Standley Middle School

A negative and disorganized school that performs well below expectations. Staff are not racist but can be rude, condescending and obstructive with any parent. Parents volunteers who were active in elementary school often stop helping out when they start to feel their children are treated unfairly. The feeder elementary and high schools are high performing yet Standley was classed as 'failing' for three years and barely escaped this year - last test scores are still far short and NOT 'out of this world'. Professional behavior, basic skills and teaching effort in almost 1/3 of the staff is lacking. I have seen staff responsible for student injuries, bring replica weapons into school, blatant failures to grade or demonstrate any records of student work, failures to show up for parent meetings.. If this were your child's behavior it would soon be a suspension or worse but the Principal simply refuses to acknowledge problems. A letter yesterday detailed how graduating 8th graders with low academic or citizenship scores will be prohibited from attending the graduation ceremony. All these kids should be celebrated but the final memory of Standley will be negativity and discrimination.
—Submitted by a parent

I am a student at Standley Middle. I think this is a great school. I am in the GATE/Seminar program and it is helpful to be in a learning environment with more students at my level. The only thing I think unfair is the math program. There is a test in elementary school determining which math level each student will be at. I happened to miss the deadline by one or two points and I am stuck in the lower math class for the rest of middle/high school. Mrs. Lyon, the principal, would not move me into the higher math group even though I had an A+ in math. Otherwise, this school is a great one and I recommend it for parents looking for a good school for their kids.

The way math is taught in this school (district?) is the most convoluted mess I have ever seen. I can not even put into words how both my child and myself have come to HATE this subject now. I realize that once summer starts I will be entirely reteaching this whole subject to my child in an orderly and logical progression using workbooks as it seems this subject at the school is all over the place and hardly uses the book on most occasions. To many handouts without answers and not enough intervention to determine exactly how well a student is doing at understanding the material, whatever that my be at times. Makes me question if I should send another child to this school or just relocate instead.
—Submitted by a parent

This school has a Three Strike & You re Out rule.(A punishment program regarding unfinished homework assignments) and the staff are forcing students (who did not complete and/or turn in a homework assignment or packet) to make a phone call home (while school is in session) and read (from a script written by the school staff) a VERY HUMILIATING speech to their parents; (in short) telling them how sorry they are for letting them down & not living up to their standards and expectations, & so on. By the third (strike) time not completing a homework assignment, the student not only has to make the (humiliating speech) call home, they also must have a meeting with the school s VP 5 days of lunch detention or one day of Wednesday school. This happens even if the student has been out sick and has quite a bit of homework to catch up on. I m sorry but, What s Up !! Is this practice of student humiliation REALLY necessary; I think NOT ??!! But then again . . . Who am I to question this school s disciplinary actions; I m just another parent; right ?!
—Submitted by a parent

i like this school im a six grader there i love it just some thighs i dont like lets start with PE i dont like chaging i front of the other students i try to go to the rest room and it turns out we are not aloud to chage i the rest room my math teacher mr withers is awsome he can get a little rasit ad ms danilso she can get racest too mr marcus is the awsome teacher he is a music teacher and mr weedmark is awsome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Standley Middle School is by far the worst school I have ever been to. The school is very poor and unorganized. They say that it is not their fault they are poor but because the funding is bad. However, they spend their money very poorly spending money on textbooks and other things that are almost never used throughout the year. The schedules are also very unorganized, and are always wrong and have to be changed 2 or 3 times. The staff and teachers also fail at controlling the kids and most of them are very racist and constantly say inappropriate things. The school is very unsanitary, as there is gum all over the floor, under the desks, and even under the chairs. The principal does not even accept parents' requests for changing their kids' classes. The cafeteria lunch menu is also poorly designed because they are limited to each item to often vegetarians starve. I went to Standley for an unfortunate 3 years. Take my advice and do NOT go to Standley.

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!

My child currently attends Standley. The only positive thing I can say about this school is that it has a great band program. Other than that this is a terrible school. Children are constanly being bullied and not much if anything at all is being done to controll it. My child will not be returning to this school next school year.
—Submitted by a parent

I just finished my first year at Standley, and I am very pleased with how the year went. The teachers are outstanding: challenging but offer lots of help when you need it. I was in the GATE program and learned a lot throughout the year. Highlights were English, in which I learned many things and also did nice projects. I also enjoyed having PE every day. The coaches were supportive and challenged you to always push harder, but never forced you to do anything completely against your abilities. I made a lot of new friends, although the behavior of some kids could be better. I am overall very happy with my first year at Standley and can't wait to start again!

best school ever. the band has been an award winning band for almost 10 years and the teachers are phenominal.
—Submitted by a student

There are a lot of racism in this school. Especially its very difficult to meet the principal as a foreign parent. The assisstance of principal is very rude and disrespectful. When asian parents spoke to her, she never tries to listen. Most of the teachers are good.
—Submitted by a parent