Right middle school for CPS
Reviews of CPS indicate that students need to be ready for vigorous learning (including considerable workloads) and foundation (especially for math).
I was wondering what middle schools set them up for success. I assume most (if not all?) public middle schools do not provide this level of vigor and foundation to set the basis for CPS - is that right? For those who sent their children to CPS, where did your child go to middle school? Just trying to gauge the right direction so I set my child up for success as he is academically interested.
Feb 18, 2025
Parent Replies
A few years ago my kiddo's middle school, Black Pine Circle, has 12 kids go to CPS.
Allow me to let you in on a secret about kids who are high-achievers in math... so many of them are getting tutoring outside of school. I have a child in high school (not at CPS), and we know kids from their year who attend CPS and are doing great who come from all kinds of backgrounds... various East Bay public schools (including OUSD), charter schools, and private schools. But what those kids all have in common is that their parents pursued significant academic enrichment outside of school for them. My impression is that the kid's motivation combined with parental resources is the real difference maker for being able to attend CPS and do well.
All that said, my child attended Prospect Sierra for grades 6-8. Eight kids from their graduating class of 72 wound up attending CPS. I think CPS' entering class size is like 90-95 students. I was surprised that this one tiny private school provided nearly 10% of the students to a high school that brags about attracting students from all over the Bay Area. I don't know if that one year was an outlier or if that happens every year, but maybe it's worth a look at Prospect? Prospect Sierra is a really wonderful school, for so many reasons... healthy and supportive social environment, excellent teaching in math in particular, fabulous heritage Spanish program, excellent electives and sports, superlative high school placement counseling... it's a truly wonderful place, and we've been very happy with it for all our kids' middle school experiences.
CPS kids come from many different schools -- public, charter, private. There isn't a single feeder school. We've been with 3 private lower schools in Oakland and all of the schools have sent kids to CPS. If you are specifically looking at private middle schools, the following schools have a reputation for being more academic with more homework which might be helpful to prepare for the workload of CPS: The Academy, Redwood Day, St. Paul's, Head Royce, and Prospect Sierra. However, I have also known kids from more progressive private schools (Black Pine Circle, Park Day, etc.) and kids from public schools (OUSD, BUSD, etc.) go to CPS.
EBI in Oakland flies under the radar, but they also place around 10 pct of graduates into College Prep. For the last couple of years, I know that ~3 out of the 30 graduates have enrolled. That said, I think CPS likes variety in their classes, so there is no feeder school per se.