I don't have time to post details right now but I toured Paul Revere this morning and I was thoroughly impressed. If you're interested in Spanish immersion, go check out this K-8 school in Bernal Heights. Be sure to meet the principal. He's fabulous.
Kate! I'm so happy to hear your joy after so much angst in these last few days. Good luck with everything!
ReplyDeleteThis is such good news!
ReplyDeleteAnecdotally, my neighbor is a teacher there and she is a warm, nurturing, smart, articulate young person, the kind of teacher you imagine your kid getting; over the fence, she talks to me about her classroom and how much she loves her kids. Shiny apples come to mind. :-)
I posted this as a comment on another entry earlier but I was recently there for an SF School volunteers project and I thought this school was definitely a hidden gem. I spent time in two first grade classrooms, one immersion, one general ed, and was impressed with the teaching and the overall good "gestalt" I got.
ReplyDeleteIf I were a Bernal parent I would definitely be taking a LONG look at this school!!!!
Kate, sounds very enthusiastic? Would Revere have made your Round 1 list of 7 had your toured it before choosing or do you find your expectations have been "lowered" or maybe just made different because of your 0/7 experience?
ReplyDeleteI have yet to tour it and am not doing Round 2 but because of the Immersion program I am considering waitpooling Revere which feels really very ironic. Had it been on my list I am sure I would have got it.
Kate,
ReplyDeleteYou are too nice to share your thoughts. I am just wondering about Paul Revere: the request per school listed on the SFUSD website lists 58 requests for 40 spots in Sp. Imm. Did they not fill their spots?
I am quite puzzled by the Lottery system. How can schools with more requests then openings not be filled?
Fabien
I am addicted to this blog but sometimes annoyed by it as well. If you were all interested in spanish immersion, wouldn't you at least look at the 7 immersion schools that currently exist? They are all on this side of town! It is no surprise that Flynn's numbers jumped so high this year - this blog. There were weeks of "should I, shouldn't I" surrounding Flynn (when it turns out there were only about 13 spots available for non-native spanish speakers in the immersion program). Anyway - Good luck to you all - I know that you will all find a great school and I am very happy that there is momentum building arround Paul Revere.
ReplyDeleteI am quite puzzled by the Lottery system. How can schools with more requests then openings not be filled?
ReplyDeleteThere is only 1 assignment per 7 requests, roughly.
Kate, I'm curious if you ever feel conflicted about disclosing stuff here. Your blog has had such an impact on this process and those of us going through it (seriously, I bet it's a crazy % of applicants who read THIS blog), but all the chatter is making the desirable schools even more desirable among your readership. Your calling out Revere probably put another 10 people on the waitlist for you to compete with, such is your influence, and the stakes are even higher now.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, this has probably been covered before and it's clear that throughout you've been almost as concerned with helping the community as yourself. I'm rooting for you so much that I sometimes want to say, SHHHHHHH!!! Keep it a secret and you'll have a better chance!
If you take out 30% (?) of siblings out of the 81% who got one of their 7 choices, that leaves you with 51% for those who went through the lottery. Seems to me that the system could be designed to have a much higher assignment percentage.
ReplyDeletePlease don't be annoyed ! You are right that if you were only interested in Spanish Immersion (to the exclusion of all other factors) then your 7 choices were made for you and to not consider Revere would have been silly.
ReplyDeleteHowever, some of us were considering Immersion in other languages too or just looking for a great school that fit our family regardless of the Program.
With Paul Revere there were other factors that made it one we missed off our list, it is a "dream" school with extended school hours and limited after school care. We were only able to tour 9 schools for Round 1 and had to draw our line somewhere.
Now we will consider other schools, that is what Round 2 and the waitlist are for.
We got a placement, but I thought I would share other schools that I consider hidden gems..
ReplyDeleteSutro and Spring Valley Science and Math Magnet.
Both have APIs in their 800s.
http://orb.sfusd.edu/sarcs2/hilights/sahl-834.pdf
http://orb.sfusd.edu/sarcs2/hilights/sahl-848.pdf
For a hidden gem I would also consider Rosa Park JB.... Its a great little school..
