemed like the focus was just getting to the last school bell of the day without any of the students or their family members causing a personal injury to any of the students that kept their heads down and went under the disciplinary radar.Our student struggled in this environment. Our household does not foster or support this type of social interaction, and this is why our child spent the majority of his school day disengaged from his education opportunities. Many of the school hours for our child were spent on a tablet doing busy work instead of being challenged with curriculum. The school library goes significantly unused! Benton has lower reading scores, but does not keep reading material in the students hands. We witnessed the teachers reading to the students in their classrooms, while seemingly unconcerned if the students were engaged.Benton needs higher expectations all around! I understand how the challenges of each student’s home environment can hinder the education process, but school wide expectations that are clearly communicated at the front door can turn some of the being time spent as a prison guard into time being spent as an educator.