Corrected: Schools That Will Be Closed Next Year (edit this)
SFUSD has released last week the breakdown on what schools parents choose to send their children in Round 1 of SFUSD’s Enrollment. The results are on the http://portal.sfusd.edu/data/EPC/Demand_4%20years.pdf. (thanks Carolyn!) This handout was given at SFUSD’s School Enrollment Information Sessions that I attended at Cobb Elementary School on Saturday and Mission High School yesterday.
There are two corrections-Paul Revere’s new 6th grade program has only 7 students and none of them choose it for the first choice. But Paul Revere’s General Education for K-5 has 46 applicants and its new Spanish Bilingual program has 33 applicants.
The other correction is that even though the District shows one student enrolling in Marshall’s general education program, a phone call confirmed that Marshall is now becoming a Spanish bilingual program-and thus has 117 students applying to become a part of Marshall’s Spanish bilingual program for Kindergarteners.
As reported elsewhere, the most popular are still:
Rooftop ES with 819 total requests (up by 86 from last year) with 167 first choice requests
Clarendon ES with 771 total request (up by 90 from last year) with 137 first requests
Lawton ES with 753 total requests (down by 50 from last year) with 177 1st choice requests
Claire Lilienthal ES with 699 total requests (up by 114 from last year) with 267 1st choice requests
Alamo ES with 618 total requests (up by 62 from last year) with 147 1st choice requests
But what hasn’t been reported are the schools with the least amount of requests-and those will likely to be on the school closure list in the very near future (unless they can recruit more students):
Bessie Carmichael ES’s Filipino Immersion Program with 4 requests and 1 first choice for 20 spots
Bessie Carmichael ES’s Spanish Bilingual Program with 7 requests and 1 first choice for 20 spots
Bessie Carmichael ES’ General Education with 53 requests (down by 19 from last year) for 40 spots
Daniel Webster ES’s Chinese Bilingual Program with 3 requests (down by 9 from last year) for ten spots
Daniel Webster ES’s Spanish Bilingual Program with 6 requests (down by 8 from last year) for 20 spots
Daniel Webster ES’s General Education Program with 30 requests (up by 9 from last year) for 20 spots
Starr King’s Spanish Bilingual Program with 5 requests (down by 6 requests) and 1 first choice for 20 spots
Starr King’s new Mandarian Immersion Program with 33 spots with 13 first choices for 40 spots
Starr King’s General Education Program with 26 requests (up by 8 requests) with 5 first choices for 20 spots
Paul Revere’s General Education for K-5 with 46 requests (up by 35 requests) with 11 first requests for 20 spots
Paul Revere’s Spanish Bilingual with 33 requests with 6 requests for40 spots
Paul Revere’s General Education for incoming 6th graders (see page 4 of the District’s handout)-7 requests with 0 first choices for 50 spots
Others on last year’s closure list didn’t fare very well with this year’s enrollment numbers:
George Peabody ES’s General Education with 68 requests (down by 18 from a total of 86 requests from last year) with 2 first choice requests for 40 spots (The enrollment in its special education program is not listed in the District’s table.)
John Muir ES ’s General Education with 55 requests (up by 28 requests) with 10 first choice requests for 60 spots
John Muir ES’s Spanish Bilingual with 19 requests (up by 4 requests) with 15 first choices for 20 spots
Jose Ortega ES’s General Education with 23 requests (down by 13 requests from a total of 35 requests from last year) with 7 first choice requests for 30 spots
Jose Ortega ES’s Chinese Bilingual with 5 requests (down by 1 last year) with 0 first requests for 10 spots
Malcom X Academy’s General Education with 23 requests (down by 2 requests) with 8 first choice requests for 40 spots
McKinley ES with 108 requests (up by 8 requests) with 16 first choices for 60 spots
New Traditions with 74 requests (up by 28 requests froma total of 46 last year) with 20 first choices for 40 spots
(No other programs, including Special Education, are listed for New Traditions in the District’s table)
Rosa Parks ES with 49 requests (up by 16 requests) with 18 first choices for 80 spots (Even though JBBP West has moved to Rosa Parks, it is not listed separately and appears to be listed as part of Rosa Parks’ general education numbers)
Sheridan ES’s General Education with 32 requests (down by 1 request) with 9 first choices for 40 spots
Willie Brown Jr. Academy’s General Education with 19 requests (down by 66 requests) with 10 first choices for 100 spots
For middle schools, the most popular schools are:
Presidio MS with 1444 requests (up by 65 requests) with 620 first choices
Hoover MS with 1412 requests (down by 10 requests) with 465 first choices
A.P. Giannini MS with 1280 (up by 24 requests) with 460 first choices
But the least popular among parents were:
Visitacion Valley MS with 168 requests (down by 9 requests) with 70 first choices
Horace Mann MS with 256 requests (down by 60 requests) with 89 first requests
With their move from the Haight to Sunnydale, AIM High also was impacted. They received 111 total requests (down by 68 requests) with 22 first choices (a reduction of 28 first choice requests from last year).
We need to find ways to get more students into SFUSD’s public schools-and work with the schools’ parents to market what make their schools unique.
March 21st, 2006 at 11:59 pm e
thanks for posting those numbers kim. looks like there’s a lot of work ahead in trying to help get info out about the various schools and the types of programs they offer to try to get more requests in the second round for many of the schools you listed.
eric
March 22nd, 2006 at 2:15 pm e
Kim, you’re giving out erroneous and inaccurate information that’s likely to harm vulnerable schools. You need to get someone to backstop your research before you do damage by broadcasting misinformation publicly.
