Laurel
Alameda, CA 94501

Encinal High School provides a welcoming campus to all; its community is like no other.

Wood middle school faces frequent discrimination within the student community that frequently targets large racial, religious, and LGBTQ groups. During my prior experience at Wood Middle School, I have seen fights, Nazi drawings, trashed/flooded restrooms, have heard plenty slurs, on a day to day basis. Lots of teachers at this school do not provide thorough teaching in class and often default to worksheets, and or low quality online resources. Also, in my experience as a student at Wood middle school, I have heard a teacher frequently use the N word in class without any punishment, which shows the incompetence of the faculty to stop this school wide discrimination. I have also observed the work ethic that students receive from going to this school, which (if summarized) boils down to "I don't care about my grade / just do the bare minimum." Overall, I would not recommend this school whatsoever, and if given a choice to enroll somewhere else, please take that opportunity.

We opted to move out of our home school for several reasons, including low average test scores and large school population. Franklin has been a fantastic fit for our son, now a third grader. The teachers in earlier grades were not the best, in our opinion, but so second and third grade experience have been fantastic. The teachers are very caring, the staff is accessible, and the after school program is great. Our son has made many good friends, been academically challenged, and grown up surrounded by a vey supportive PTA community that provides for those school items outside of the traditional school budget. We feel very fortunate that we are Franklin Falcons.