Kinard Core Knowledge Middle School

I have very mixed feelings about Kinard. The kids and the teachers are all nice, the test scores are great, there are a lot of extracurriculars available, parents are involved... There is a lot to like. On the other hand, having had children attend other local middle schools, I am left with the impression that the high test scores at Kinard are largely a product of drill and not depth or creativity. The focus on memorization, sentence diagramming, etc. hits very much on my child's weakest areas. In some ways that is good -- forcing focus on something that would otherwise be weaker. In some ways it is not -- not developing real strengths in abstract reasoning. My older children who attend the high school Kinard feeds into have noticed much of the same: the kids who came there from Kinard are some of the weaker students in the pre-AP classes in terms of depth of thought and synthesizing material not just repeating rote learned information. There are some good teachers at Kinard, though, who hopefully will have more to offer than drill as my child progresses through middle school.
--Submitted by a parent

As a student at this school, I have one thing to say, excellent. You can't walk down the hallways without noticing how nice and helpful the teachers are, no matter how difficult or big the problem is. The principal is great, always knowing how to talk to and control the kids. When it comes to testing, its hard not to like the scores. So basically to sum it up, if you want to find a great school, look no further

What an amazing school everybody is so kind and helpful. Its welcoming and the students academic performance is outstanding.

It is a great school, the teachers are so helpful and do so much for their students, the whole staff is wonderful. They have so many wonderful programs to help the students.
--Submitted by a parent

We have found the administration at Kinard to be difficult to work with. Very little follow-through when approached about a concern or problem. Teachers don't let the kids fail - not always a good thing. My son is behind in academics and despite repeated conferences, meetings, 'interventions,' etc., nothing has changed. Not impressed.
--Submitted by a parent

Although our daughter loved her teachers, the academic expectations were low. At her elementary, the expectations were high and she learned time management with homework. At Kinard she took all the advanced classes- got straight A's- and still rarely had any homweork. High school is a challenge since the skills learned in elementary weren't used for three years. In a recent conversation with other Kinard parents, my opinion was shared by everyone. When our other children go into 6th grade, we will seriously look into Preston instead.
--Submitted by a parent

Ausome school. Everyone juges us because we are so wealthy,so what?that's a good thing,and it's a great school.
--Submitted by a parent

Having just graduated from Kinard. I thought it was a great school. The band program is excellent, the teachers are for the most part very compassionate, and there is always someone you can go to if you have problems. The school also teaches at a high level, and I really recommend doing all honors classes if you are a motivated kid because they help you to excel and if you score above average, in the normal classes you'll be bored out of your mind. It's true that the disipline is kind of lax, but I never really found it a problem; I mean, nothing ever got out of hand. It really depends on the teacher. I'm kind of sick of everybody judging Kinard because it's so whitebread. Yeah, most of the kids there had more money than me. It didn't affect my learning at all.
--Submitted by a student

As a parent of a dyslexic/ADHD student who floundered through elementary school (I used to say the idea of jr high game me hives), I was not sure Kinard was a good choice for us. The first parent meeting was terrifying with an enormous number of uber-competitive parents (how will my gifted child be challenged, etc. - they were so smug and self-righteous.) Yet, when I talked with staff and teachers, they really wanted my son - they wanted kids who were challenging. We ultimately did choose Kinard and I am so glad we did. My son is now at or above grade level in all subjects. The teachers would not give up on him. In addition, the high standards sort of rubbed off. Yes, there are still a lot of annoyingly 'per fect' people, but we managed to find some great parents too. Glad we chose Kinard.
--Submitted by a parent

Kinard is a great school. Just because it has a bunch of wealthier families does not mean it is any worse of a school. Kinard has a great facility and the staff are great.
--Submitted by a student