Millikan Middle School

As a parent with kids at Millikan Middle School, I rate this school an F. I’m not a big complainer, but this administration will ignore you — and that’s if you can get in touch with anyone. Word of Warning: Try to remove your child from Mrs. Lacour’s history class. She’s incompetent and lazy, swears in class and admitted in my kids class that she cheated when she was a student. Nice behavior from a teacher, don’t you think? Her homework involves senseless busy work of coloring maps, something my kids did in the 3^rd grade. Who knows what they learned? I guess we’ll find out in high school. Mr. Chaidez, a Geometry teacher, does little to help his students understand the advanced subject. All his kids have to be tutored on the side. I emailed him 4 times throughout the year and never once got a response. I finally had to break down and contact the department head. Thankfully, we are done with Millikan and not a moment too soon. If you have smart kids who like to learn, pick another place. If you have no choice but Millikan, I wish you luck (but don’t say I didn’t warn you).

Millikan overall is a pretty decent school ruled over by LAUSD. But there were certain problems when I went to 7^th grade.
1) The most important problem is mainly about the teachers and the staff. They didn’t help me in a certain way to improve my grades, for example, my mom was calling the history teacher for a parent conference mainly because I was tanking the class. The response was, and I will always remember this moment, «I am sorry but I cannot meet with you. Your son is a great kid and he’s doing fine in my class.» Like, wtf what kind of teacher would act in such a grumpy and I don’t care about his grades way. Another teacher, who I feel sorry for the kids, forced the kids who needed a pen to take their shoes on. What kind of teacher would do that, hell why would this school allow this teacher. These are examples of teachers in this school who belongs in another school, but not this one.
2) The next thing is about the schedules. Every year the schedules are mixed up thanks for the program MISIS. It is a whole lot of a waste of time and frustration.
3) Next up is about how dirty the campus is. The janitors in this school NEVER clean thorough. I always see plastic and scraps of paper all around both inside and outside. Really messy and it should’ve been taken care of easily.
4) Lastly, there have been race battles in this school. With that, bullying is very common, with no teacher in sight. Plus the teachers would let the battle go on instead of breaking it apart. Seriously?
Long story short, it could’ve been better if most of these problems were fixed.

This is an edited review. I gave Millikan 2 stars for overall quality. For the Musical Theatre Department, I would give it MORE than a 5.
Don’t buy into the hype of Millikan being one of the best public middle schools in the Valley.
The academies and Magnet tries to attract high performing students to their programs, but the reality is that these are just ELECTIVES. Math, History, Science and English are overcrowded classes of 40 and more, with several teachers who don’t seem to care about their students. The English curriculum is very poor, there are no reading lists, no required book reports, very little writing, period! Many teachers don’t have their assignments online, few post grades online. In 2015 this is inexcusable. If a parent has concerns about a child’s grades or schoolwork, good luck in trying to meet or speak with your teacher!
That said, if your child sings, dances and loves musical theatre, Millikan has an outstanding program and I kept my child at this school because of this. Take your pick: either supplement English and other core material in an extra-​curricular, enrichment form, or choose a school that has better core academics.
If your child is not playing an instrument, dancing, singing, or in the film academy, I would NOT recommend you sending him/​her to Millikan. There are other options for public education — charter and private parochial that will have smaller classes and better academics. Be a consumer and shop around.