ReplyDeleteJust FYI on the previous post, per the sfschools.org blog, Sutro fell into the top 20 for Round 1 demand. I promise I'm not trying to avoid competition for Sutro in Round 2. I had concerns about the combination of high demand in round 1 and location so will not be listing it for Round 2, though it sounds like a great place. If anyone ever thinks cities are not supportive communities, they only need to look at this blog to know they're wrong. Not that cities never get irritating, but we depend on the kindness of strangers all the time in ways that I don't think suburbanites can even contemplate. When you consider how much competition there is for scarce resources, it's amazing how well it works. Kudos again to Kate for getting this going and to all the participants who've made this the go-to place for information, venting, support and everything else we need to go through this very challenging process.
ReplyDeleteI feel conflicted about writing this, because I obsessively read this blog myself, but although it is wonderful to share information I do feel that so many people reading so many other people's thoughts and impressions creates a bit of a herd mentality. People need to communicate with others so that they can validate their own impressions and thoughts, of course, but if too much of that goes on people tend to have less of their own thoughts and impressions. Call me a Luddite, but all along in this process, reading the blog I have wondered about the effects on our community of using a fairly new technology in this way (in this case the blog). Part of me thinks all of us reading each other's thoughts has been a little harmful, in that so many readers of this blog ended up with none of their choices. Hate me if you want...
ReplyDeleteTo anon at 2:52 -- don't hate you! To avoid the groupthink you describe, I've been reading this blog and my husband visited the schools not having read any of the posts. He toured many, many schools, some of which were covered in this blog and some that weren't. Some schools most people on this blog seemed to love he wouldn't even consider for our son (including one of the highest API schools) for various reasons.
ReplyDeleteI toured Spring Valley last fall and found it very disappointing. A few things I remember:
ReplyDeleteThe principal (who conducted the tour personally, and it was just me and my husband!) was very low energy.
She didn't know anything at all about the parent's club except that it existed.
They keep classroom doors locked so you need a key to get in from the outside.
The principal stopped kids in the halls for two or three rules violations during our tour, and I didn't see her have a single positive interaction with a child.
They are the SCIENCE MAGNET school, yet their science lab is locked and vacant, because there is no one to staff it.
At the same time, they are pursuing a program with the SF ballet, which I think is an interesting choice for a science magnet school.
A LOT of the cool things about the school come from the over-the-top dedication of the teachers. One teacher does after school guitar lessons. Another teaches knitting. That is great, but it's not something you want to rely on for six years of an enriching education.
I would not put my kid there, but I am really looking forward to the year when it's the big turnaround school we're all talking about.
I have to disagree with the idea that this blog has created a herd mentality. If you go back to the "Kate's List" thread and read, you see people chose a lot of different schools, and not everybody loves the same schools. There's also been vehement disagreement in the public/private debate. If anything has been "herd-like," I think it's been a greater openness to giving schools with less established reputations a chance. If that expands the range of acceptable schools, I say hooray for the herd.
ReplyDeleteHear hear to the comment about the supportive communities in cities! I tend to doubt that this blog would lead to much groupthink, as one person wondered. After all, one reason so many here are frustrated is that we put so much effort into choosing our seven schools.
ReplyDeleteI think any downside to a forum like this is offset by the benefits, some of which go beyond the obvious of comparing our impressions. It can also lead to improving the way the assignment process works, for example. I adore the idea which someone put forth of having families enroll siblings a few months before families without siblings, and then making public just how many slots remain at each school. That would go a long way to regain people's trust.
Henry
The herd mentality comments are interesting. Of course everyone needs to think for themselves. But that being said, public perception is what marketing is all about. To the extent this blog has put more schools on people's radar, that's a good thing. So many people (mostly completely uninformed) have a very negative impression of SF public schools. When we choose to send our kids to an SF public school, there will be people who are very dismissive of our choice. That can be hard to take sometimes. It certainly helps to get the word out that there are lots of great schools, beyond the top five or so, and lots of people are choosing them.
ReplyDeletethe news said they just pink slipped 21 of their 30 teachers was that in accurate?
ReplyDeletewe went through the pink slip crisis in 2003. it will not be as bad as they are saying now. by law, they have to issue the slips now.
ReplyDeleteI think there are two Vali's - amazing! The pink slip thing is all about balancing the budget. Kids need teachers and there are laws about that too.
