This Friday will bring about another year of student assignments in the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD). After (hopefully) learning about all of their options and (also hopefully) considering new possibilities, families of kids entering kindergarten, middle and high school filled out and submitted their application forms with their seven prioritized schools. This weekend they will receive letters with their children’s assignments in Round 1 of the enrollment process.

The SFUSD, like several other large, diverse urban school districts (Boston, Seattle and New York for instance) has a system of school choice in which families are able to indicate which schools they would prefer their children attend. Several purposes drive this model. First, schools that have historically been considered the best among the bunch were not evenly distributed around the City. Today this situation has changed substantially. Ask any parent at what have been called “hidden gem” schools that are indeed scattered throughout San Francisco.

Our children are thriving at schools that until recently no one had heard about or had heard nothing positive about. Taking the lead, and often the support, from Parents for Public Schools (PPS http://www.ppssf.org), parents and school communities have worked hard to debunk this negative spin and actively promote our schools. And, we’ve been successful. The number of schools being put down on the application and the number being put in the top spots have noticeably increased.

A second force behind the system of school choice is the objective of achieving diversity in our schools, or flipped to its negative, of avoiding segregation. A related goal is addressing the achievement gap that exists for African-American and Latino students in our district. The Consent Decree (see the April 14, 2005 School Beat for a brief overview of the Consent Decree http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=264) required that schools and programs be ethnically and racially diverse without using race or ethnicity to achieve that diversity. The socio-economic factors addressed in the school application (such as level of parent’s education, use of public housing support, etc.) are all indicators of academic performance.

The notion is that if a school community is diverse along a variety of socio-economic indicators, segregation by race or ethnicity will be reduced and academic achievement on the whole will rise. (More information about the history of the enrollment process can be found in this SFUSD presentation http://www.ppssf.org/documents/Report%20on%20student%20assignment.pdf)
Because the Consent Decree is no longer in effect, the SFUSD is not, at the moment, under any legal obligation to assign students according to the current procedure. However, we are under a moral obligation to provide the best educational opportunities to all kids in all parts of the City, in a way that does not promote segregation or exclusion. The Board of Education (BOE) and district administrators have been meeting to develop a new assignment plan to achieve these goals and others. Important sources of information that are likely to influence such a plan are an upcoming decision by the Supreme Court regarding the use of race in assignment policies and the results of the recent extensive community engagement effort, which sought to identify what parents are looking for and value in a school.

But the policies of the future are meaningless to families looking for schools now; the current assignment procedure is still in effect for families waiting for their letters this weekend. Those letters are the result of a system that provides parents with the opportunity to identify and prioritize seven schools they would be happy having their children attend. At the same time, there is not guarantee of being assigned to any particular school. While this maximizes choices for many families, it does create a bit more anxiety for others. For families with children who have special needs, the choices may be limited already (see the Feb. 16, 2006 School Beat on the lack of access for students wanting inclusion http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=2947).

Some argue that the concept of choice in San Francisco is a misnomer, that there are not seven viable options for any given family to choose from. In some cases, again such as with families looking for inclusion or those looking for a special program such as language immersion, this is true. But for the majority of families there really is a long list of options, covering the entire City.

People who feel there are no choices are usually alluding to the fact that they are unlikely to get into a high profile school and assume, incorrectly, that only such well-known schools can provide their children with a quality educational environment. This is simply not the case. Many excellent schools representing a wide array of approaches, sizes and character are available to choose from.

In fact, when parents actually go and visit these lesser known schools, they not only like what they see, but they increase their chances of being assigned to a school of their choice. Such successful assignments are much more the norm than people realize. For the 2006-2007 school year for instance, 84% of elementary, 94% of middle and 88% of high school students were assigned to a school on their list (http://www.ppssf.org/Enrollment/Graph_choice.pdf).
Still, there will be families who receive an assignment that they are unsure of or even dislike.

The first step should be to visit the school and take a look in person. Many folks find that they want to stay with this assignment. If that’s not the case, there are additional steps in the enrollment process that provide opportunities to choose from schools with openings and to be on a waiting list for a school that is full. Parents for Public Schools will have volunteer enrollment counselors at several events in March (http://www.ppssf.org/html/enrollment.html) where families can come to find out what their options are and to get some advice and assistance from currently enrolled families and EPC counselors.
Rest assured, great schools are out there waiting.

Lisa Schiff is the parent of two children who attend McKinley Elementary School in the San Francisco Unified School District and is a member of the board of directors of Parents for Public Schools of San Francisco (http://www.ppssf.org).