Standley Middle School

There is so much racism at this school from the Principal to office staffs! They are unkind and ignore students and parents.
--Submitted by a parent

There is quite a bit of racism at Standley Middle School. There also seems to be a problem with bullying that the administration tolerates. It appears that the staff has difficulties controlling the behavioral problems of the students. My child has been bullied repeatedly at Standley and the staff chooses to look the other way.
--Submitted by a parent

This is the most awesome school i ever seen even my kids are very smart and the GATE program helped them to go to higher level classes so I say that this is the best school I ever seen
--Submitted by a parent

I think Standley is an awesome school. I sent both my kids to Standley after they attended private school. Standley challenged and supported them both! Principal Lyon and staff are the best! TK
--Submitted by a parent

Academics at this school score badly relative to the UCcluster elementary and high schools and are also poor relative to comparable student populations in the SD District. Science is only given as an option for 1/3year in 6th grade, so less important than PE, Social Studies.. Lunch and external activities are minimal. Many teachers seem incapable of managing their web materials or email. The main school focus appears to be tracking petty disciplinary issues. Management and planning is poor - now even worse then the previous Principal - this year 2/6 grading periods were almost done (Thanksgiving!) before the back-to-school night explaining class expectations was even held. Office staff typically ignore you and one counselor is notoriously unresponsive. There are good reasons many UC cluster parents skip the kids out from Standley for the middle school years and come back for UC High later.
--Submitted by a parent

If I understand the official mail I just received, this school is in year 2 of an Improvement Program after having failed to achieve proper scores in basic standardized testing for the No Child Left Behind act. Whether this reflects poorly on the school itself or suggests GreatSchools.org is a scam for ranking it a 9, something is misaligned with all these stats and ratings. The very scary thing about this San Diego Unified School District letter, by the way, is encouragement to apply to other schools with no cost bussing for my son.
--Submitted by a parent

So far, I'm not impressed for 2011/2012. The school is heavily over-enrolled. My son reports that three kids sit on the floor in his classroom. They added two extra teachers and finalized schedules just recently after some major shuffling of students. The worst part? It's six weeks since school started. "Projections were way off." Seriously? I guess it's not just kids who forget everything about math over long summer breaks.
--Submitted by a parent

I recently graduated from Standley and I really enjoyed my time there. I was in the Seminar program and the teachers were really helpful and often challenged us to go further in our studies. They helped us do our best for tests and were very supportive!

Standley Middle School is a very good school that does it's best to serve all students. The GATE classes are offered in English and Social Studies for each of the three grades (6th, 7th and 8th). For math, all students are tested and placed based on the test results. All other classes are taught by capable and better than capable teachers and consist of a mix of all students. Students have excellent elective choices in addition to the outstanding band/orchestra options. Anyone who thinks the teachers and staff are only interested in GATE students has not spent any time at the school or talked to any of the dedicated teachers and staff. These are people who have tirelessly been doing more with less for years and will likely continue to do given the current budget outlook. How many of us would be willing to do the job they do under current conditions? In the two and a half years that she has been at the school, Principal Lyon has changed the culture dramatically. According to my child, bullying is at an all-time low. Her consistent zero-tolerance position has had a pervasive effect. I am looking forward to having my next child start there in the Fall.
--Submitted by a parent

This school only offers good resources (math classes, etc.) to GATE children. If your not in GATE than sorry but your going to basically learn the same stuff from 6th to 8th grade. So of course some comments (made by GATE kids) are thrilled with the school. They're actually LEARNING! There are also 43 ratings made by teacher/staff members ,which they all gave 5 stars, no surprise they all want to keep their jobs. Why don't they get a degree and start teaching! Why do kids come to school if their no getting anything out of it! It is a waste of everybody's time and when they get to high school it's gonna be a heck of a lot harder. GOOOOD LUCK!