855 Berkeley St
Santa Monica, CA 90403

Classes are over-crowded, teachers do not give any individualized attention or feedback to kids, parents are treated as bothers and ignored. The worst is writing instruction which is entirely non-existent. Either you get a teacher that gives very few writing projects, so no practice and no feedback; or you get one that gives way too many but then doesn't ever grade them or give the children any feedback. We've had both kinds of teachers at Franklin. This past year my child did writing project after writing project, spending hours and hours on these. The teacher gave a single grade (no comments) on the first two in the fall, and then literally nothing the rest of the year. So these poor kids were toiling over these lengthy writing projects and then having to move on and do the next one with no idea of what the teacher thought of the one before. When my child asked for feedback the teacher snapped at her and told her to be patient. And then literally never gave her feedback. The two grades we saw had been good (4 out of 4), so when our kid got a low grade (2 out of 4) on their report card we were surprised and asked for a meeting. We were ignored. Our child asked again for feedback or whether the teacher had graded any of the numerous writing projects she had turned in, and the teacher said she hadn't gotten around to grading them yet because there were too many and she was too busy. The teacher gave her no feedback. We wrote into her with the same questions and asked if there was any specific feedback for our daughter to improve and got no response. We asked to see the writing projects that were sub-par so we could help her improve. We were told we couldn't see them. We finally gave up on getting any instruction through the school and hired private writing and math tutors.

New to this school + State! We went on a lot of school tours around the area and was very impressed with Lincoln. Once August started we immediately started volunteering with their PTSA Team. Everyone was so welcoming and helped answer any questions needed. You can tell there is a strong community here of teachers, staff and parents. I’m impressed as too how long a lot of the teachers have been at Lincoln and are happy to be here. These teachers really care about their subject and know exactly how to teach individual students. Lincoln’s Theater Program was the highlight to our year. Amazing production crew and support from our Lincoln Community. WOW! They really take this program seriously and have lots of rehearsals. They are the example of PASSION! You can feel it! You can see it! Parents are allowed to get involved at school which is a PLUS in my book! There are so many ways to be involved like helping with events, fundraising, student store, parent eyes during lunchtime. There are meetings that you can attend - General PTSA for updates, DEIA, Resources, etc. Information is spread through their site, weekly newsletters, robo text messages, in school signage and social platforms.Most importantly, everyone is welcome, involved and included. Thank you for having this special place for all.

Samohi has provided an amazing public education experience!