And Eric, you should know the facts and correct them rather than cheering Kim on for giving out damaging misinformation.
What in the world are you two thinking? This is especially disturbing when a BOE candidate is doing it.
Just for starters, your facts are wrong about Marshall and Paul Revere. Marshall Elementary is phasing out its non-immersion program entirely and has no general-ed slots available for kindergarten for that reason — which is why there are no requests for a general-ed program there. So you’re misinterpreting those figures completely.
You also have the numbers wrong for Paul Revere when you say “Paul Revere ES with 7 requests and 0 first choice.”
The district shows that Paul Revere has two programs, general ed and Spanish immersion. General ed got 46 requests, with 11 first choice, for 20 slots.
Spanish got 33 requests, with 6 first choices, for 40 slots.
http://portal.sfusd.edu/data/EPC/Demand_4%20years.pdf
By claiming that the entire school got only 7 requests, with 0 first choice, and is therefore in danger of being on next year’s closure list, you’re creating an unwarranted panic scenario.
You also seem to be assuming that other schools have only an immersion program, and not counting requests for general ed.
You’re also confusing bilingual and immersion programs, which are two entirely different things and have a very different effect on enrollment requests.
Kim, you’ve been calling for improved PR and outreach for challenged schools — but now you’re giving out misinformation that does the exact opposite and will drive families away from these schools. You need to be much more careful and much more responsible. You have the potential to do serious harm here.
March 23rd, 2006 at 6:31 am e
Caroline, I am taking the numbers directly out of the handouts that were provided by SFUSD to all parents at the information sessions last night at Mission and William Cobb. So you can try to shoot the messenger-but you would then get the source (SFUSD).
So since that is the information being given by SFUSD, we should be talking how do we increase the number of requests for those schools.
While I applaud PPS and others for increasing the numbers at McKinley, Alvarado and Fairmont, there are other schools that need help in increasing their enrollment. And many of these schools have dedicated parents who are looking for the tools to increase their numbers (such as Webster and Starr King).
It is interesting that the Chinese and Spanish bilingual programs are decreasing their numbers. Especially since last night at the information session in Round 2, the discussion centered that there were not enough spots for students interested in keeping up their language skills in middle school and high school
March 23rd, 2006 at 6:33 am e
I am not sure how I can include the pdf file of the handout that we all were given. Perhaps Robert or Sasha could email me the instructions.
March 23rd, 2006 at 7:37 am e
Kim, you have the numbers wrong. That’s not nebuluous. You have them wrong.
I can’t speak to SFUSD’s hard-copy handouts, but the info you posted on Paul Revere is not the same as the info on SFUSD’s website. Also, you misinterpreted and misreported the Marshall figures because you apparently didn’t understand that there will BE no general ed there, only immersion. So the lack of applicants to general ed at Marshall is NOT the dire sign that you indicate.
This is not shooting the messenger — it’s advising the messenger to stop giving out inaccurate information. And you aren’t helping increase requests for schools when you give out inaccurate information that’s likely to DEcrease requests.
You also are not getting it about bilingual programs. The terminology is not self-explanatory, which is unfortunate. The programs shown as bilingual are designed for teaching English language learners in both English and their home language until they get up to speed enough to be taught fully in English (except for the JBBPs; see below). IMMERSION programs are the ones intended for teaching students in two languages throughout — both for native English speakers and for native speakers of the other language. So you need to separate those two before you interpret the enrollment request patterns.
March 23rd, 2006 at 7:59 am e
Oops, sorry, I forgot to add the explanation about JBBPs. SFUSD’s two Japanese Bilingual-Bicultural Programs are in a category of their own — not language immersion, but definitely not the kind of bilingual programs designed for getting English-language learners up to speed in English so they can learn in regular classrooms, either.
March 23rd, 2006 at 10:53 am e
PPS has worked with a far greater number of schools than the three listed, including Starr King, Monroe, Sunnyside, Drew, Flynn, Revere, Mission High, Lick and countless others. We have over 300 Parent Ambassadors at most of the schools in the City.
March 23rd, 2006 at 6:17 pm e
The low # of requests for some less popular neighborhood schools may reflect the reality that many of the incoming kindergarteners have parents who are totally unaware of the application process. Rather than applying in Round 1, they wait until the last minute and then go to their neighborhood school to enroll. Since the school is underenrolled, this doesn’t generally present a problem. But it makes the numbers look bad.
March 23rd, 2006 at 6:53 pm e
Thanks, Caroline for the tip on Marshall. While the table that you show on your link shows a General Education class, I called them to verify that they are a Spanish bilingual school.
Secondly, see page five. Paul Revere’s General Education’s new 6th grade class has 7 applicants. But I should have made that clear. Paul Revere’s General Education’s incoming Kindergarten class has 46 students and their Spanish bilingual program has 33 applicants. Very impressive.
April 10th, 2006 at 7:12 am e
there is a very clear agenda here: to close schools where african-american and latino students had the most success. to marginalize them at schools such as Aptos,a school that although has a high number of disabled students, have very discriminatory practices,led by Erika Lovrin.
Other schools that intent to freeze out students from the mainstream. it’s sickening.