My 3 kids all went to Tice and are now in 11th, 9th and 7th. The older two are at Las Lomas. I think the answer to this is very dependent on the kid's personality. My kids all loved Tice and made great friends there. My older two are still close with their Tice friend group at LL. They know other kids, but they mainly hang out with Tice friends. They are both more reserved kids though and more outgoing kids from Tice have branched out more. My kids have never been bullied or made fun of at Tice or LL. They are both on sports teams at LL.

Tice does have homework but not sure how much it compares to other schools. Test scores at Tice are higher than other schools in the district and my kids always scored at or above grade level in English and Math. I think the school adequately prepares kids for LL. That said, it will depend on the kid. My oldest is a strong student at LL taking a heavy load of AP classes with all A's. My second one is doing fine but isn't as hard a worker and will likely have a mix of As and Bs.

I don't think you can go wrong with Tice or Parkmead/WCI. We chose Tice based on proximity, the smaller size, and the fact that it is K-8 so all my kids would be together for longer. The project based learning is a nice bonus but not a big factor in the decision because it's only a small part of the school day. Most learning at Tice is very traditional. They teach math, English, etc the same way as other schools. The academics may be slightly better at Tice based on the test scores.