Rancho San Joaquin Middle School

What an amazing experience! My child spent 7th and 8th at Rancho, and all of the teachers were supportive, caring and creative with their lesson plans. There was the right balance between hard work, independence, and fun being back together to learn and grow. The staff went above and beyond to support our student. The kids, and some of the staff, had tears in their eyes during 8th grade promotion, which was touching. My child is fully prepared and confident for high school (and beyond) thanks to the lessons learned at Rancho. The 504 team is outstanding. Principal Snowden, and her team, made Middle School two of the best years of my kiddos life.

We have had a tremendously positive experience at Rancho San Joaquin Middle school with our 7th grader this year. The teachers have been engaging and have come up with creative ways to get students interested in the course material. I like how encouraging the PE teachers are; they try to get the kids interested in fitness and trying new activities rather than just grading on who can run the fastest mile. Teachers have generally been very flexible about things like accepting late work, test corrections and project revisions. Students are encouraged to review assignment feedback and submit corrections to improve their grade, which I really appreciate as a learning tool.The academics did seem rigorous to me. Students are taught to find appropriate sources and cite materials in great detail. Some of the more creative projects were to create a 3D gravestone for a historical figure in History and dress as a character from a novel they are reading in English. There are many elective classes offered, including several music classes, STEM, art, Spanish, and digital media classes. I was continuously impressed with the science and history topics covered throughout the year. Our child has a 504 plan, and the teachers all had very detailed feedback for our planning meeting. The team that handles recommendations also came up with thoughtful and thorough accommodations. The process of updating our 504 plan was very easy and I felt like our needs and feedback were carefully considered.The school offers several bussing options from neighborhoods like Quail Hill, Laguna Altura, Los Olivos and Turtle Rock. Although it is paid out of pocket, it’s much cheaper than the high school bus!We were really looking forward to sending our child back to school in the fall, but unfortunately we will be leaving the area. Not having our child attend Rancho next year is our biggest regret about leaving Irvine! I recommend it unreservedly.

I just graduated and I have to say I had a great experience here especially with the teachers I got in both years. They were all really passionate about their subjects and taught well. Some teachers gave more homework but were really good at teaching. I really enjoyed my learning experience here at Rancho.

Very bad experience especially with the Principle Mike Modeer, Assistant principle Jeffery Morano and Therapist Kelly Alexander. They lack of experience . They don't listen to your complaint and they are not interested in listing about the bullying in school. They do have a big problem and they are not willing to address it or fix it which is the Bullying at their school.

Each parent approaches education differently. So there's no perfect school in the world. Satisfaction really depends on what kind of parenting approach, expectation from the school, and level of involvement of the parents. My son transferred from overseas to Rancho as 7th grader. I was concerned if he could blend in well (had heard many bad things about US public schools). But as I observed and talked to my son for few months, I was impressed with the organization of the school, capability of the staff, and welcoming environment among students. Of course, you should not expect all teachers treat you like kings/queens. You should not expect all kids like one another. You should expect some kids in the class being more likely to misbehave. But overall, I see much more positive than negative (e.g. older facilities). And I believe all teachers there have the heart to teach the kids, including those who have disadvantages. My son loves his school and makes new friends after 2 weeks. From time to time, he might complain about amount of homework. But if you can coach them to manage his/her time (not doing their homework though), the work are not too difficult to be completed on time.