Hoover (Herbert) Middle School

2290 14th Avenue

School District

San Francisco Unified
Grade

6-8
Teacher/Student Ratio

1:20
Type

public

School Map for San Francisco 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 January 13, 2025

Our daughter is finishing up 8th grade this year. New administration is doing a much better job than previous. There are a few ‘dud’ teachers but I suspect that is the case in most public schools? We’ve had many *great* teachers in our three years here to outweigh the bad. Lovely music programs and good sports team. Many wonderful faculty who deeply care to make a difference.
Submitted by parent on November 16, 2024

New principal much more hands on and responsive. We were lucky and 80-90% of the time, got good teachers. Excellent 7th grade math teacher & math club. Outstanding band, jazz band, and other music programs. Good athletics. Tons of student clubs. Counselors & social worker really care, although they are stretched thin. My kid made lots of friends. PTO is working hard to re-establish itself after COVID and is supporting teachers, as well as introducing fun things like a school dance. The school has lots of parent & student activities & informational events. I think there were some safety/behavioral issues after COVID, but many schools across the country experienced this. I think with the new principal, who spends time in the hallways greeting & getting to know students, things have gotten a lot better. Overall, we’ve had a positive experience at Hoover and so have many other families we know. I’m shocked its rating isn’t much higher! I’d say it should be an 8 or 9.
Submitted by other on August 17, 2024

I watched a classmate throw a chair at a teacher in the middle of math class. Obviously, teacher had to stop class to call for security or counselling to come help but no one ever showed up and the teacher was left trying to calm him down herself while everyone else hid in a corner.
Submitted by parent on December 08, 2023

i hate this school i got bullied and kids were on pornhub
Submitted by student on August 28, 2023

This school is really bad they don't support bullies and learning is really bad because they don't really teach anything. This school has gangs of bullies and at lunch their is nothing to do.
Submitted by parent on July 21, 2023

Latina parent here. Hoover has gone down hill. It started before the pandemic, so we can't blame that anymore. Kids run in the halls bullying other students and messing with classes. The administrators do nothing about it. The administrators are ideological and completely incompetent. Their bosses in the middle school division are worse. The best teachers have left; there's only a couple of good ones left. The rest are collecting paychecks, or scared and locking their doors. Sound familiar? It's happening all over SFUSD, especially in middle schools. Sad to see this school fall so far. Glad my kids are finally out. To the few remaining good teachers my heart goes out to you. Bless you.
Submitted by parent on June 20, 2023

Learning - SFUSD is actively undermining your child's education. Since COVID 19 and distance learning, has your child stopped learning at the same pace as before? SFUSD is letting kids skate by getting good grades with minimal effort and meanwhile not learning anything. If you care about your child's future, remove them from the public school system in San Francisco.Teaching - the teachers are lost and are not invested in the learning outcome of your child at Hoover or any public school in San Francisco.Social Emotional Support - the only thing being supported at Hoover is bullying and violence. There's little to no accountability if a child starts a fight or bullies another child at Hoover. Lot's of fight and violence - the school is a total failure.Safety - your child is NOT SAFE at any SFUSD school especially Hoover. The system is rigged so that your child will not feel safe while they are at school, both in terms of violence between children and the lack of accountability if it happens. Family Engagement - The SFUSD policy is to separate the child's academic life from parents. Have you noticed that at Hoover, you can no longer visit your child's teacher in person? They don't want parents to be involved because they will quickly figure out that the school is rigged to undermine student's learning experience. Run don't walk away from SFUSD before it's too late!
Submitted by other on June 12, 2023

I choose to not state who I am in this review, so disregard the relationship with this school. This school is pretty terrible, they prioritize MONEY over the safety and well being of their students. The teachers were great at the beginning but later on, most of them were tired of how they were being treated, and that nothing was being done about it. Bullying and harassment is taken so lightly here. When there are problems, they most likely will blame the victim and disregard any of their other feelings. The admin say that everything should be ‘confidential’ but in reality its the complete opposite. When theres acts of violence, they don’t really do much and they only go crazy about it when its posted onto social media. They don’t even follow up with the problems since there’s so many. Additionally, the school bought a $3.5k milk machine, probably with funds but it is barely used. The money could’ve gone towards resources for the classrooms and to help the teachers, because most of the teachers say they have to use their own money to buy supplies for the classroom. Not to mention, the students are HORRIBLE here. They’ll say anything about you and you’re told to ignore everything and to not get involved when you technically CAN’T avoid getting involved with them, unless you’re lucky. They’ll consistently bother you too and they harass people like its nothing. For example, one of the teachers this year kept getting harassed until she was in such a bad mental and physical state. When she had a health issue and the school knew about it, they didn’t even check on her or helped her. She reported the students’ behaviors MULTIPLE times and nothing was taken into account. I can go on and on about how bad this school is. If anything, some of the teachers are better administrators than the actual ones. Don’t go here if you don’t want to be fearful of your surroundings. Do better hoover. So glad I’m out of here.
Submitted by parent on February 09, 2023

In this school, my daughter almost got jumped by her so-called friends and boyfriend he got jealous that she was hanging out with someone else and not her. When she went to the counselor they try to hide the fact these people tried to harm her and the two girls said that they were just TRYING TO TALK TO HER when there were obvious threats made to her and then she was forced to talk to them and she was scared to go to school and she tried not going to school.
Submitted by parent on September 15, 2022

mid but not bad its pretty good
Submitted by other on December 14, 2019

Teachers are really good and the music is amazing
Submitted by student on May 06, 2019

