Sam H. Lawson Middle School

The teacher makes 20% effort and the remaining 80% is students plus their parents. Don't be fool by the high api scores. Don't waste your money in buying a high price home in Cupertino school district. The school have nothing to do with your child's intelligence. If your child is average to below, these schools aren't going to make them any better. It is a scam to justify higher price homes and wasting your money......................................
—Submitted by a parent

I used to go to Lawson and it is the greatest school in the world. There is a fun learning environment and was one of the best times of my life. Both teachers and students are welcoming, and the classes are not too hard. The only thing I wish I would have been taught at Lawson is time management and how to handle the heavy workloads in high school. My writing skills were unsatisfactory as I entered 9th grade, and I think Lawson should focus more on this issue. In addition, I don't feel like I had enough homework in Lawson. Teachers should give more homework in order to prepare students for high school. Overall Lawson is a great school, but a focus on time management and test taking skills would complete a student's middle school education.

Teachers never responded when we have a questions. My daughter tried to contact her counseller and she didn't succeed to get proper response from any of the staff members. Not sure how this school is rated 10?
—Submitted by a parent

Truly, no one can give a better review than a student. Coming from Lawson, I'll tell you that a school can't get any better. Everyone's friendly, fun, and great at teaching, so don't hesitate to get to know them. They get you mentally, physically, and of course academically prepared for the world. They show you that everything will be okay. The best type of schools are ones you can talk about forever and will remember forever. And I will NEVER EVER forget Lawson :)

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

Lawson Middle School is a good school that has good extracurricular activities such as Physical Fitness and Band. The teachers are not that amazing, with some being great, and others being a bit below average. The vice principal is kind of biased toward kids that he doesn't like, so that's not good. There is lots of technology used at this school such as Macbooks and things like that that help the students learn. There is also an online grade checker which is great
—Submitted by a student

When I was in this school in 6th grade, I really enjoyed being there. When I moved away, I was extremely sad. Sam H. Lawson Middle School is the most organized and best school I have ever known in all my 6 schools. The music there is exceptional. My teachers were strict, but when they said something that we did wrong. They were sure to mention what was wrong and what we could do to change. They had a Parent Internet Viewer which made it easy for parents to look at grades.
—Submitted by a student

Lawson is a great school. This is my second year here and I think it's really awesome. I take the Mandarin Immersion Program here, and Lawson is the only middle school that has this program. The teachers are good, and there's a lot of different activities, clubs, and socials.
—Submitted by a student

This school has a lot of activities and clubs. When I was there, there were a lot of new clubs being formed. And, they have announcements on the Television to show upcoming events. This school was really organized
—Submitted by a student

My son has joined in 6th grade and now in 7th grade. He likes the school very much. His teachers are also excellent.
—Submitted by a parent

I have a 6th and 8th grader at Lawson now. The older one really liked Lawson from day one. The school seems to foster great school spirit among kids. My second one, however, feels stressful by a strict teacher and is bothered by some stupid rules set by teacher. Lawson has wonderful music programs and an overall safe and friendly environment. Extracurriculum activities and clubs are less due to being a young school. They used to have an excellent journalism program and school papre, but it got cut this year, which is really a lost. Parent participation should be encouraged more, however. It is like a private school in public school sysem. It is overall a great public middle school.
—Submitted by a parent