ReplyDeleteVali G. Flynn Parent
Here's where the herds on this blog applied (based on list postings):
ReplyDeleteAlvarado Spanish (24)
Rooftop (22)
Miraloma (21)
Clarenden Gen (20)
Flynn (17)
Claredon JBBP (12)
Buena Vista (11)
Fairmount (11)
Grattan (11)
Alvarado Gen (9)
West Portal Gen (9)
Alice Fong Yu (7)
Claire Lilienthal General (7)
West Portal Chinese (7)
Starr King Mandarin (6)
Lakeshore (5)
Jefferson (5)
Harvey Milk (4)
Marshall (4)
McKinley (4)
Sunset (4)
Monroe Spanish (3)
Diane Feinstein (3)
Lafayette (3)
Lawton (3)
Claire Lilienthal Korean (2)
Commodore Sloat (2)
Robert L Stevenson (2)
SF Community (2)
Jose Ortega Mandarin (1)
New Traditions (1)
Paul Revere (1)
Sherman (1)
Sunnyside (1)
Rosa Parks Elementary School offers General Education and a Japanese Bilingual Bicultural Program(JBBP). JBBP has been around for 35 years and offers 1 hour of daily Japanese instruction, no previous background required. Located near Geary and Webster, the traditional school building is in a quiet cul-de-sac surrounded by churches and private residences. We invite working families to tour the school, any day this week or next, call the school at 749-3519. Open House next Wed, 3/19 at 6 pm. We are an inclusive community that celebrates racial and socio-economic diversity. Give us a try!
ReplyDeleteOK, herd was the wrong word to choose. Sorry, didn't mean to insult anyone.
ReplyDeleteI dunno, it does look rather herdish to me; I think this represents less than 20% of SF K-5 schools...
ReplyDeleteWow. This is good to hear. My son got placed in Paul Revere and I just went to enroll him today. I was feeling iffy (my husband filled out the application while I was away, and being the typical husband, he didn't list my top choices at the top)... But now I'm feeling much better, and I almost feel lucky.
ReplyDeleteGood luck to everyone! I hope it works out for you all.
Wow! I was very impressed with Spring Valley (I am a science and computer geek) Except the location and parking. The principal seem to be a driving force (albeit rather serious) setting very high expections for the students. I think when you adjust for school characteristics, Spring Valley does as well AFY. The teachers as you mentioned appear to be very dedicated. The playground has a bit to be desired...
ReplyDeleteA previous comment claimed that if you subtract 30% siblings from the 81% of applicants who got one of their choices, that leaves 51%.
ReplyDeleteIt's not quite that bad. 81/100 success rate including 30 siblings turns into 51/70 when you take away those siblings. That's around 73%.
Joy - I enrolled my son at Paul Revere today too. I'm really excited about meeting the other parents. After a long tour this morning, led by the principal, I went back at 3pm to get him in and meet some of the teachers. Not only did I meet them but my son spent 30 minutes playing in one of the SI classrooms with fabulous Teacher Monica. I was shocked and suprised by how great it is. Whew!!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous at 5:47 - there are 34 schools on this list and I know for a fact that at least one school mentioned by posters on this blog is missing (because it is MY school and I was a bit miffed that the poster didn't list it). So that brings us to 35 schools. There are 73 elementary schools in SFUSD. By my count, then, the list represents 48 percent of elementary schools in the city - perhaps that is still not an ideal percentage but 48 percent is a lot better than 20 percent.
ReplyDeleteJust saw on SFgate that 21 of 30 Paul Revere teachers are expecting pink slips.
ReplyDeleteRE: Pink slips
ReplyDeleteThe vast majority of SFUSD teacher who received pink slips will still have their jobs in Sept. The pink slips were given out 1) in case teachers need to be let go, since union rules dictate that pink slips must be given by a certain date and 2) so the SFUSD would qualify for the rainy day fund monies ($30,000,000) from the city.
