Millikin Elementary School

615 Hobart Terrace

School District

Santa Clara Unified
Grade

K-5
Teacher/Student Ratio

1:21
Type

public

School Map for Santa Clara 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 other on December 19, 2023

I went to this school from K-5 and left in 2018. I am in high school now. The amount of pressure that they put on kids is unnecessary - granted my parents also expected high performance from me. I could not deliver to BOTH the TEACHERS' and my PARENTS' expectations. IMO it was not worth it. While I made some great friends, I lost out on a lot of fun things in my childhood. They put a lot of work pressure from the kids and everyone is in constant competition with each other. A lot of parents are always asking what your child is doing to try to do the same thing. It's a negative environment for both the parent and the child.My sister on the other hand went to this school until 3th grade. When we moved to a different location, she was much happier and learnt just as much as any Millikin student.I think what parents don't understand is that in elementary school, GRADES DON'T MATTER. If you can instill a good work ethic in your child and give them the freedom to find a passion, they will perform well in high school and beyond. I used to consistently score B's and C's at Millikin. I went to a private middle school. I now have a 4.0 GPA, run a non profit, have a podcast, and do research.TLDL;Millikin is a stressful school and not a good choice for elementary. Send your kid to another school.Go to a private middle school.Give your child the freedom to explore the world around them. The more you force them to do something, the more they're likely to resist.
Submitted by parent on June 22, 2023

Millikin is a different school. It is not a neighborhood school. My kids have attended better schools and worse schools and Millkin is above average. What's different with Millikin:1. Academics:First it has very high Asian (Indian majority among those) student population. Most of the parents are involved with their children's study and expect a lot. The school does the same. So it is high on academic scores. Replace the after school support from parents and coaching centers and it won't be. Not having to deal with basic learning issues also gives the teachers time to help students do extra learning (in higher grades)2. School Management:The school staff has had a disrespectful attitude to the parents. It however got better post covid with some new staff.The school has many unnecessary rules for the kids and parents; and acts in a much more authoritative way as compared to other schools (Maybe it's due to skewed demographics. We need more White students at school). Management wise, the focus when judging followed-the-rules is to discipline and not to support learning. 3. School Teachers:Kindergarten, like almost all schools, is very good. The teachers are much more patient, caring and supportive both of students and parents. Millikin even has kind of a separate area for KG, which is nice.1-2 grade is a different story and many negative reviews that I read match our experiences as a family when our children have been in those grades. One of my children who was very happy at the school in KG started to disengage with studies. I think this is the weakest part of Millikin.From 3rd grade to 5th grade, my children got from very supportive, engaging and encouraging teachers to stricter teachers but all were very good. Some retired, some moved and some still adding value.4. ParentsParents are much less involved during school hours. Many times teachers struggle to find room parents or volunteers (again my perception is that many of the parents being on work visas have higher fear when taking time off from job to volunteer at school). PTA almost has no independent presence. It's mostly, when present, a submissive executor of school management's demands. These result in little extra-curricular programs.Overall, Millkin's Basics+ model is creating submissive, hardworking workforce for the industry and you are making that choice, which may be good or bad, depending upon your circumstances. Choose wisely and remember nothing is perfect in the world.
Submitted by parent on May 14, 2023

Faculty and teachers are incompetent, talking bad about students behind their backs, students would get yelled and berated for making a mistake on an assignment. Many parents have voiced that they are forced to do their students work which makes the teachers assign even more work. Also multiple projects that will be done by the parent and will need hundreds of dollars of supplies and take 40-80 hours. Go to this school if you need a unpaid second job, oh also teachers act like minimum wage servers at a restaurant constant begging for gifts/tips, they get paid 100-160k a year and work 9/12 months a year (source: transparentcalifornia) make sure to give a 100-500 dollar gift or else who knows what may happen. This is a good school if your willing to homeschool your child for 8 hours after they go to school because teachers have trouble teaching, make sure to enroll them in a out of school program for another 3 hours a day! Teachers are extremely biased and even made fun of a student in front of the class for getting a C on a test and making them run laps outside! What a great way to learn!
Submitted by parent on May 11, 2023

Millikin is a Great school. It has great teachers. In fact I will not be surprised if someone says that best teachers in bay area are in Millikin. My kid did his Kinder, 1st and 2nd grade at this school and this school made learning so easy for him. I have to move out because we bought a home elsewhere. I would like to say thank you to everyone in this school for making this school such an excellent school.
Submitted by other on December 01, 2022

I went to this school. The teachers were bullies and even picked on one kid with a stutter. They created insane rules and expected kids to follow them to the letter, or they were served with harsh punishment. The teachers assigned massive amounts of homework and berated children for mild infractions. The teachers were also sexist, yelling and screaming at boys but only lightly scolding girls. This school made me lose my love for learning.
Submitted by parent on August 24, 2022

