After leaving my son's other middle school this was so much better. There was this cool ass mother fucker named Memphis Razack and made my sons week during the sick ass Washington DC field trip. Luxury hotel and cool sights as I saw with the different photos my son sent read more

I volunteered at King Middle School through the Be-A-Scientist program when I was a graduate student (Ph.D.) in geophysics (volcanoes and planetary interiors) at the University of California, Berkeley. I participated in the program during autumn semester in 2015. As part of the program I was assigned a group of four 7th grade students to bring the scientific method to life through interactive and hands-on experiment design and execution. We, Be-A-Scientist volunteers, came in on a near weekly/bi-weekly basis to make progress in each student's project. The week's session was always in the theme of one of the steps of the scientific method. This way by the end of the semester the students had designed and performed their own scientific study/experiments according to the scientific method. Each session we went over each student's project discussing it as a small group so they could get feedback from others in the group and hone their communication skills. They also wrote up what they were doing, sometimes including drawing graphs/plots, and if it was a week dedicated to the 'experiment' step in the scientific method they performed experiment trials/experiments. I enjoyed that we were able to develop an experiment for each individual student and thoroughly enjoyed the experiments my students decided upon. One tested different substances on slices of bread to see which generated the most bacteria, one wiped different surfaces with Q-tips to see which yielded the most bacteria, one tested different potting mixtures to see which was best for growing plants, and one dried different fruits to see which one evaporated the most moisture. Some of the results from these projects, such as Q-tips wiped on the wall having less bacteria than Q-tips out of the container, were down right shocking. All of the students in my group were great, expressing mush enthusiasm for the task(s) at hand and each had their own distinct inquisitive style. I have only good memories of my time volunteering with these students and at King Middle School. If you are a visitor here, like I was, there is a main office where you need to sign-in when you arrive to the school and sign-out when you leave. This way the school can keep track of who you are, why you are here, when you are here, and what classroom(s)/teacher(s)'s classes you are visiting while you are here. We were allowed to use only the faculty/staff restrooms when were volunteering. read more

One night I got to see one of the most profound speakers and engaging personalities on this amazing planet we live on. Im speaking of Richard Dawkins. He was out promoting his new book and I scored a ticket to go see him interviewed. The school hosted the event. Parking is limited and I had to park a few blocks away when I got here. The school itself if very pretty. The courtyard we walked through to get in line was like a beautiful spanish garden. The lobby area before you go into the auditorium is large and welcomed ticket holders to buy the book on site. You could buy the book unsigned or already pre signed. Pre signed was for me thank you. I don't like standing in lines. As to the auditorium it was very large. I don't know how many people it fit but the room was pretty full. The stage just had the interviewer and Richard Dawkins sitting at chairs with a table between them. Sound was great and I was mesmerized. I couldn't have asked for a better night. If you ever get a chance to see Richard Dawkins live go and listen. Hes funny, engaging and well just a plain old genius. I will say as to the school, there was one thing that I thought was very strange. I went to the bathroom at one point during the interview. I was trying to beat the crowd who may form when it was over. It didn't matter because there wasn't a square of toilet paper in the bathroom. Not in any of the multiple stalls they had. The bathroom was huge and great for crowds. What good is a bathroom without toilet paper? Especially a girl's bathroom? Do the students have to deal with these conditions? Here's the kicker, there was also not a single piece of paper to dry your hands. No hand dryers either. What the hell is going on here? You'd think if they knew events were going on at the school, paid events, they'd stock up at least one stall with tp? If Richard ever comes back, I'll be here. Bring your own tissues though. read more

In Berkeley, if you don't happen to have tens of thousands of extra dollars languishing in the ol' family trust fund, you pretty much have 2 real options for middle school for your child (and a third, which is not really an option. Yes, Longfellow, this means you!!!)...You don't even really have an "option", as I understand the word. Basically, if you live north of University Ave., you are sent to King. South of University Ave, and you are relegated to Willard (I will not go off on a tangent, but who in God's name would name a junior high after a rat??!)...Ooooppps, sorry, lost my train of thought. ANYWAY, the point of all this is that by all means, get yourselves over to The Edible Schoolyard!! Say what you will about the decline in public education, and things are about to get worse (thank you, Ahhhhnald), the Edible Schoolyard, with the chickens, the gardens, the adjacent kitchens and the solar powered (thank you Stuart!!) pond cannot be beaten. My advice: on a sunny day, grab a slice or two of pizza from Gioia's, and walk over to the hay bales near the chicken coop here. You can't do this when school's in session, but what's to stop you on a weekend?? It is so peaceful...just the sound of water trickling over rocks, contented chickens clucking/scolding, and bees hummin' along. In Spring the sweet peas are abundant, and the lavender is everywhere. It is just a little slice of paradise. Very worth a stroll over here. read more

This is a beautiful school, and then there's the incredible addition of the Edible Schoolyard. But the most amazing thing is the dedication of the teachers. Given all the hardship that our society puts on teachers, the annual pink slips, the poor pay, etc. How do they do it? We don't know, but are thankful that they do. We've gone the private school route before, and were disappointed. We are very happy with MLK. It is difficult to believe that a private school could do better than this one. Gosh, I wish my school, in the 1960's, had the zero-tolerance for bullying that this one does. I find myself envying my kid. read more

