SF Community School 11-10-2014

Tour

Language

Hours

Distance

Greatschool Rating

API Score

Type

Middle school

Asian

White

Hispanic

African American

2 or more races

SF Community

11/10/2014

GE

8:55-3:35

0.22

4

746

k-8

n/a

11.00%

12.00%

45.00%

11.00%

2.00%

We got there 5 minutes early and was able to observe the entire school in the yard. From K/1 all the way to middle school in the back. Amazing energy.

The garden in the front was very elaborate with "plant hospital", all kinds of charts(Temperature, weather, precipitation, etc.) that students are collecting, and rules written on the wall (reminded us of the Berkeley Adventure Playground that we so loved)

A Pizza Oven!

 Then we watched the K/1 kids lined up, sang their "Monday" song, waved to their parents and walked into the building when school day began.

 We toured two K/1 classes, one 2/3 class, one 4/5 class, two 6/7 classes. Students seemed very engaged throughout the grade, they were involved in every process/transition and activity in their classrooms. The student diversity is pretty nice as well. Similar to Starr King, less Asian faces, a bit more Latino and African American kids. The school is small, so the teachers know the students intimately.

 They keep the upper grade at 22 students per class as well! Total students are 289 across nine grades. There are only ~100 families since most have siblings.

PTA raised ~100k last year.

For next year's K, there are 33 opening and 8 Siblings, so remaining openings are ~25. This is similar from year to year.

Projects are usually one of four different themes: Human Body, Environment/Earth Science, Physical World/ Design, and Community (more detail here on their website). There is usually a final project planned ahead based on the kids, and all the little projects were meant to help students eventually get to the final project successfully.

The student's portfolio were continuously revised, some students need to revise their project 4 or 5 times, someone need to revise it up to 10 times even. similar to how graduate students working on their papers, the students eventually need to present their project and "defend" their conclusion. Parents and peers will ask questions during the presentation.

Among last year's 8th grade graduates, 10-12 went to Lowell, handful went to SOTA, the rest went private or other HS in the city. Teachers work closely with each students, they do HS visit, and teacher will help with application as well, trying to find the best match for each student.

Usually students seem to have an easy transition to traditional Highschool, because they are familiar with how to do independent projects, or public speaking.

Afterschool program is free for all (Excel) and currently ran by a great teacher who is bringing in lots of non-profit organization to provide enrichment programs. One of the parent helping run the tour told us that her 2nd grader didn't want to go home at night because the afterschool program was so interesting.

Tour notes from SF K Files Blog:
2012: http://www.sfkfiles.com/2012/12/bernal-visits-sf-community-school-sfc.html
2009: http://www.sfkfiles.com/2009/11/san-francisco-community-school-charter.html