Mission High School

Personally, for me, I was panicking because so many people have stereotypes of Mission High school and how it's bad. It just depends on the person and the people they chose to be with.

My son attended one year at Mission. On the positive side, most teachers were deeply committed to the kids and were extremely skilled, almost heroic, instructors. Two were breathtakingly bad; a drama class consisted of little besides learning a Shakespeare soliloquy, with no analysis or acting involved. To be fair, most of the year my son reported he was happy with the school and I think the administration tried to do its best for him and other students.Mission is proud of its diversity, and it adds a great richness to the school. I think it’s fair to say that in Mission’s case, the diversity is ethnic and national, and there is little social or economic diversity. Most kids come from low-income families with really difficult, even traumatic, backgrounds. Mission works hard to lift up these kids--it is, I think, the school’s strongest value. The problem, however, is that the attention and emotional energy required to support kids through their traumas (including homelessness, gangs, murders of loved ones) means that less energy is available to provide a safe and structured education for the kids without these challenged backgrounds. Classrooms are often loud and chaotic because there are few rules or consequences for bad behavior.

This is a great school! Teachers and students are awesome.

Students and staff have a deep pride and feel an overall sense of individual appreciation.