El Rancho Charter School

181 South Del Giorgio Road

School District

Orange Unified
Grade

7-8
Teacher/Student Ratio

1:30
Type

charter

School Map for Orange Unified School District

GreatSchools Rating

The school rating calculation is based on four ratings: the Student Progress Rating or Academic Progress Rating, College Readiness Rating, Equity Rating, and Test Score Rating each designed to show different facets of school success. Learn more about GreatSchools Ratings

Reviews

Submitted by parent on September 10, 2024

From the first day of enrollment, the staff has been amazing and so helpful, my daughter says she really does not see bullying at all just by 1 individual. They have treated my daughter and my family like we have been a part of the coyote family for a long time. I would recommend this in a heartbeat beat, and my daughter is super happy there.
Submitted by parent on July 09, 2024

Terrible experience. Constant bullying by students and staff. The teachers don’t care if they belittle you while trying to discipline you. And if you’re not a family they are familiar with, you get treated like an outsider. They have their favorites and those kids get away everything, including breaking dress code. Multiple families complained about the school and still nothing has been done to address the bullying and race issues that clearly exist.
Submitted by parent on April 23, 2024

Based on my experience, I would highly advise against enrolling in El Rancho Charter School. The prevalence of bullying in the school is alarmingly high and unfortunately, the school's leadership seems to have little regard for addressing this issue. Despite my repeated efforts to communicate with them about the bullying incidents, no tangible action has been taken to resolve the situation. There appears to be a group of employees at the school who display a sense of entitlement and superiority. They are using class time to sell candies, which disrupts the learning process and has a negative impact on the student's academic performance. It has been observed that some teachers tend to engage in non-academic conversations during class time. These discussions are often unrelated to school and learning. If a student happens to accidentally glance at them while they are talking, the teachers may respond with a fierce and threatening look. This is not an exaggeration and has been reported by students and parents alike.
Submitted by parent on August 02, 2022

Great middle school with many elective classes, diverse student body, and honors placement for English, Math, Science, and History. Beautiful campus has large sports field and state-of-the art Gym and Science Center. School offers tutoring, homework club, and math academy. My child has thrived socially and academically.
Submitted by parent on May 17, 2022

This school has a wide array of elective classes, which has been great, and we've had mixed experiences as far as teachers go--some are great and some are not. We originally applied to the musical theater program at this school and were very excited that our child got in. Last year (2020) was difficult because of the pandemic, of course, and we were online almost the entire year. This year the musical theater program was turned over to a different teacher and it's been a complete disappointing mess. We were given information about clothing the students needed to have, and then had the school tell us the kids weren't allowed to wear the clothing we already bought because it wasn't part of the uniform. The teacher was pulling kids out of their third period classes to paint sets for their musical production, until the school put a stop to that. This teacher seems to be putting the students solely in charge of things (like the playbill for the musical), and then not following up to make sure it gets done (MANY of the performers had their photos missing in the playbill). The kids seem to be running the "Into the Woods" musical and the year-end showcase with very little oversight from their teacher, which is not the experience our student thought she'd be getting. It's too bad that this year has essentially been a loss in terms of the musical theater program that was once thriving. Other than that, I feel like this school has been a generally positive experience for our student, but we're glad to be moving on to Canyon after 2 years at El Rancho.
Submitted by parent on March 08, 2022

At El Rancho Charter School, there are a wide variety of classes for you and your child to choose from. The campus is also really nice, as well! However, I recently have noticed that my child has been very stressed out! For the past two weeks, she's had 2-3 projects due in one week. There also appears to be plenty of pressure for students to do well at this school.
Submitted by parent on January 28, 2022

Our family loves El Rancho! My kids have grown academically, socially and gained independence. The broad range of academic opportunities as well as elective and leadership opportunities have allowed them to develop new interests and gain confidence in their academic knowledge and abilities. El Rancho also provides extensive support to students with special needs, both academically and emotionally. We highly recommend El Rancho.
Submitted by parent on January 28, 2022

El Rancho has provided my student with many opportunities to grow over the past two years. They have high standards and a wide variety of electives. I would definitely recommend El Rancho to families and friends!
Submitted by parent on October 21, 2021

This school is not that good. The education system is fine, I suppose, but some of the teachers and community make it so hard to try to find something to like about this school. I am a person of color and have been scared to face RACIST comments because of the people around me. There's so many entitled students at this school who think racism is okay and is straight up being racist in front of teachers. I've seen a kid who has faced this racism report it to a teacher, but the teacher seemed to do nothing. Another thing, I was told that I did not fit the standards of an honors student after I got a bad grade on a test (and in this class, I usually get B's). Another teacher has bad anger issues, and gets mad at students for asking questions. Yes, he puts the hints in a video, but it's hard to understand when the video is all we have. Also, I was there during an assembly talking about anti-bullying, yet the students still didn't get the message. I found the right friends after a few weeks of trying to look for actually nice people, which I am grateful for them :). 80% of the bad things aside, a good thing about this school is the events which make the school a little better to look forward to.
Submitted by parent on December 16, 2020

The best, well-rounded education experience for my children was at El Rancho Charter School! El Rancho prepared them for a successful and high-achieving high school experience through to the 4-year university level. They actually have their best recollection of their middle school teachers. The El Rancho elective opportunities and dynamic teachers are unmatched.
Submitted by parent on November 10, 2020

While the school has positive attributes, we cannot recommend this school. Some of the teachers and the administration feel compelled to indoctrinate the children to their beliefs. We mentioned this to Mrs. Walker once, but nothing changed. Most of the teachers and staff care about the children and do their job well, but some appear to have an agenda that has no place in school. If you're in a position to do so, consider sending your children to private school. We regret not doing this.
Submitted by parent on August 21, 2020

Terrible administration at this school. Academic advisors do not work with students to encourage their success. They act as if they know your child better than you do and dictate their success or failure at their whim with NO collaborative consultation or consideration. They act as the end all and be all and feel they have free reign because of their charter status. Clear abuse of power.
Submitted by parent on January 24, 2020

El Rancho is a great school! My twins have had a wonderful experience
Submitted by parent on January 13, 2020

A fantastic school, filled with dedicated teachers that challenge students to excel.
Submitted by parent on January 06, 2020

Our experience at El Rancho has been exceptional. My son has not taken advantage of all the opportunities, but he is still getting an amazing well-rounded education with teachers who truly care. I am looking forward to my younger son having a great experience as well.
Submitted by parent on May 27, 2019

Completely mixed. As noted, the academic teachers are absolutely amazing. Phenomenally good math and science teachers. Superb history teachers. We honestly, could find none better! Absolutely deplorable band and choir ‘teachers’. Just the worst. We almost could not get our child to continue music into high school.
Submitted by parent on July 10, 2018

Amazing, wayyyyy better than Cerro Villa middle school by far. Everyone I know that went to cv had terrible experiences.
Submitted by parent on June 22, 2018

The school is fine, but the staff might as well not exist.
Submitted by parent on February 23, 2018

It’s a great school, Teachers are really good.
Submitted by student on November 04, 2017

Ive so much learning about in tgis school