SF’s sweeping school overhaul, explained in five charts – The San Francisco Standard

SF’s sweeping school overhaul, explained in five charts  The San Francisco Standard

When San Francisco school officials voted this month to replace the district’s enrollment lottery with a neighborhood-based system, they abandoned a goal that had shaped school enrollment for decades: using student assignments to promote racial integration. In 1965, 85% of public schools had a single racial group accounting for more than 45% of students. After a 1971 court order introduced busing across the city, that figure fell to just 4%. But a 1999 settlement barred the district from assigning students by race. In the years that followed, schools became increasingly racially concentrated. Today, 57% of schools have one racial group exceeding that threshold, a Standard analysis found. The district has used versions of a lottery ever since, the current one dating to 2011.

The board is set to officially approve a policy in April that replaces the lottery with a system where students are guaranteed a place at the elementary school in their neighborhood (there will still be a citywide application for special programs). It will apply to families starting in the 2028-29 school year. In exchange, the district hopes to give families greater certainty about where their children will attend school and make educational opportunities more equitable. But there's a paradox at the heart of the overhaul: Abandoning racial integration as an explicit goal could actually make some schools