2857 Mantis Dr
San Jose, CA 95148

This school focused a lot on getting students involved with the community and giving back to the community when I was there.

Extremely competitive - constant testing with teachers bragging tough grading. sub par teachers. The CS teachers makes students write codes on paper. Much easier to get As in other schools. Very few students make it to top colleges because of grading.

Brand-new campus and friendly teachers who care!

I think that this school is good, but could improve on certain things. For starters, I personally oppose the "LSI" program. I know that kids are justified in choosing this program, but I never really saw how teaching through projects helps the children digest knowledge. So when they get to high school, they'll be struggling due to being used to no workload prior, and working separately. The "LDA" program on the other hand is basically what you'd expect middle school to be. The teachers are very mixed in quality. One of the science teachers that my son had didn't teach much, and he got a B- in the class. She relied only on online assignments, without explaining how to do them, and didn't always suggest what to study for the test. Another teacher my son had for history was one that's class he looked forward in attending, yet the principal made her switch to a "textbook-based" method due to the fact that when one student was asked to describe what they were learning during the principal's visit to the class, the student had difficulties responding, which of COURSE is justified in the presence of a principal. The class went on to go through various "teaching changes" throughout the year, and quite frankly, my son started to lag behind in understanding all the material, coincidentally. The school does have some positive factors however. For example, they offer CCM 7/8 and CCM 9 classes for those ahead. They also have a great PE department and Wrestling team. Social-emotional support is present with MOSTLY approachable office staff and counselors. So really, I think that this school does have the potential to dominate academically in the district, but I feel that they need to consider more about how they are helping kids learn with the effect of their decisions, and if they have course rigor. Overall, I'd give this middle school a 7/10.