Best school ever so far the teachers are not disrespectful and rude and dumb like the other testers the teachers are not gay thatfully I am having the best time ar mlk middle school highly suggested for a new middle schooler and that is on god read more

If your child is at the bottom end of the performance scale, this is the school for you. Teachers appear all professional and there is plenty of help for low performers and special ed. In contrast, if your child is a top performer, math geek, or interested in sciences, you may want to look somewhere else. In fact, the administration happily admits that they have no program for advanced kids. I took time to look into most of the class rooms of all grades, 6-8. Some rooms are off limits because of confidentiality issues. All teachers are great and do their best. Students, however, are largely bored, unenthusiastic, don't pay attention, or have any kind of issue that you can imagine. Active, bright kids can be found here and there, but are drowned out by the generally depressed performance. This school could do better considering the mostly impressive teachers and all the money that is poured into it. . read more

Terrific school. The teachers who work there almost never quit, which tells you something. Very diverse student population, fabulous (and kind of famous) Edible Schoolyard garden. A very positive place to mitigate the hell on earth known as middle school. read more

This school is terrible. Please, for the love of god, do not send your child here. Honestly, going in debt paying for private school is better than the psychological damage this school leaves on your whole family. On the first day of sixth grade I was a happy child, always ready to learn. By the end of eighth grade I was a silent, "grey" kid, fading into the background, already ready to die. Everyone around me there was unhappy. CLASS SIZES There are class sizes ranging from about 29 to 42 students in a class. It isn't possible to every really meet your teacher at this school. FOOD They call the kitchen a "healthy" kitchen, but all they serve is greasy fast food. Adding a salad bar does not change the fact that the food is disgusting, especially when all the salad bar is is moldy bagels from breakfast the day before, limp green beans, and humus. DISCIPLINE There are no rules regarding discipline. There are official rules, but the faculty bases it off their own ideas. Sometimes you will be sent to detention without being given a reason simply because the teacher is in a bad mood today and you were rude enough to try to drink water without asking first. There were two security guards when I went there. The security guards have on many occasions simply stood there while prepubescent girls try to claw each other's eyes out and actually rip out each other's hair until one of them runs home crying. However, boys are treated much differently. The boys are sometimes grabbed, but usually the very strong and capable guards will call the police and wait for up to half an hour for the police without doing anything to stop the fight. SEXUAL HARASSMENT If someone is being sexually harassed by another student, often the offending student will be sent to detention and the teacher will write a minor disruption onto their detention slip like, "was disrupting class" and the victim will never be spoken to. The one person you can talk to about this (and let me tell you, this happened to every single female in my grade) is Mr. Santangelo, the counselor. He is the reason I am alive today. He's very helpful and easy to talk to once you've talked to him and are comfortable around him, but sometimes I worry about shyer students. The worst part is that their fear of coming forward is completely valid. When Mr. Gold (one of the vice principals) gets involved in something like this, he addresses the attacker directly so that it is obvious that the victim came forward, thus putting the victim into even more danger, doing nothing to keep attacker away from victim. MR. GOLD I want to talk briefly about Mr. Gold. He is incredibly creepy. He looks at young girls in a way that makes them very uncomfortable. Ask any girl at that school. Being alone in his office is terrifying, the way he looks at you. SPECIAL EDUCATION The "Special Education" there seems wonderful, given the budget. The counselors in the learning center are phenomenal. Mr. Resnik was one one them while I was there. Unfortunately, I was not made aware of the learning center (although I have a diagnosed mental disorder that the school knew of) during my three years there, so I wasn't able to take full advantage of it. DETENTION Detention is one of the worst parts of the school. It's a very small building painted pea green with the windows boarded over and way too many desks crammed in. Sometimes you're sent there simply for being late, but no matter what your offense was, you're treated like a criminal. Everyone sits in uncomfortably small desks with a few people in corners. Honestly, if you're stuck in there, I would advise getting into a corner as soon as possible, because when the woman in there starts yelling, you don't want her to see your face. If you make eye contact with her she starts screaming at you. Everyone in the room has to write pointless essays on bullying that if they were turned in to anyone might actually do something to change the system, but no. TEACHERS It's hard to talk about the teachers because they're so different, but let me just say that there were more who scared students and ignored them than the select few whom I actually want to remember. LEARNING & LEARNING ENVIRONMENT It's a terrible learning environment. If you aren't doing well, you're criticized and made to feel helpless by the faculty. There are maybe three teachers in the entire school who will actually help you if you are falling way behind. It's also terrible if you're doing well, though. "Baer B." mentioned that there is no advanced program, which is not true. There are advanced math classes and the option to skip a math grade and take Algebra in seventh grade and Geometry in eighth, which quite a few students do. The problem is you'll often have to take the class again in high school, making the class pointless. Oh and the restrooms are disgusting. The PTA does nothing. The visual art teacher is terrible. Plays are great. Everyone smokes pot, but I don't know if you care... read more