Hoover High School

Hoover is a great school. I very much enjoy coming in every morning. This is something I can honestly say I have never said about another school before. I have read some of the previous reviews and I do partially agree. Most students here are the typical suburaban Abercrombie and Fitch type. The others do fall through the cracks a little. Not "fitting in" is nonsense. The majority of the student population are friendly and outgoing. Teachers will always be there to help you. If a student is in need of extra help, many teachers are happilly willing to stay late to help a struggling student. Athleticly, you will not find a better school than Hoover. We have excellent sports teams here.But watch out, it is a big school and it is easy to get lost in when you first arrive. As far as being a freshman, I cannot recall a single instance of any sort of hazing. Hoover is a school mostly frree of bullys. No one likes a bully, and any Hoover student will help a peer.The surrounding neighborhoods are a great place to live. Hoover really is a great school.
--Submitted by a student

Hoover sucks. THey do not teach you how to study(some people say that should be the kids responsibility but teachers should help) or anything that would actually help you in the real world like college or something, thy all expect you to absorb information. if they actually taught you how to open up a textbook and learn from it then that would be good. also if you are a little bit weird, good luck. IF you dress like a hippie or a freak or just not like everyone elses style in general and do not fit in do not expect to fit in here.
--Submitted by a student

Hoover has very many opportunities for students to find what they love. Many of the teachers though are more concerned with staying on track that they don't seem to care about whether or not the student is actually understanding the material. Many of them are very unfair. Now many of them are great teachers and I fell actually do care about their students and want them to do well. Mrs. Gibson is the only Language Arts teacher that allowed me to understand grammar. This being said a lot of the times the fine arts and academic extracurricular activities get forgotten because of sports. All of the purchase orders will get put on hold if the football team needs something. As a student (and one who could personally care less about football) has found it very disappointing because i have lost school spirit. It has just been shoved down our throats and no one seems to care that we don't care. We are also no longer allowed to have a proper homeroom. If you have to go to the library, too bad, we have a special lesson and curriculum for homeroom now. You need to do ACTUAL SCHOOL WORK, too bad. It all in all has been a very disappointing experience and I personally can not wait to get out.
--Submitted by a student

All four of my children went to Hoover High. Two have gone on to college and are thankful they had such a great school to prepare them for their studies in college.
--Submitted by a parent

Hoover High School is an excellent school. I have one child that has graduated and was well prepared for college. I have another child that is attending Hoover now and another one that will be there in 2 years. The teachers, administrators, and counselors really do care about the students and want to see them succeed.
--Submitted by a parent

As as former student of Hoover High, I can certainly say that I was well prepared for college and entry into the 'real world'. Yes, it is a big school, but so is the real world. While I did not play sports, my brother was on the football team and I am so glad that he was. He was not a strong student, but being able to play sports was the motivation that he needed to keep his grades up. If you want someone to hold your child's hand through highschool, then I suggest home-schooling them.
--Submitted by a student

Great school, overall, but way too much emphasis on athletics. They need to realize that winning is not everything.
--Submitted by a parent

I have two children at Hoover High. Academically, I think it is a great school. The diversity of classes and extracurriculars is awesome. However...there is way too much emphasis on athletics, especially football. Athletes get preferential treatment over other 'standouts' in the school. I have had good experiences with all the teachers I have encountered (and I think they are very good). The cliques within the adult cohort involved with the school are just as bad as those you ordinarily see with teens. If I had it to do over, I would move to a less snobby school district. I'm looking forward with relief to moving next year to another state.
--Submitted by a parent

I am a parent of a current Sr. at HHS. While not into sports she is academically and artistically inclined. There has never been a year in her 4 years at HHS that she has not had multiple teachers go out of their way to help her achieve success - both academically and personally. The staff and teachers at HHS do care about their students but students in turn have to care about their own performances. The campus is big, the student body the size of some colleges, the classes and after school offerings cover a huge variety of subject material. With 1200+ kids at HHS if you feel left out it's because you are intentionally keeping yourself out. Football is big at HHS make no mistake, but life w/o sports can and does exists quite nicely.
--Submitted by a parent

No Child Left behind along with other internal programs at Hoover High provide adequate focus on the low performing students. Learning Academies, the IB program and other offerings focus on the high achieving students. The middle of the Bell Curve at Hoover High contains average to above average learners that are often left to fall through the cracks as witnessed by weak grades and low GPAs that limit post secondary school opportunities regardless of the students' ACT scores. This is due in part to the expectations from parents and the administration that result in learning standards being pushed to near college levels for the core classes. A consistent example of this has been chemistry where the instruction level is that of college chemistry and an above expected number of students subsequently perform poorly as compared with their other classes. For 'average' students it should not this hard.
--Submitted by a parent