Out here in sfusd, middle school is known as the weak link. Benioff recognized this and specifically donated some money to try to improve them. However, it may

Out here in sfusd, middle school is known as the weak link. Benioff recognized this and specifically donated some money to try to improve them. However, it may be difficult to overcome a structural difference. It's telling that middle school is the one area where public and private schools completely diverge. Private schools are almost always K-8, followed by a separate high school. This happens for small very expensive private schools as well as larger parochial schools which often serve a more middle class or low income population (often reaching a similar scale to public schools), so it's really not a function of scale. Only the public schools seem to engage in the practice of separating out students for 6-8k.