Disclosing: Got 0 for 7, and just got waitlisted at Synergy. Family makes about 50 K a year. Crazy that we would pay for private, but we would.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of hidden gems, I just have to say that I am feeling very optimistic about our unintended assignment. Although it was not on our original list of seven, we were assigned to, and attended a "family welcome" event this evening at, Sunnyside. As my son happily played with the children of other prospective parents, I sat down and initiated conversation with several other parents as school staff began circulating and answering questions. I had several questions...how do they handle differential learning, what conflict-resolution model do they use, is discipline a problem in their school, how do they plan to help my child become an interested learner and a good citizen, etc? I was impressed by the principal's straightforward demeanor and answers, the friendly, outgoing teachers, the warmth and homeyness of the facility, and the sense of community spirit. I also spoke with parents who listed and received their #1 choice --Sunnyside. This was my first encounter with this rare breed, as I do not have a single friend or acquaintance who got any of their seven. Chatting with these parents put it in perspective for me and confirmed everything that I had been thinking and feeling about the school. So, while it may be small--and not yet enjoy all the perks of the mega-PTA schools--I believe it will provide very solid academics, a welcoming atmosphere, and the tight-knit family and school community we have been looking for. We also like that the school hosts two "severely impaired" classrooms. They have the kids buddy up with a student in these classes, and as a result, they truly become more empathetic individuals. Both my husband and I feel so strongly that this school is a good fit for our family that we will actually be opting out of our previously submitted 2nd Round wait pool choice so we can stay at Sunnyside. With hindsight, I can say confidently that I would not have hesitated to place this school in our Round 1 top seven. It's a wonderful feeling to know that there are more than a small handful of schools in San Francisco that are committed to our kids and have the skills to prepare them for life. And, by the way, we learned that they still have K spaces. It's walkable from part of Glen Park and Miraloma and a short hop from Bernal and Baja Noe.
ReplyDeleteGood luck to you in your search!
Anon at 10:34 and newest Sunnyside PTA member: Congratulations! This is what the PPS parent-to-parent network is all about. Hopefully next year we'll get you as an ambassador and an enrollment coach to help out other stressed families. Really glad your family has found a "home" that feels right!
ReplyDeleteSunnyside was our assignment as well and I have to say we were very impressed at the tour we attended. I feel like Sunnyside is a sweet little school that already has a lot going for it and also has so much potential if a larger group of parents were to get behind the school. We have enrolled and are excited about this school and what we can contribute. Hope to meet more Sunnyside families soon.
ReplyDeleteThere are 73 elementary schools in SFUSD. By my count, then, the list represents 48 percent of elementary schools in the city
ReplyDeleteThere are 34 programs on that list. SFUSD school buildings host 117 elementary programs that you can apply for. So that list represents 29% of SFUSD elementary programs.
And the top 7 contain the same number of applicants as the remaining 27.
ReplyDeleteIt's not quite that bad. 81/100 success rate including 30 siblings turns into 51/70 when you take away those siblings. That's around 73%.
ReplyDeleteThat 73% of satisfied customers includes people who actually applied (and got in) to the schools you're being assigned to: Serra (71 requests), Webster (32 requests), Cobb (45 requests), etc. Poor people WANT neighborhood schools! Poor people exercise their right to choose their neighborhood schools. Imagine that!
So glad to hear about happiness at Sunnyside, and that people are also enrolling at Paul Revere (parents who will be applying in 2008-09 are surely taking note).
ReplyDelete@11:12, Cobb is actually a pretty decent school with nice programs and in a great location if you live out there. It would have been on my list as a "back up" if I lived on that side of town. Serra is also a very nice school (if you knew about it), as some here have said. Webster, maybe not yet, but there are Potrero parents on the preschool level who want to make it so.
@10:11pm last night, good luck with the next round of everything. I really hope you find something great. Honest question, though:
Synergy is of course the most "affordable" of the privates at well below 20K/year, but as someone who makes a typical middle class salary of little more than 50K as a single parent, which is what you say you have as well for your family, I am having trouble imagining how even Synergy could be swung without substantial financial aid (we do not provide racial diversity), or substantial savings, or help from grandma (my parents are long passed, no help there, maybe that is your ticket though).
Here's my calculation: $50K after taxes is what, $37.5K, minus $14K for everything all told at Synergy equals $23.5K, and even a tiny 2B rental for mother/kid or parents/kid is what, $1500/m = $18K, leaving $5.5K left over, about $460 per month for everything ever school and housing. Yikes. I have 2 kids so you can see the math goes negative for me....
About Paul Revere - I just want to pass on some info I got from a former teacher at the school. She told us that she didn't think that it was ready yet, meaning that the overall the academics were not where they should be and that she would not recommend it at this point.
ReplyDeleteRegarding this:
ReplyDelete-----------------------
About Paul Revere - I just want to pass on some info I got from a former teacher at the school. She told us that she didn't think that it was ready yet, meaning that the overall the academics were not where they should be and that she would not recommend it at this point.
