The Latest Scoop at SFUSD
-
*STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT LITERACY GAINS AT SFUSD!* 🥳SFUSD’s 3rd grade literacy scores increased from 49.7% to 53.1% meeting grade level between Fall 2024 and Fall 2025. The district pointed to their instructional coaching model and teacher supports that led to these positive outcomes. The gains may not be even, though, as some focal student populations appear to have improved outcomes, but not at the same rate. The work is far from done, but this is positive news that the literacy program adoption is moving in the right direction. (An enormous appreciation to everyone who’s been working hard on our SF Kids Can’t Wait campaign over the last two+ years!! Email Geri@sfparents.org if you still want to get involved!)
-
Maria Su’s superintendent contract extended through June 2028: At Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting, Superintendent Maria Su’s contract was approved through June 2028. Why is this important? Leadership stability matters, especially with so much multi-year work and herculean projects ahead for SFUSD (structural budget fixes, math and literacy program adoptions, consideration of potential school closures, lottery/assignment system changes, etc.). Extending Dr. Su’s contract prevents more chaos and uncertainty for SFUSD that would destabilize the district’s focus on important projects and ability to fix the budget, raise the bar, and close the equity gap.
-
School closures are back on the table: Discussed after midnight at Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting, the conversation not surprisingly got a bit derailed. The Board was not presenting their own plan, but authorizing the superintendent to create a plan to consider changes to SFUSD’s school portfolio, including potential closures, but also potential expansion elsewhere, following enrollment demand patterns. The board expressed a desire to ensure every SFUSD school becomes a high achievement school, and that we have a school in every neighborhood across San Francisco.
-
Math outcomes: SFUSD is not seeing gains in math outcomes yet, but the new K-8 program implementation just started this year and it will take time before we see results. We’re also paying attention to new concerns about the 8th grade algebra rollout and we reached out to SFUSD this week to get specifics and updates for you. Stay tuned.
-
Special education vacancies and services for kids with IEPs: Thank you for those that completed our recent SPED vacancies survey (especially principals!). Based on that initial data, we’re hearing upwards of 22 para positions vacant and at least 7 RSP positions that are unfilled across 12 schools that completed our survey. That’s a lot of kids not getting their mandated IEP services… Families, remember that your children are entitled to compensatory services if they are not receiving them in accordance with their IEP Plan. Principals: If you haven’t had a chance to add vacancy data for your school, you can complete it here.
-
Budget: We recently heard from the CA Department of Education and SFUSD’s Head of Business Services that SFUSD is *on track* towards eliminating the threat of state takeover and removing partial control… we just don’t know yet by when. We hope to see that by June 2026 the state returns full local control to SFUSD. Local control = local power = budget decisions being made closer to kids!
-
BOE Governance: It was great to see and hear some robust progress monitoring conversations at this past Tuesday night’s Board of Education meeting. Unfortunately having two progress monitoring meetings in one agenda might be too much to fit into one meeting… Tuesday’s meeting extended past 12:30 AM and ended with some spicy back-and-forth between commissioners that wasn’t productive. We have questions and concerns about BOE governance around procedural deliberations that lasted for more than one hour. We hope to see this issue addressed before the next meeting.
|
Last week, we launched our Fund Our Next Five campaign — a citywide effort asking families and supporters to give something personally meaningful–whether $5 or $50 or more–to help build the next five years of our work.
Every single contribution moves us forward. Thank you for stepping up and believing in what parent voice can do for our city’s public schools, teachers, and 49,000 students.
As we look ahead, here’s what your support will power:
-
Building a strong pipeline of parents, teachers, and community members empowered to lead for SF’s kids
-
Holding accountable the district and school board to focus on transparency and improved student outcomes
-
Electing leaders to the school board who will govern with kids’ best interests in mind–not their political careers
These efforts are only possible because of your support.
If you haven’t chipped in yet, please do today! With one small action, you help fuel the next phase of work that San Francisco public school families and kids depend on us for.
|
We’ll keep sharing updates on our progress throughout the campaign — and some of the exciting things we’re working on behind the scenes. Stay tuned for stories from parents across the city about why this work matters.
Thank you for your continued role in this collective movement for SF’s kids.
With gratitude,
The SF Parents Team
|
Founded in the summer of 2020, SF Parent Action is the political sister arm of SF Parent Coalition. We advocate for policies and elected officials who put the needs of San Francisco’s public school students first. Our mission is to empower public school parents in San Francisco to advocate for policy change and local candidates who support public school families and students.
www.sfparentaction.org
Questions?
Contact an SF Parent!
hello@sfparents.org
|
|
