Update- kinder and 1st graders are combined classes due to small size of kinders this year. Also…read moresome of the 1st graders are with 2nd graders. Despite of the combos, we do not see any problems with it. I have a kinder and a 2nd grader. My kids love their school, their teachers and peers.

We love Garfield - our son is part of the first TK group to start this year and he's thriving. I…read morelove that the class sizes are small and he'll be in the community through 5th grade. The teachers + support staff are wonderful, they really give time and attention to the full student experience. Our kiddo had trouble transitioning to school-made lunch, so we worked with the teachers and staff to develop a food plan. We've also been invited to a number of school activities for kids + parents (and a few parent-only) and I love the community we're building. Garfield was recently fully renovated from the ground up, so even though it's proudly one of the oldest schools in SFUSD, it's also one of the schools with the newest infrastructure. Also? My kiddo tells everyone he basically goes to school at Coit Tower (and he's not wrong). For anyone worried about the hill: there's a VERY easy drop off and pick up process and the staff keeps it going, so much easier than the other two schools where we had to deal with odd parking/drop off and pick up situations!

My Godson, had THE MOST HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE at this school. I have heard from one other mother in…read moreprior years(approx. 12 years ago or so, they were wonderful) but within the last 2-3 years with changes in staff this school has become VERY disorganized and asking all parents to donate EXCESSIVELY EVERY WEEK if not EVERY MONTH for extra gifts for staff/supplies and events, etc. My Godson got LOST - YES - L.O.S.T. on the first day of school and had a hard time navigating where to go for Kindergarten. Staff did not try to help and seemed very overwhelmed with whatever is happening in the school! There were staff CALLING OUT SICK and THEY WERE SHORT ON COVERAGE. My Godson GOT BULLIED and staff did not try to CONSOLE and PREVENT THE BULLYING FROM HAPPENING AGAIN, AGAIN and AGAIN!!! This is absolutely not a school you want your child WHO YOU LOVE DEARLY TO GO TO.

This place absolutely sucks. The librarian which is a Chromebook worker as well, he took my…read moredaughter's computer for no reason. So glad we moved her to Sloat.

I've got 2 kids at Starr King, and have now had experience in all 3 of the lowest grade levels (TK,…read moreKinder, and 1st). The TK teacher Miss Santi has been there for 7+ years, and is an absolute gem of a teacher. She leads with compassion and empathy and really works to build the kids' confidence. The TK classroom is filled with fun toys and books, and you can tell their day is really focused around kid-lead, play-based activities. They also learn lots in TK, letters, numbers, sounds, etc. We had a great experience in Kindergarten as well (we got one of the newer teachers, but felt really confident that the teacher that had been there longer really helped to guide the other newer teachers in all their lesson plans and activities). Many of the weekly activities & field trips included all 3 kindergarten classes so there is a lot of co-mingling and mixing of all the students. The kids also get a good amount of interaction with all the different teachers. Our 1st grader is slower in learning to read, but the 1st grade teachers are really going above and beyond to include us on what we can be doing to support our daughter at home. We really feel that nothing is slipping through the cracks, and each kid gets really good one-on-one attention and observation where it matters. Miss Martin, the principle has been at Starr King many years and is such a great leader and anchor to the school. The school we were dying to get into to near our home has gone through 4 principles in 4 years, which makes us grateful we have such consistency in leadership at SK! PTA is super involved, and raises extra $ for enrichment programs (art, music, etc). The parking around the school is generally easy, so pick up and drop offs are a breeze. There are also LOTS of after school options to choose from including one that is Mandarin. The start time of 7:50 is a little bit rough, but traffic tends to be lighter that early, and it's still worth the commute to go to such a well-rounded, diverse, community-oriented school. We've had a great experience, and look forward to our 3rd child joining SK in a few years!

You can read my full review of this school through the SF Bay View's recent publication, "Starr…read moreKing Elementary, segregation, and wealth: The politics of liberal San Francisco's 'separate but equal'" (9/12/2019). 8 other parents [5 who had/have children in the General Education (GE) program and 3 from the Mandarin Immersion (MI) program] contributed to the article with their own statements and stories. Many of us were very involved at the school and tried at length to make positive change. The leadership and group think at Starr King is eery. The racist and classist budgeting and overall negative environment do not just affect children in GE, they affect children in the MI program as well. The previous reviewer who said he had his kid in both GE and MI and thinks they're both great had a child in GE for kindergarten and then hightailed it out into MI. He is also a PTA leader and was integral to the questionable funding decisions discussed in the article. Many of the parents reviewing here are intimately connected to that same leadership. Beware this school!

