8 Comments

It would be crazy to close popular schools, regardless of racial equity issues. It will drive more people private.

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Some schools that are popular will have to close because it simply will cost too much to renovate them. Also, if you only close unpopular schools California's Attorney General will file a civil rights complaint. https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-bonta-announces-statewide-guidance-school-closures-ensure

One also should remember that middle schools cycle through entirely new student bodies every three years, so it doesn't make sense to keep too many schools open far away from where the actual kids in SF live.

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I have proposed to the district to merge Lick and Everett and then merge the Mandarin Immersion programs at which ever building becomes vacant. The district could then expand MI to K-8 to compete with private MI schools who continue to expand.

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2 things need correction:

- Brown no longer guarantee to get into Lowell instead has priority to get into any HS except Lowell & SOTA.

- Aptos used to be the most racial integrated but not anymore. I think Presidio might more integrated according to newest 22-23 data.

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According to the October 2018 policy revision for Lowell HS, "All students from Willie Brown Middle School having a minimum of 64 points will qualify for admission to

Lowell under Band Three regardless of under or over representation in Lowell." So that's not quite the policy you state nor is it quite what Paul stated. In short, it's a 'guarantee within parameters.'

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I think SFUSD changed this fairly recently, I only had noticed last year when we were looking into middle school. Pretty sure even 3 years ago Brown had priority to get into Lowell but it looks like not anymore. They do have high tiebreaker for any other high school which I think is a “better deal.”

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author

Thanks for the correction about Lowell and Brown. My understanding was the same as TK's and I had exaggeratedly described it as a guarantee because 64 points is a very low threshold when Band 1 was at 87.5.

On the racial integration of middle schools, it depends what your ideal is. To my mind, the most integrated school is the one whose students most closely mirror the diversity of the district. SFUSD is 32% Asian, 32% Latino, 14% White, 8% two or more, 6% Black. By this measure, Aptos (41% Asian, 26% Latino, 10% White, 9% Two or more, 7% Black) is more integrated than Presidio (35% Asian, 15% Latino, 23% White, 14% Two or more, 3% Black) because it's closer to the SFUSD average. Presidio is more underweight in Latino and Black students than Aptos is. Some of the first substack posts I did were in-depth looks at population and school integration in San Francisco. You can find them in the archive if you're interested.

It is true that Presidio does have a slightly higher "Ethnic Diversity Score" on ed-data.org but diversity is not the same as integration. The highest possible ethnic diversity score would be achieved by a school that had equal numbers of students from each of the eight ethnic groups tracked by the CDE i.e. American Indian, Asian, Black, Filipino, Latino, Pacific Islander, White, and Two or More. In a district where fewer than 1% of students are American Indian or Pacific Islander, the ethnic diversity score is meaningless. It's unreasonable to expect a school to have students who don't exist in the district. It's more reasonable to expect it to have proportional representation of the students who do exist.

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Point taken on racial integration in which I was thinking more on racial diversity side.

For Brown's priority into Lowell, what I meant was, yes it was true that ALL Brown students can get in with 64 points but it seems this is no longer true in the recent year or two. Instead, they were offered high tiebreakers into any high schools other than Lowell & SOTA which can be a better "deal." Unless you still find that on SFUSD's website. (Brown is still on the Band 3 list but that's different.)

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