Great learning and the staff is very experienced.
Submitted by parent on March 21, 2022

Highest ranked elementary school in California by test scores!!! Proof is in the pudding! When your child applies to U they will be competing with these students - good luck. Enroll your child, do the work and watch them thrive. Ignore the district and the parents who wrote silly reviews.
Submitted by parent on January 12, 2022

Millikin is one of best school in SantaClara county.My son and daughter receive perfect amount of homework that help them to be competitive / challenged and turn in the homework on-time every day after spending 2+ hours in park. All the home works are reviewed in school and tested every week. We had wonderful / kind / Motivating teachers for the last 5 years in Millikin. My son and daughter learned to be kind, polite. They love to go to school.Even during the pandemic, they run the online classes very effectively.
Submitted by parent on October 24, 2021

Have 2 kids went to this school. So have been with this school for 6 years. Unfortunately seeing steady decline of quality of education. Lots of old timer great teachers left and still school struggling to fill up their void. Recently office management also have people returning. School is now post pandemic is mess, most focus on traffic management on road. Not seeing any effort of improving focus on education. I will update this review end of this with my views, but till then I would not recommend parents to think to move this school unless you are in really bad school
Submitted by parent on April 25, 2021

My child went here for 2 years and yes, the academic performance seems to have been a large focus at the school; however it was primarily driven from the parent association and parent body. Multiple programs to continue to advance students which likely is the reason why this school has high academic scores; however after having my kids in different schools in this district, there was absolutely nothing different about their approach than say Pomeroy or Haman. Same academics. Same programs. Just different students and parents. That’s the real reason. If I could wish for one thing to change at this campus, it would be to encourage more diversity. More than 80% is primarily a single ethnicity. Hoping they revisit the diversity at this school to be more inclusive and representative of our city’s demographics.
Submitted by other on February 06, 2020

Terrible. It is a mistake to enroll in.
Submitted by parent on November 26, 2019

It is a good school. It has been a good experience overall.
Submitted by parent on August 23, 2019

In my humble opinion, Millikin is THE best public education your child will get in Santa Clara! However, if you want something different, apply elsewhere!
Submitted by parent on June 12, 2019

Up until 5th grade, it was a good foundation. Now my child is so stressed about perfection I worry about his emotional well being moving into middle school. Keep close eye on your kids here and don't expect the teachers to be nurturing.
Submitted by parent on June 10, 2019

The amount of homework in some grades means you won’t have time to do anything else
Submitted by other on April 05, 2018

Too much homework, and too much focus on grades! Let children be children!
Submitted by parent on July 11, 2016

I have first hand experience that the teachers are very capable, and teach well. I think homework is pretty easy and kids can take on a little bit more, can be challenged a little bit more. Since this is a Basics school, they do not teach above grade level. To the comments who say school is not about grades, I beg to differ. Grades are the first thing the college admission officer sees. It is good to get the kids started early that grades do matter because it will affect how driven they will be to achieve that goal and it will carry on to upper grades. It is an attitude that is good to develop early.Talking about diversified population, unfortunately the bulk of the applicants are from Asian families. Given equal chances, it follows that the majority of the student population are Asian.Ultimately, parent involvement is key to the child's success. You need to know what your child is learning so you can help reinforce what is being taught in school. If you are just looking for a place to keep your child out of trouble, then this is most definitely NOT the school for you.
Submitted by parent on September 07, 2015

Both my kids go to this school and I'm extremely happy with it. I'd personally would like them to have more challenging home works, I can't complain as the school work and play time is so balanced and their performance had been rated very high on independent tests. My son; for example; had been reading books ( such as Diary of a Wimpy kid ) which is rated for 9+ kids by summer after second grade.
Submitted by other on May 29, 2015

Millikin is a great school! My son has been at this school for three years and has learned so much, it's astonishing. I have seen some of the work pages from other schools and homework assignments and it doesn't compare. Parents please keep in mind that you will need to help your kids with their homework, you will need to sit next to them and guide them. If you can't do this for your kids on a nightly basis (except for Friday's) this is not the school for you. One more thing, I am not on a work Visa, nor a software engineer, nor do I want to live in Cupertino.
Submitted by parent on November 04, 2014

This school has great test scores but its basically a school for the kids of software engineers who are here on work visas. The demographics in this school are one dimensional. Most of the kids go to cram schools after regular school so of course test scores are going to be high. Few of them live in the neighborhood, they clog up the streets by commuting from the other side of town. This is not a normal school, it is a school for the people who want to live in Cupertino but cant afford it. I don't understand why this is a public school, it does nothing for the local community. it should be funded by Google or Oracle.