My take on the latest San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) reading scores is a bit different from the more cheery district press release. And that’s on purpose. San Francisco continues to have a reading crisis and it’s time to shine a spotlight on it.

District reading scores are sliding slowly in the wrong direction. The Board of Education has set audaciously high reading goals that will never be met. 

Let’s take a look. Get ready for lots of numbers that tell the same story.  

SFUSD long-term third-grade reading goal: 

Increase third-grade reading proficiency from 52 percent in 2022 to 70 percent by 2027.

The bad news: SFUSD third graders slipped from 52 percent proficient to 47.41 percent in the 2024–25 school year. This means more than half of the third graders can’t read very well. 

(For both Black/African Americans and Hispanic/Latinos, the average reading proficiency in 2024–25 for third grade was much lower, 20 percent. The reading proficiency for all third-grade English learners was about 12 percent, significantly lower than last year.)

The importance of reading at grade level by third grade

The district’s setting of a third-grade reading proficiency goal was a smart move. Third-grade reading proficiency is key to student success. From kindergarten to third grade, students learn to read. After that, students should be reading to learn. 

There is a high price for failure. Students who read below grade level standards are more likely to drop out, have fewer job opportunities, and – ugh – be more likely to end up in the criminal justice system.

So where is SFUSD? Way off track

SFUSD also has set reading goals for African American and Pacific Islander kindergarteners, all first graders, and all English learners. This focuses on the lowest performing student groups.

Kindergarten

The district goal for African Americans and Pacific Islanders in kindergarten was to increase reading proficiency from 52 percent in May 2024 to 60 percent by May 2025. But the starting point was way off track. In Fall 2024, based on the Star Early Literacy Assessments, just 39.4 percent of these students were proficient or above. 

From kindergarten to third grade, students learn to read. After that, students should be reading to learn.

First grade

The goal for all first graders is to increase reading scores from 57 percent proficient in May 2024 to 62 percent by May 2025. Once again, the starting point was off track. First graders dropped from 52.4 percent proficiency in 2023 to 51.6 percent in Fall 2024.

English learners

The goal for third-grade English learner students was to increase reading proficiency from 15 percent in March 2024 to 23 percent by March 2025. But their 20 percent proficiency in 2023 dropped to 14.3 percent in Fall 2024. By Spring 2025, the rate dropped to 11.76 percent.

You may ask, What the h— is going on?

Lots.

The bad news:

Chronic absences

San Francisco, like so many school districts across the nation, is struggling with chronic absenteeism. There is a simple but obvious correlation. If kids are absent a lot, they don’t do well in school. Period. Full stop. 

In 2023-24, about 20 percent of SFUSD students in grades one through three were chronically absent. This is almost twice the prepandemic absence rate. Add to that, the absentee rate for all African American and Asian Pacific Islanders was nearly 60 percent each in 2023-24.

The good news:

Reading instruction

San Francisco is changing how it teaches reading. After many years of less-than-stellar results, SFUSD is now piloting a new curriculum based on the science of reading. The district hopes the “impact of instructional coaching and the new language and literacy curriculum may begin to appear in student outcomes by the end of this current school year.” So do parents. 

Transitional kindergarten

California is starting instruction for all 4-year-olds the year before kindergarten. Based on a readiness assessment, SFUSD’s current kindergarten students appear to have started the current school year academically stronger than last year’s. Nice!

Recommendation:

It is time to create more attainable reading goals. For those with a history of education policy, the No Child Left Behind law was abandoned when it was suddenly discovered the goals were impossible to meet.

Related