I rate this school 10/10 because the people are great and I am very happy there.
Submitted by student on March 22, 2018

A kid threw books at girl at a girl and did not get suspended. A teacher also threw a pencil at a kid in my class. Would not recommend Hoover. Not good with bullying or academics. But the music program is good
Submitted by parent on August 24, 2016

The Special Day Class at Hoover is not paid ANY attention to by the administration at this school (principal, vice principal, "case managers", dean). A school that has over 1,000 students should be equipped & staffed to handle Special Needs programs/students if these students are placed at this school. This program lacks many services, supervision & staffing that these students need & should be getting. My son had an AMAZING special needs teacher (Ms. Joo) but the admin at this school does not take this program seriously & is failing the special need students & the teachers of these classes. The principal down plays serious problems & waits for life threatening situations to happen to "make changes" that never even take place. My son was set up to fail at this school. Due to the lack of supervision at the school bus stop, my son was assaulted by another student. The vice principal sent the student home on the school bus with other students after he just assaulted my son. He could have assaulted other students on the school bus which obviously is a safety issue. With over 1,000 kids getting out of school all at the same time, they don't feel the need to have supervision or extra support for the students that REQUIRE additional supervision & support!? I didn't really get any type of concern from the principal until I had to request a meeting with her & the admin there. The whole tone of the meeting & lack of having any resolution or plan by the principal caused me to pull my son out of Hoover. They admitted that the entire situation was not handled correctly & was preventable but didn't really have any solution & seemed clueless on what to do or say. This is really a very SMALL piece of what is wrong with this program at Hoover. There are probably so many other issues & things that have happen to special need students & students in general at Hoover that no one knows about or doesn't speak up about. I feel that parents should know about this experience. I had to quit my job of 5 years to care for my son & home school him. It took over 4 months for my sons black eye to heal but the emotional affects of something that was 100% preventable will take him so much longer to heal from.
Submitted by other on April 04, 2016

My child had a few terrible teachers. Disorganized, uncaring, do not listen. Tried to talk to a teacher about an assignment and teacher just walked away. Spoke to a counselor which said there was nothing they could do. Just terrible.
Submitted by other on January 04, 2015

I'm a seventh grader this years and I love Hoover. I am graduating in 2016. Some of the teachers aren't really good, but a bigger majority of the teachers are really good at teaching. The counselors are super nice. Hoover gives you freedom and that's what a kid want but they don't give you too much freedom so it doesn't get out of hand. There are also a lot of sports programs. I'm glad to to be a hawk. Lets Go Hoover Hawks!!!!!!!
Submitted by parent on January 07, 2014

I've had two kids in this school and the school continues to change and with each change things are more unstable, unhappy teachers, fights and bullying among studnets with a teacher right there and they won't intervene. It is ok for student to attack another student and the victim is not allow to defend themselves, the bully is not punished and sent to behavioral change classes which doesn't change the bullying. So yeah, this is a very large school and yeah the bullying getting is worst, sometimes the bullying is done by the teachers. So I'm really disgusted right now. Then there's the PTA fund. In 2012-2013 school year, we found out that over $6000 was spent on food and the money didn't go to better the school for the students or staff to provide an better learning environment. This school year 2013-2014, there is almost no parent involvement and the PTA is doing as little as possible. I am sad to see how much this school has changed when my oldest went here to the way it is now. There's no information going home to the parents so even being at the school or talking to other parents who are involved, there is nothing.
Submitted by parent on May 06, 2013

My daughter is about to complete her first year in Spanish immersion at Hoover. The two Spanish-language teachers (Spanish and Social Studies) are new(ish), and there are disciplinary issues that sometimes disrupt class time. I'm unimpressed with her Science teacher, but that hasn't held back her progress. Otherwise, our experience with Hoover has been very good. My daughter loves band and has gotten a lot out of the program. Her English and Math teachers are first rate. One of the reasons we chose Hoover was their adoption of ALEKS, a terrific math software program that adapts to the individual's grasp of the subject matter. I always get prompt response from her teachers when I contact them via Schoolloop. I've been happy with the social aspects as well. There are lots of clubs and sports available, and from day one the student body was welcoming to the incoming sixth graders. I haven't had direct experience with the discipline problems other reviewers mentioned, so I can't speak to that. But I am impressed by the principal's commitment to the school community, and the positive social and anti-bullying sentiment school-wide.
Submitted by parent on February 05, 2013

II work for the SFUSD and have substituted at Hoover in the past. My family lives in the attendance area that feeds into Hoover. It's hard to believe what has happened to this school under the current administration. Because of a lack of discipline for the chronically disruptive students, the entire school suffers. There are no consequences for behavior which is totally unacceptable. The last time I filled in for a teacher, I was verbally abused by some students, in front of the entire class. I reported it to the office. (The rest of the students were fine, btw) When I returned the following week, nothing had been done. I found out that I was not the only member of the staff who had experienced the same type of "verbal bullying" without any consequences. I love teaching, but, will not send my 2 sons to Hoover. If this can happen to me, I do not want my sons to experience the same thing; disrespect, verbally bullying, and allowing a few kids to disrupt classes, while the administration closes it's eyes.
Submitted by parent on November 14, 2012

Have had 2 kids here . Good teachers, but the administration (the principle at the head) do not handle discipline issues, turn their backs to it, no consequences and pushes a policy of inflating grades. No wonder the grades are meaningless and the teachers demoralized. My last child will go into private school next year.