Sam H. Lawson Middle School

I absolutely agree with some of the newer reviews. Mediocre teachers (with a few notable exceptions), too much emphasis on blogs, wikis, etc., with no real knowledge imparted on core subjects. Most of the math learning for the two years my child has been at Lawson has pretty much been done at home or on his own. All the talk about young and energetic teachers there is completely baseless. The sports program is average. The wood shop elective was pretty much the one period my son has really enjoyed in all of seventh grade! The amount of time spent in doing homework, assignments and projects has been way too much... but then since they don't teach core subjects adequately at school, we also end up having to catch up on that at home. So, on the whole a very disappointing middle school experience.
--Submitted by a parent

This school's test score will satisfy most parents especially Asian parents. When it comes to my kid, a not very social but shy and careful student, it is not very good. We can feel the teacher's preference at the orientation when we try to talk. My kid spend lot of time for homework. And the teacher told us all kids should have done most their homework at school. But I never see this is true for my kid. Not all teacher seem to know the status of the kid when I was talking. My understanding is that Lawson fosused on high performance students which is the majority of kids. The sad thing is Lawson doesn't want to put a little more time on none high performers. I know I can't change Lawson, I have to change myself. My kid didn't learn much this year. We'll have to help my kid during this summer for a better start next year. Hope my comments can let those parents who want to spend million dollar to get into this school attendence area take more time to think.
--Submitted by a parent

I love this school, I'm a 7th grader now in Lawson. The only thing that's really bad is how the students treat each other. I mean most of the kids in this school are nice, but there are mean kids. They tease nice people, and really its annoying. I wish the teachers or the principal will try to stop it.

This school is so great. I came as a sixth grader and I never felt nervous you are warmly welcomed

I am totally disappointed with this school. School programs are great on paper only. Core subject teachers wasted one academic year spending time on wiki pages and generating blog pages for their homework. Math teacher focused on creation of wiki pages and other stuff and he didn;t teach any math in the class. Language Arts teacher spent good time in writing and no effort in improving Reading comprehension. I have to stretch myself to teach my kid at home. If our American teaching is like this then no wonder why asian kids are so good at maths and science. I expect teachers will provide good foundation to the core subjects.
--Submitted by a parent

this school is AWESOME!! i'm a former student from lawson and i cannot tell you how lucky i feel to have gone to this school. The teachers here are GREAT. ok enough caps.... the thing is: this school actually cares about the students and how they are doing. the staff is wonderful and they just want you to feel safe and just enjoy school. i will never forget the teachers i had from Lawson. Plus i have made many friends from this middle school. the music program here is also pretty good - especially when their teachers are awesome and very engaging with the students. besides all the fun and the education here is also pretty good and will definitely prepare you for high school. the tech stuff here is also plentiful (MACS!!!). 2 computers/laptops for every student in lawson. and this place has like what? a thousand students? by the way, this school has a principle with great principal leadership. So, the school feels really united. An actual student wrote this.

This school is amazing... simply brilliant. I do not understand how people in the town of Cupertino are so bigoted towards Kennedy and Miller Middle school. I was a former student and my education did not differ from my friends at Miller and Kennedy. If anything, I learned to become a well rounded person and learner, rather than a student that is drilled only to recieve grades, not an education.
--Submitted by a parent

We all are extremely happy with Lawson for many reasons. Excellent teachers, great admin staff, supportive principal and Vice Principal, lots of after school sports activities, positive support for various projects done for school and outside school, PTA is amazingly hard working, parents do feel encouraged to participate, safe and secure environment, staff is watchful of preteen activities, my kids are sad to move to highschool as they love this school and feel it's too short period in middle school.
--Submitted by a parent

Wonderful teachers, great administrators who care for the children's needs first. My girls won't let us move out of this area as they don't want to go away from Lawson.
--Submitted by a parent

Lawson is a great example of a wonderful combination of great teachers, administrators (go Karl!!!!) and a philosophy that allows kids to excel but still be kids!!! The school gets kids ready for high school and they then excel there too!
--Submitted by a parent