Madrona Middle School

I have a sixth grader at Madrona Middle School. Before enrolling him, I had contemplated homeschooling out of fear that he would be bullied. Quite the opposite has happened. Yes, there is bullying - just like anywhere were 850 kids share space. The team around the principal, however, is nothing short of AMAZING in handling each incident immediately. Bullies get talked to immediately, kids feel empowered to speak up, and they do! Also, the education and the extracurricular activities, as well as academic enrichment are great. Several business partners in the community have stepped up and offer no-cost after school classes from math club, to Lego Mindstorms, to science sessions. Weak students get all the help they need to succeed. My son went from having near failing grades to a 3.5 GPA thanks to the teachers here and the help he gets to manage his attention problems. If you live in the Madrona district, you are lucky! I have two more kids who will go here in the next years and as long as the school stays the way it is, I am very much looking forward to their Madrona years.
--Submitted by a parent

I have two children here now, 6th and 8th graders. We've had a great experience here and both kids just love the choir/band teacher, Mr. Lewis -- he's a favorite teacher that we hear high school students talk about! Some of the teachers are so involved in the school and lead the after school activities and other programs that boost the morale of the student body and build their school spirit. It seems like some of these really involved teachers have all managed to have babies in the past year or two and can still juggle all this extra work! We feel very fortunate to have our kids in this school and really appreciate the quality of education they are receiving. I am disappointed that the PTSA isn't more visible. I see them doing lots of fundraising, but the only program I see is Adventures in Art. Maybe they are providing more than that to the school, but not getting the credit for it. I hope that's the case.
--Submitted by a parent

This school is okay. I just finished 7th grade here and the teachers are really nice but they don't really challenge you. I barely get any homework which can be good and bad but some of them don't even know what they are teachings. At school like Bert Lynn they give loads of homework. The PTSA isn't involved all and their are almost no student activities. Some teachers are really mean and some are really nice.

I am a sixth grader at Bert Lynn middle school I visited this school and i liked it very much. Bert Lynn is very competitive and has very strict teachers. Also you might want to wach out for the teachers. Some of them just plain hate me. They pile on the homework to unlike Madrona.

I am currently an eight grader at Madrona. The education is very nice compared to others but being a student of color at that school is difficult. People and teachers often stereotype abundantly. Especially if you are an educated student of color. Most of the teachers and staff have prejudice remarks in invisible ink. There have been many situations where their maybe a conflict between a black student and a white student and they put all the blame on the black one. As if they started something. Don't be surprised because they don't know how to handle an educated student of color. But thats life. I hope you take this into consideration.

A spiritless school, and the teachers don't have much enthusiasm when teaching. This school has a lot of students who are not wearing very happy faces. You can just see it as you walk on to campus. I am not sure how this school is California Distinguished. After having my daughter attend one year here, we are taking her out to attend either Bert Lynn, which is the best T.U.S.D. middle school I can find, or we wish to send her to private school. Madrona is a very poor school that no good child like mine should attend.
--Submitted by a parent

This is a low leveled school.
--Submitted by a parent

The principal and assistant principal are kind, fair, inspirational, out and about (visible), supportive and enthusiastic. We are very happy with all of the teachers, counselors and front office staff. They pull together as a team and support kids and families. They encourage pride in the school and community service and maintain high standards. Achievement scores keep improving -- this is a 'California Distinguished School.' The school is safe -- very few conflicts between students -- and parent involvement is strong and growing.
--Submitted by a parent

Despite the growing challenges that affect this district and school, the teachers continue to reach all of their students and promote high levels of learning. I've had nothing but good experiences with the teachers and administration. If I had to choose which school my child attend for middle school, it would be Madrona!

This school fails in comparison to all the other schools I have attended before, after just moving to Torrance from Arizona. The students here are very merciless, and many of the teachers are very, very poor. The environment is also extremely low-quality, in my opinion. Overall, this has been the worst school I've ever been to.
--Submitted by a student