-----------------
Maybe that teacher is 'former' because she couldn't get on board with the new vision of the principal. Often, those that leave - or are pushed out intentionally as it no longer the right fit - are the most disgruntled and negative about what they left behind.
Re the herd: San Francisco's school age kids are 9% white. If distributed equally throughout the system, that equals 1 or 2 white kids per class. That's reality -- and it is what you should expect and embrace if you believe in SF public schools and school choice. The fact is the white people can't stomach that, hence the herd.
ReplyDeleteto the comment about revere not being baked yet: the principal addressed that directly when we toured this week (though i wouldn't say he contextualized their academic performance that way at all). simply put, as both a dream school and underperforming school, they were either reconstituted deliberately last year or the new principal called for it (don't know what the process was). long story short, when this happens you have to reapply for your old job. anyone who was not on board was out (don't know particulars). but, honestly, if the school was THAT bad, then isn't something that drastic called for? it's not to blame any individual, just that fresh blood is one of the only options available.
ReplyDeletei can tell you straight up that what i saw in those classrooms yesterday was more than acceptable: if i had known about where revere was really at before round 1 i would have put it on my list. and it will definitely be on my amended list now. i saw some of the most engaged, energetic teachers, staff and students -- and parents! -- that i've seen anywhere in the city. i was very impressed. and the overall feeling was so warm, safe, productive and lively that i wouldn't hesitate to send my daughter there. i did not feel like that would constitute some sort of risk, either academically or socially. and here i was pissing on the idea of the "hidden gem"....
another thing: the PL's attitude about the prospect of -- or need for -- middle-class takeover was refreshing. without ever being antagonistic or oppositional -- or obsequious or groveling -- he simply reiterated his mission with great passion and enthusiasm: to educate and nurture EVERY kid in his care. end of story. and he and his staff are doing just that.
er...end of story again.
sounds like we have some fellow Paul Revere attendees here...anyone want to get together in advance of enrollment to share thoughts about the school?
ReplyDeleteyesterday at 11:54
ReplyDeleteIt IS totally unrealistic. I meant 50 K after taxes. Sorry, I realize people usually calculate the other way. Still, the numbers don't work well. It would involve living in a very tight way and trying to make more money next year. I think I'm changing my mind, though, now that the panic is decreasing. Having hope that one of the public schools will come through in the end. thanks for your perspective. I want my daughter to have relatively relaxed parents and that might be even more important than the teacher ratio.
Back to the "herd" comment. I think you have to bear in mind that this is an Anglophone blog. I don't know how many posters speak Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Filipino or Korean at home, but for a lot of the bilingual programs, the child has to be fluent in the language to request the bilingual program. Two-way immersion programs seek to have half English-at-home students and half other-language-at-home students. So if this blog is mostly English speakers, there are a a lot of programs we couldn't apply for even if we wanted them.
ReplyDeleteThe SCHOOLS not applied to (using 3/13's list) were Argonne, Bryant, Bessie Carmichael, GW Carver, Cesar Chavez, John Chin, Chinese Education Center (a newcomer school), Cleveland, Cobb, Drew, El Dorado, Garfield, Glen Park, Guadalupe, Bret Harte, Hillcrest, Francis Scott Key, Gordon Lau, Longfellow, Malcolm X, McCoppin, Mission Education Center (a newcomer school), Moscone, John Muir, Jean Parker, Rosa Parks, George Peabody, Redding, Sanchez, Junipero Serra, Sheridan, Spring Valley, Sutro, Taylor, Tenderloin Community, Ulloa, Visitation Valley and Daniel Webster. I did not list Alamo because I applied there & posted that I did so but it must have been overlooked.
Of the non-requested, non-newcomer schools, here are the APIs:
Argonne 847
Bryant 639*
Carmichael 777
GW Carver 645*
Cesar Chavez 596*
John Chin 888
Cleveland 682*
William Cobb 689*
Charles Drew 670*
El Dorado 728*
Garfield 843
Glen Park 801
Guadalupe 790
Bret Harte 747*
Hillcrest 663*
Francis Scott Key 837
Gordon Lau 840
Longfellow 808
Malcolm X 569*
McCoppin 798
Moscone 834
John Muir 573*
Jean Parker 805
Rosa Parks 699*
George Peabody 792
Redding 786
Sanchez 726*
Junipero Serra 755
Sheridan 819
Spring Valley 798
Sutro 840
Edward Taylor 830
Tenderloin 722*
Ulloa 884
Visitacion Valley 802
Daniel Webster 658*
So if I'm accurate (which I would not guarantee) that's 36 schools that got no requests from people who listed on this blog. (I did not include Alamo b/c I applied there.) Of those 36, 15, marked with *, have APIs under 750. When you leave out schools with immersion programs, only one person on the blog list applied to a school (Paul Revere) with an API under 750 in Round 1.