Overall, millikan is an awesome school. I’m a millikan alumni and I can say with certainty that millikan changed me for the better.
Before I came to this school, I was a shy narrow minded little boy who thought everyone was better than me and that school was a pointless waste of time. The second I stepped foot in period one on my first day of school, I suddenly felt more confident already.
I’m a dancer and my first class was dance (instead of PE, one of my favorite parts about this school) and from the first breath I took of millikan air, I already felt artistically enlightened.
The academics are not only great but most of the teachers captivate you and make you eager to come back tomorrow. They can elegantly incorporate creativity with academics.
Although yeah, there are tiny bullying problems, but if you just say stop now, they’ll stop. They aren’t gonna say «whatcha gonna do about it», they’re just gonna stop. Besides, if they call you a stupid name, you just brush it off.
And while graduating 8^th graders say that we’re glad we are leaving, we aren’t being serious, you just get sick of the same thing. Besides, after like a month gone, you start missing it. You also make some of the best friends at millikan. I know they’re people that I won’t forget and still haven’t forgotten or lost touch with.
Sincerely,
AJ Moore

Math Academy is the best program in Los Angeles
The teachers doing an excellent job
Its good idea to keep the kids that love to learn and love Math together.
I know people complain about the traffic but after all we live in LA, traffic is part of our life here.
Great Academic, a lot of extra activities
I don’t know much about the general population but if you get in one of the academies you going to love this school.
principal and Vice principal — Great Job

I must say as a student, the school is the best you will find in LAUDS, I am from Musical Theater and honestly we work really hard and spend a lot of money to make our shows amazing, we work hard on our academics as well. Some teachers are super nice yet strict, the other teachers you just have to get on their good side. The students are amazing people. If I were to choose which middle school in LAUSD is the best I must say Millikan

Parking is bad, overall seems to have an ok appearance, and my oldest granddaughter seems to like being there, this is her first year at Millikan, so its difficult to know how she will do.

Yikes. I just read the other review and while I too don’t particularly think this is a great school, there was a whole lot of hectic going on in that one. Now that doesn’t mean I don’t believe it, because I do, but yikes is all I’m saying…
I have a decent bit of experience dealing with several of the elementary and middle schools in and around the LA area. That said, this one is probably my least preferred to date. Several reasons for such include:
1) I once couldn’t locate an 11 year old student (over half an hour after dismissal, mind you) and the main office staff refused to use the intercom to call the child. Their reason for refusal was because «a lot of times they don’t hear it» is what I was told. Are you kidding me? I told her the student wasn’t answering her cell phone and that I had been searching for her for over ½ an hour and they wouldn’t even bother to try calling her? Absurd. Mind boggling, actually.
2) The traffic (and total lack of parking) around this place (particularly during afternoon pickup) is utterly ridiculous, completely inefficient and again, mind boggling. I feel sorry for the local home owners, that’s for sure.
3) Most definitely thanks to said traffic jams, a student (so I was told) had apparently been slightly hit by a car while running into the street because the area lacks any and all organization, efficiency or fluidity. !!! Really!!!
4) The classroom size is horrific. 45 kids for one teacher to TEACH, discipline, organize & merely keep track of? Riiight.
5) A 7^th grade student I work with made her initial elective choices, prior to the school year beginning. When her first 2 selections were already filled up (thanks to said enlarged classroom sizes), they placed her in a basic computers class (which said student had already taken AND gotten an A in). And again… are you kidding me? That has to be the biggest waste of educational funding yet. Not to mention, you know that if it happened to her, she’s not the only one. Unbelievable. Why would you place an A student in a class a second time just to fill up her scheduling requirements? That is so unacceptable on every front that I can’t even conceive of how it’s even legal.
Bottom line? Clearly not my first pick and definitely not where I’d send my kids.

No

It’s our 3^rd year at Millikan and we feel so fortunate to be here. First of all, even if your child is not in performing arts, you will benefit from the amazing program at this school. Art matters and you can see it in action here.
There is a dedicated corps of teachers who put in many extra hours to make sure their students receive the education they deserve. There is a strong PTA/​Booster Club that is always thinking of ways to raise more money for the school.
One clue to this school’s amazing strength is Back to School Night. usually not well-​attended in Middle School– here, it’s a tremendous production, arrive early and you still have to park *blocks away* — that’s how involved the students, parents and teachers are in this school.
The Millikan community is extremely supportive, too. Numerous business in the area support its fundraising efforts. Go Turtles!