San Francisco Unified School District leaders said Tuesday they want 70 percent of their third graders to meet state literacy standards by 2028.
But after five years of only about half of the district’s nearly 4,000 third graders passing muster, a 21 percent increase in two school years will be a steep climb.
Only 49 percent of last year’s third graders met the state’s literacy standards, the first year-over-year increase since exiting the pandemic, according to preliminary data provided to SFUSD by the California Department of Education and made public in the first week of the 2026-27 school year.
Each year, California students in grades three through eight and 11th grade take the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress test, which marks student progress in reading and math.
SFUSD has plans to increase student outcomes levels in various subjects: third grade reading scores, eighth grade math scores and college and career readiness for high schools — all by 2028.
At Tuesday night’s school board meeting, SFUSD’s superintendent and other district leaders discussed their first goal — literacy — and how they plan to catch their elementary students up.
Third grade is often a pivotal marker for literacy achievement. Students who are reading proficiently by this grade level are more likely to graduate high school, for example.
“We come together to really look at the data that hurts our heart and hurts our soul and act upon it knowing and recognizing that no educator, no site leader, no commissioner can change the student outcomes alone,” said Superintendent Maria Su.
First, the district plans to improve its data. Student achievement and classroom instruction practices are currently gathered through “learning walks,” classroom visits by district staff and school leaders who analyze how teachers teach and students learn.
The district will then use this data to help with literacy at specific school sites including by providing professional development or helping teachers adjust their curricula.
“It’s very hard to see how we’re going to get there [to 70 percent],” said SF Ed Fund volunteer and school board candidate Lawrence Lee. Lee volunteers in a kindergarten classroom at Drew Elementary in Bayview, a school that has struggled to meet state literacy standards. “We have to do more than just learning walks. We need extra help for teachers to get this to happen.”
School board members echoed those concerns. Two asked if the district would reinvest in its Multi-Tiered Systems of Support, or MTSS, which provides targeted social and emotional support for students. These resources have been pared down through budget cuts in past years.
Disadvantaged students struggle to keep up with peers
District leaders also acknowledged that certain types of students will need more help than others in approaching literacy.
By ethnicity, Pacific Islander, Black and Hispanic students are some of the lowest-performing students in the district. Students who are English learners, homeless or receiving special education services are performing even lower.
“Our English learners and students experiencing homelessness continue to face some of the largest gaps,” said Blanca Catalan, SFUSD parent and member of Coleman Advocates, a parent-led youth-support nonprofit.
“I appreciate the district’s efforts to strengthen literacy instruction, but we need stronger systems to identify students who are struggling and provide timely interventions.”
Superintendent Su called out systemic racism that has long pervaded into schools, causing the steep discrepancy between students of colors and their white peers.
Board member Alida Fisher said an acknowledgement of the external impacts of racism isn’t enough. She called on Su to staff up so the district can eliminate classrooms that teach kindergarteners and first graders in one room, with a single teacher. These classrooms are more common at schools with higher populations of disadvantaged students, which have lower enrollment.
“This is crazy frustrating to me that we’re sitting here saying we want to do better. We know that our practices are racist, make changes now,” Fisher said. “If we think we’re setting kids up for failure, make changes now.”