Let's face it, there's only a certain amount of time to tour schools on Round 1. For Round 1, are you really going to take time to visit a school whose raw data make it appear that the school is badly under-performing unless it has a special program such as immersion that you know about?
Of the 21 non-requested schools with APIs over 750, there are also geographic factors that appear to come into play.
Other than one request for Sherman and one for Alamo, the only schools people on this blog requested that were north of Market on the east side or north of Lincoln on the west side were Lafayette and Lilienthal.
Argonne, McCoppin, Peabody and Sutro are all in the Inner Richmond (more or less). For some reason Lafayette in the WAY outer Richmond got requests from people on this blog but none of the four Inner Richmond schools did.
Bessie Carmichael is around 6th & Folsom, not a particularly residential area to my knowledge.
John Chin, Garfield, Gordon Lau, and Jean Parker are all in Chinatown/North Beach, Spring Valley is on Nob Hill, and Redding is in Polk Gulch, very awkward places to get to unless you live there.
Guadalupe, Longfellow, Sheridan, ER Taylor and Visitacion Valley are all tucked away down at the very south end of the city, just a few blocks from the border.
Glen Park has an API of 801 and does not seem particularly out of the way so I don't know how to account for that one.
Francis Scott Key and Ulloa are both quite for out in the Sunset, but Stevenson, Lawton & Sunset are as well and they got requests so that does not make a lot of sense. Ulloa in particular has very impressive scores.
Serra is just barely over the 750 API threshold I randomly assigned in writing this and that may have deterred some folks.
Moscone with its respectable 834 API in the Mission seems to have been overlooked.
So of the 36 schools not requested:
15 have neither strong APIs nor special programs that would have necessarily drawn a lot of interest in Round 1. (I was completely ignorant of the JBBP program at Rosa Parks until recently.) Up to 16 of the schools seem very out of the way for most families on the blog. I can see the downtown area, SOMA and way-far-south schools being an issue (that drive to Ortega for the counseling was UGLY). Apparently the Inner Richmond was also perceived as inconvenient since nobody on this blog applied to any schools there and several seem perfectly OK.
When you account for geography and APIs, that really only leaves 5 schools, 2 in the outer Sunset, Glen Park, Moscone and arguably Serra, that appear to have been genuinely overlooked in Round 1.
Interesting analysis...
ReplyDeleteI'm also curious to know how these lists map to the number of white children at each school.
Well, since you asked and I'm obsessive about this stuff, I did the breakdown. I did the 5 typically largest groups, African-American, Asian-American, Latino, White, and Multi/No Response. No offense intended to Native American, Filipino or Pacific Islander but I really should not be spending so much time so I focused on the usually largest groups at each school. Abbreviations are: Af (African American), As (Asian American), La (Latino/a), W (White), and O (Multiracial or not stated). Numbers are percents obtained from the SARCs for each school on the SFUSD web site. All numbers (except concluding totals) are rounded up or down to the nearest whole #. I'm not great with #s so again I don't guarantee accuracy.
ReplyDeleteFirst the requested schools in order of frequency of requests (I have not done different threads separately because the ethnic breakdowns are reported school-wide in the SARCs.)
