Silver Valley High School

My experience at Silver Valley was overall, good. Teachers are able to help students on a one on one basis because of the smaller population and want their students succeed.Also, on a side note, I did not enjoy the math curriculum at first but must admit that it did teach me how to be a better problem solver.

SVHS is a very unique environment. For Fort Irwin students it is your option. Its small size and corresponding course, club, and athletic offerings will be to some students benefit. However, if you have a child who is driven to excel in academics or athletics or performing arts, it may be prudent to think very carefully about accompanying your military spouse to this desert. The lack of weighted class offerings will forever affect high school PGA if your child will attend here but graduate from a different high school. Due to its remote location and meager facilities, the school does not have the ability to provide an atmosphere condusive to athletic or performing arts refinement. The quality of instruction is hit or miss. Two areas that our child had difficulty in transferring to another high school were math and health. Of the other 2 high schools she's attended, neither of them had a clue how to credit the course entitled "integrated math 2." Also, in other states, health is a semester long class, but not here. At SVHS, health is a once a week class with PE. This limited time will not count for credit in many other states. So, of the 6 classes she took, there were issues transferring 1/3 of them. Additionally, there is no 9 h grade social studies opportunity. The potential result is that if your child transfers high schools, he or she may have to take a freshman level class to fill in the missing requirement. Satisfaction with this school will be dependent on the perception of needs met. It would be very difficult to go back to SVHS.

I was very nervous about sending my kids to this school at first. We were stationed at Fort Irwin, so this was pretty much the only option. Having friends who were employed at a neighboring school, I knew the Barstow area was not the best. However, I was pleasantly surprised. My kids had a good education, with great teachers, and the school is pretty safe. The majority of the students there are military families and the school is gated so it is difficult for outsiders to enter the campus.

There is no little trace of order and system. Discipline is also missing. Due to the fact that teachers don't care about their students accept for a few.