Starr King Elementary Wins Honor Roll Award

Last fall Starr King Elementary School was one of 22 San Francisco Unified School District campuses to receive an Honor Roll Award from the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce. The accolade is given to schools that demonstrate a year-to-year increase in their California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress English Language Arts and Math Assessments scores and improved outcomes for historically underserved students. The Chinese Immersion School at Davila Elementary, Jefferson Elementary, and Lafayette Elementary, among others, were also honored.

Starr King provides transitional kindergarten through fifth grade education. The school offers four programs: Mandarin immersion, specialized academic instruction – students with intellectual and other challenges – transitional kindergarten, and Experiential Learning (EXL), the term Starr King uses for general education. 

“The Chamber hired an independent company to perform an analysis of school data from the California Department of Education’s website. Many members of the Chamber are products of SFUSD schools. They wanted to recognize the efforts of public schools and their students,” said Starr King’s principal Darlene Martin, who has led the school for nine years. “It was a good feeling for us because this has been an era of challenges, in terms of funding and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.” 

Martin attributed Starr King’s success to teachers and staff engaging in science of reading professional development. 

“We were one of the earlier adopters at studying that. Now it’s paying off,” said Martin. “Digital literacy and knowledge of grade level subject matter explain why students are testing well. The students are taking educational assessments on computers. The students are familiar with how to use the computers appropriately to demonstrate their knowledge.” 

Of Starr King’s 336 students, 227 are in Mandarin immersion – established in 2010 – 71 in EXL, 16 in specialized academic instruction and 22 in transitional kindergarten. The immersion program is fully enrolled; EXL has excess capacity. In academic year 2023-2024, most students – 16 percent and 15 percent – were in grades four and five. School officials declined to comment, but the proportion implies a greater number of transfer students into fourth or fifth grades, or more likely, fewer pupils entering or staying in lower grades. 

Last academic year, the school was 11 percent African American, 29 percent Asian, two percent Filipino, 15 percent Hispanic, two percent Pacific Islander, and seven percent not reported. Black pupils make up eight percent of SFUSD’s student body, just five percent of the state’s public school population. Twenty-eight percent of the district’s students are Asian, 10 percent statewide. 

Starr King has a lower percentage of Hispanic students than SFUSD’s average of 36 percent and California’s 56 percent. Eleven percent of Starr King’s scholar are white, with the district’s average 13 percent, statewide 20 percent. At 23 percent Star King has a higher percentage of students who are two or more races than SFUSD’s seven percent average and California’s five percent. 

“Starr King is more of a mixed demographic community. We have students from all over the City. We’ve used those challenges as opportunities. It’s made our school stronger,” said Martin. “Reading is the foundation. When students learn to read well, they can do better in all of their subjects. Budget issues for the district meant we were set to lose five teachers this academic year. Parent fundraising made it possible for us to retain three of these teachers.” 

Starr King mixes grade levels and activities, including English Language Arts (ELA), physical education, and library. 

“For example, students in grades four and five who are in the Mandarin immersion program and the EXL program take ELA together. (This helps) the students get to know each other and learn in smaller classes,” said Martin. 

Starr King no longer has a family liaison or assistant principal, SFUSD’s term for a vice principal. Starr King was one of 10 elementary schools notified by the district last summer that vacant assistant principal positions would remain empty. 

“Every school in SFUSD is understaffed. This is partly due to the fact that there was not in-person instruction at SFUSD campuses for so long during the pandemic that many parents enrolled their children in private schools, including parochial schools,” said Jessica Agnos, Starr King’s Community Schools Coordinator, who is a parent of two Starr King students. 

Agnos’s position is supported by a $350,000 readiness grant from the Student Success Fund. Readiness funds support school coordinators, completion of a “Hopes and Needs” assessment, and development of an implementation plan, which can attract additional monies for projects associated with academic success and social and emotional well-being. The grant term is July 2024 to June 2027. Numerous SFUSD schools received Student Success Fund grants, including Daniel Webster Elementary School, which was provided $350,000, and San Francisco International High School, which was awarded $300,000. 

“Right now, we’re seeing a shift in demographics. There seems to be an innate bias against Starr King’s EXL program because of preconceived notions. High income families do not want their children to be around children from what they perceive to be middle to low-income families,” said Agnos. 

Starr King’s Mandarin immersion program attracts students from throughout San Francisco. Potrero Hill families are less enticed by EXL. 

“If we at Starr King can figure out how to bring together people from different socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds, that bodes well for the entire City,” said Agnos.

According to Edward Hatter, Potrero Hill Neighborhood House executive director, roughly 37 families with children in EXL live in Potrero Annex-Terrace. Most will have to switch apartments once a new 155-unit affordable housing building is constructed in the complex. 

“These parents are also concerned about safety. In 2024, there were at least three shootings at Potrero Block X. The issues of housing insecurity and gun violence that are priorities for families with children in the EXL program may not be as pressing for families with children in the Mandarin immersion program,” said Hatter.

The relationship between families with children in Mandarin immersion and those with EXL students has long been an issue for Starr King’s Parent-Teacher Association, said Uzuri Pease-Greene, executive director of Community Awareness Resource Entity (C.A.R.E.), a nonprofit that works to support vulnerable youth and young adults. 

“For a long time, Starr King’s PTA was composed mostly if not wholly of parents of Mandarin immersion students. Right now, I’m concerned that with SFUSD’s potential budget cuts, the district will close Starr King or make it a Mandarin immersion-only campus. This would alienate the EXL students and special education students,” said Pease-Greene. 

In the 2021-2022 academic year, the Starr King PTA created two co-chairs, one from a family with a child in Mandarin immersion, one from a family with an EXL student. 

“For several years, the Starr King PTA and the school have been actively working to bring parents and students together more. The success of the school depends on this continuing,” said Pease-Greene. 

The EXL program co-chair position remains vacant this year. 

“We do have Starr King PTA board members from the (EXL) program but the (co-chair) role hasn’t been filled this year. That being said, there is a lens of equity on the conversations being had. But it would be better to have that leadership role shared as intended,” said Emily Wang, a PTA member and Potrero Hill resident who has two children at Starr King. “This school is supportive of students and families and responsive to change. We are dedicated to making the school as inclusive as possible, helping each other out, and being there for the Starr King community. The teachers, staff, and parents of Starr King are extremely committed. We’re ready to do the work together.”