Alvarado
Af 6
As 7
La 50
W 22
O 11
Rooftop
Af 14
As 26
La 25
W 19
O 11
Clarendon
Af 7
As 37
La 6
W 36
O 16
Flynn
Af 14
As 7
La 61
W 6
O 9
Buena Vista
Af 7
As 5
La 59
W 15
O 11
Fairmount
Af 10
As 6
La 60
W 10
O 8
Grattan
Af 18
As 19
La 12
W 33
O 14
West Portal
Af 2
As 65
La 5
W 13
O 11
Alice Fong Yu
Af 3
As 67
La 6
W 13
O 11
Lilienthal
Af 14
As 33
La 12
W 28
O 10
Starr King
Af 26
As 15
La 33
W 6
O 8
Lakeshore
Af 11
As 45
La 9
W 15
O 12
Jefferson
Af 1
As 66
La 9
W 16
O 10
Milk
Af 37
As 9
La 30
W 17
O 7
McKinley
Af 28
As 9
La 30
W 17
O 11
Sunset
Af 3
As 60
La 7
W 17
O 7
Monroe
Af 3
As 36
La 43
W 17
O 7
Feinstein
No data available
Lafayette
Af 4
As 47
La 4
W 27
O 11
Lawton
Af 3
As 70
La 4
W 8
O 11
Sloat
Af 8
As 51
La 11
W 13
O 10
Stevenson
Af 3
As 73
La 1
W 7
O 11
SF Community
Af 14
As 22
La 39
W 11
O 5
Ortega
Af 33
As 31
La 15
W 5
O 8
New Traditions
Af 31
As 8
La 13
W 31
O 15
Revere
Af 24
As 4
La 49
W 2
O 8
Sherman
Af 6
As 54
La 8
W 21
O 9
Sunnyside
Af 14
As 28
La 24
W 14
O 10
Alamo
Af 1
As 58
La 5
W 19
O 10
NON-REQUESTED SCHOOLS listed alphabetically. And I'm sorry but I neglected to list Yick Wo on my other lists of non-requested schools, another Chinatown location that appears to represent a geographic problem. That means 37 schools were not requested, not 36 as previously stated.
Argonne (inner Richmond)
Af 4
As 52
La 5
W 21
O 14
Bryant (low API)
Af 3
As 4
La 85
W 1
O 5
Carmichael (6th & Folsom)
Af 13
As 40
La 23
W 1
O 5
Carver (low API)
Af 68
As 5
La 4
W 0
O 6
Chavez (low API)
Af 3
As 2
La 83
W 2
O 6
Chin (Chinatown/North Beach)
Af 5
As 85
La 1
W 3
O 6
Cleveland (low API)
Af 9
As 13
La 55
W 1
O 5
Cobb (low API)
Af 63
As 10
La 9
W 2
O 5
Drew (low API)
Af 79
As 5
La 6
W 1
O 6
El Dorado (low API)
Af 33
As 21
La 16
W 2
O 10
Garfield (Chinatown area)
Af 6
As 76
La 4
W 6
O 4
Glen Park (mystery)
Af 18
As 15
La 45
W 4
O 6
Guadalupe (south border)
Af 6
As 33
La 39
W 2
O 3
Bret Harte (low API)
Af 44
As 4
La 31
W 0
O 6
Hillcrest (low API)
Af 13
As 25
La 37
W 3
O 10
F. S. Key (outer Sunset mystery)
Af 3
As 74
La 3
W 9
O 8
Lau (Chinatown)
Af 0
As 82
La 13
W 0
O 3
Longfellow (by south border)
Af 0
As 30
La 29
W 1
O 4
Malcolm X (low API)
Af 56
As 4
La 7
W 1
O 12
McCoppin (inner Richmond)
Af 7
As 66
La 6
W 9
O 3
Moscone (Mission mystery)
af 2
As 39
La 53
W 2
O 3
Muir (low API)
Af 32
As 4
La 41
W 3
O 13
Jean Parker (Chinatown)
Af 2
As 82
La 10
W 1
O 4
Rosa Parks (low API)
Af 32
As 27
La 14
W 7
O 14
Peabody (Inner Richmond)
Af 6
As 51
La 10
W 14
O 14
Redding (Polk Gulch)
Af 4
As 47
La 22
W 8
O 10
Sanchez (low API)
Af 7
as 4
La 77
W 1
O 6
Serra (almost low API)
Af 9
As 13
La 58
W 2
O 8
Sheridan (near southern border)
Af 30
As 13
La 26
W 2
O 10
Spring Valley (Nob Hill/Chinatown)
Af 5
As 53
la 32
W 3
O 5
Sutro (Inner Richmond)
Af 3
As 75
La 3
W 9
O 9
Edward Taylor (near southern border)
Af 5
As 58
La 26
W 1
O 6
Tenderloin (low API)
Af 13
As 36
La 30
W 9
O 8
Ulloa (Sunset mystery)
Af 2
As 71
La 5
W 9
O 8
Visitacion Valley (southern border)
Af 2
As 53
La 5
W 9
O 8
Webster (low API)
Af 27
As 17
La 44
W 1
O 15
Yick Wo (Chinatown)
Af 3
As 59
La 5
W 18
O 13
Here are the average enrollment percentages of the requested schools (not weighted for number of requests or student populations at each school)
Af 11.15%
As 34.22%
La 22.5%
W 16.33%
O 10.08
Here are the breakdowns of the non-requested schools, again not weighted for number of students at each school.