I have the privilege of working nearby and witnessing the good that goes on at Daniel Webster on a…read moredaily basis. The children are smiling and laughing, the teachers are very friendly and really seem to enjoy their jobs. The families seem to linger after drop-off to chat. There is a tremendous sense of community at Daniel Webster. I hope that my children will be able to attend there! See more at: www.danielwebster-sf.com

My daughter attended DW this last school year, and I'm giving it 3 stars only because her teacher…read moreMs. P was absolutely amazing. I was really excited to find out there was an available space for my daughter, but take heed, if your child isn't starting in Kindergarten and you aren't going to do the immersion program (Spanish introduced to the education) I would NOT recommend this school. It seems all the good kids are in the immersion classes and they've stuffed all the "others" within the General Ed. My daughters reading level barely progressed throughout the year (we had to do a whole lot of reading at home), and it was mostly due to the fact that the teacher spent the entire day just trying to get the kids to focus. There was a lot of bullying and kids that are trying to grow up extremely too fast and in all the wrong directions. Also, the parents aren't very nice or welcoming. The entire year I only got to know one parent in my daughters class. The staff is also not very nice. I understand dealing with kids can be rough, especially this crowd, but telling our kids to shut up and being flat out rude 85% of the time to not just them but the parents as well.... I don't agree with that. Having switched my daughter to Creative Arts, I already notice a HUGE difference... from parent participation, warm welcoming faces, not to mention the staff actually ENJOY their careers with children and it SHOWS! All things I did NOT experience at Daniel Webster. By far.

YELP!!! Do not remove my glowing review of my daughter's school again! How dare you???…read more I'm posting this again. DO NOT REMOVE AGAIN! "As an educator and teacher-practitioner, I am very impressed with the educational setting at Meadows-Livingstone School. Each student has a personalized learning program geared toward their individual interests and abilities. Gail Meadows and her team have built a supportive learning community with the children at the center. The multi-age setting allows the students to grow as learners and mentors. I speak from experience as I have a solid foundation in progressive education and pedagogy from Bank Street College of Education. I have extensive experience as a classroom teacher and as an elementary school administrator. It is my position that each student is an individual who thrives in a secure, stimulating environment. Meadows-Livingstone School meets that criteria as the school is committed to helping every person in their close-knit community meet their fullest potential as they share their thoughts, ideas, hopes, and dreams. The expectation at Meadows-Livingstone is that all students take risks, participate, ask questions, support one another, and form their own opinions. As a parent, I highly recommend Meadows-Livingstone School for families in the Bay Area. My ten-year old daughter arrived at Meadows-Livingstone mid-year from an independent school on the peninsula. Her confidence, fire, excitement, and passion for learning has been rekindled with Gail, Morgan, Robbie, Denise, Julie, Yele, Barbara, and Robin. I asked my daughter what she loves about Meadows-Livingstone School. She said, "I love the curriculum - math, history, music, geography, tennis, dancing, drumming, swimming, and our talk sessions at meeting." My child is happy, growing, learning, and thriving. What more can a parent want for her child?!"