Af 16.68%
As 36.92%
La 26.00%
W 4.54%
O 7.6%
If you take out the schools with APIs under 750, and the schools northeast of Market and Van Ness and Bessie Carmichael which which nobody requested (must be for transport reasons), but keep in the schools in the Inner Richmond (which seem like they should not be objectively harder to get to than the requested Lilienthal or Lafayette), the outer Sunset, Mission/Bernal, and near the southern border (not a lot harder to get to than Ortega which got requests), the breakdown is the following:
Af 6.93%
As 45.93%
La 22.36%
W 6.72%
O 7.14%
I am painting with a too-broad brush here, but a couple of quick observations: First, it seems that particularly in the Richmond, families preferred the whiter Lafayette over less white but API-comparable or better schools in the same general area. I could not see any rhyme or reason for school preferences in the outer Sunset, but I have not visited these schools. Perhaps some outer Sunset schools are just more inspiring than others, because neither the APIs, the racial breakdowns nor the available programs among requested and non-requested schools seemed particularly marked to me. It also seems that many families on this blog are willing to venture to schools with more students of color and/or lower APIs if those schools offer second language programs. Feel free to contradict me; I'm drawing these very rough conclusions before I run home.
One quick comment regarding Lafayette - Russian immigrants tend to cluster there at least partially explaining the larger concentration of whites. Lafayette is a great school as are all the schools in the Richmond.
ReplyDeletei can't speak for anyone else but i can tell you why i didn't apply to moscone which is not far from my house: the thing i heard over and over from many different sources is that they cling to that high api with a death grip so not surprisingly, they really really teach to the test. they try to sell the dance class but i got the distinct impression that the kids don't get a well-rounded education. also, i can't say i connected with the principal (who as a young attractive blond is quite the anomaly).
ReplyDeleteI'd be interested in hearing other people's takes about schools that appear to be performing pretty well but just felt "off" for some reason. Although I've already got my list in (since I had the deadline mixed up), this might be helpful to others who are considering last minute tours and Round II choices, realizing of course that ultimately everyone has their own tastes, priorities and personal filters for information intake. I thought the previous poster's comments about Moscone were quite interesting.
ReplyDeleteI liked Rooftop enough to list it for Round 1 but did not love it the way some people do. I found it odd that all of the kids seemed to be doing art projects and none of them appeared to be doing anything with letters or numbers. I know they integrate art into the curriculum, but it seemed a little over the top to me. I would not have wait-listed it, but friends loved it and did wait-list it.
I liked McKinley but it rubbed my husband the wrong way. That, combined with our concern that the teachers seemed to be spending an awful lot of time with kids who weren't "getting it" in the upper grades, led us not to list it for Round 1.
Spring Valley attracted us because our son loves science and they're supposed to be a science magnet school, but we felt it to be kind of joyless when we toured it. It was hard for us to envision our child developing a lot of enthusiasm for learning here. We ended up not listing it for Round 2.
anon3/21@6:50 I fail to understand how you consider a school like Yick Wo, which receives 4X as many applicants as it has seats (including more first-choice requests than seats available), as "nonrequested." And BTW, it is located in Russian Hill, not Chinatown.
ReplyDeleteI was interested in looking at schools that parents who posted their choices on this blog requested (and did not request) to see if there were any trends. As I said, I relied on another poster on 3/13 for the list of schools to which parents on this blog said they applied. When I said "non-requested" I did not mean "not popular," but only that according to 3/13's list, no parents on this blog indicated that they requested that school. Several of the schools that I labeled "non-requested" schools are in fact strong academic performers and have many more requests than places. I am not all that clear which streets are considered to be the exact boundaries between Chinatown/North Beach/Russian Hill/Financial District/Nob Hill but when I looked at the map, Yick Wo seemed to be in that general area. If I read 3/13's data correctly, no school northeast of the intersection of Van Ness and Market was requested in Round 1 by parents on this blog regardless of other school characteristics.
ReplyDelete