PLEASE READ THE REVIEW and don't just look at the stars! A school is way more complex than a…read morerestaurant or a bar, and there are nuances that the star rating just can't convey, you know? There are many amazing things about MLS, i want to say that right up front. The school strives to be a place where children, especially African American kids, are not pathologized. The school has a deep commitment to anti-racism and social justice. The curriculum incorporates a lot of movement, including yoga, tennis, regular swimming classes at the public pool down the street, and recess in the parks nearby. Teasing is not shrugged off like at many schools, but is mostly addressed on the spot, and a culture of respect and community accountability is definitely encouraged. The MLS approach to history is unique in my experience with elementary schools; they start at the place everyone tells us the homo sapiens effort started, but that never seems to get covered first in the public school curriculums. MLS history starts in Africa, they call it African Civ, and they learn things about all the great civilizations whose knowlege underpinned the later greco-roman and (way later) european Rennaisance. Sounds fantastic, right? Well, i thought so too, which is why i sent my kid there. I was naive, tho.. i did not listen when the Principal told me the school was not accredited. The language arts class they have is not really a class at all, it's a once per week thing they call "writer's workshop": this might be okay if all the kids are what are traditionally known as 'high performers', but a lot of the kids who attended when my kid was going were fleeing the dysfunction of the public school system and so were not even on grade level with reading and writing. and most kids, high scoring or not, need more instruction in elementary school than a couple of hours a week and peer review of papers. The math is similar, although it is gone over with the principal, who also teaches, every day; there is, however, a catch-as-can feeling about the instruction that is disturbing. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that there were, when i was a part of the school, only two teachers, and one was also the principal: even though there are only @ 27 kids in the whole school, the principal does not pull off a one-room schoolhouse thing well at all. I found the place to be rather chaotic, and it was hard for quiet kids to really get down to learning. I probably would not be writing this review now, even with these things that i found problematic for my family, but the last year my kid was at the school, i started feeling like something was amiss.. i kept asking the principal if my kid was on grade level for math, because when i would help him with his homework, he would not be able to tell me how he did the problems that he did do, and a lot of them he could not do. The principal kept telling me everything was fine, that my son was on grade level... then just before graduation (the school goes up to 6th grade) i had my son take a placement test at a public school in the area.. it was then i found out that my kid was at a 5th grade level when he was about to go into 7th grade next year...! Of course there were obvious signs, like parents before me pulling their kids out of the school angrily, and many parents having to pay for tutoring for their kids who were enrolled at the school in order to get them up to speed, but i was so enamoured of the social curriculum that i would not see it. Now, my kid is in a good public school, and i spent $1500 this summer on a private tutor to get him back to where he should be in math. The principal, who is also the owner and co founder of the school, was trying to create a place where African-American kidscould be true to and learn about their own culture, and would not be penalized and looked down on or conceived of as stupid or violent or any of the host of stereotypes that Black kids still labour under in our racist public school system. It's so frustrating, because the cultural curriculum of the place is EXTREMELY empowering... but once the kid gets out of the school, unless there is some serious intervention OR you happen to be one of those parents who can afford to send your kid to private school and homeschool them, your kid might very well experience some unpleasant labels having to do with being unprepared for the grade he or she is in...

I had a nun tell me in 2nd grade to go fly a kite--that's as authentic as one can get no?…read more They also had me doing long division by the time I was in 2nd grade vs my younger sister who went to public school in 2nd grade (she was starting single digit multiplication). She switched over to private school for grades 6-8th.

My husband graduated from this school and now our son attends it. We love it. It's a small school…read moreand very community based. The principle and teacher's are wonderful.

This school is the worst the students hate it here and I do to because we have this rule called one…read moreban one which means that if one person messes up we all mess up like how annoying is that and not to mention we have annoying kids/bad kids so why even makes us all owe time on the bench or take our recces entirely. Plus the kids play to much an they act like they have no sense plus we bearly do stuff fun and it is soo unfair there and ps I do go to the school I am in fifth grade but anyway if you know someone that goes here ask them about the school oh and some adults targets kids.

Malcolm X Academy has a great staff, dedicated to the improvement of every student. My young…read morestudent attending has seen great improvement in various areas not necessarily taught in schools due to the attentiveness of the staff here. It's not a huge school which seems to allow for a more neighborly feel. (The teacher-student ratio here is excellent) The functions and programs offered here are impressive as well, specifically the after school program directed by Mr. Wilson which allows for student's homework support as well as extra curricular activities such as those in the arts. (The Lights On Spaghetti Night was lots of fun!) My student's teacher, Ms. Hall, has kept me well informed of new developments in the school and my child's detailed education plan. She shows great care and respect for every child under her wing. Malcolm X is very recommended.

Both of our boys attended St. Stephen Catholic School. Both boys had a great experience socially…read moreand received an excellent education which prepared one to attend Archbishop Riordan HS and the other to attend Junípero Serra HS. We were parents at St. Stephen School for a total of 15 years and enjoyed being an active part of the school community. It has a very close, family like feel and we highly recommend St. Stephen School.

Not a good "catholic" environment. Children, parents, and principal are people you do not want to…read moreeducate and be around your child. Horrible school, families, and principal.