A debt worth incurring.

This month the San Francisco School Board approved funding for additional instruction and services related to gay and lesbian issues. The school district is facing a $113 million shortfall over the next two years. Some argue that increased allocations are going the wrong direction. Let's do a back-of-the-envelope cost/benefit analysis.

The allocation is for $120,000 per year. That is the approved allocation, or 0.03% of the district's $400 million annual operating budget.

For this $120,000 - salaries for two classroom teachers - the City's gay and lesbian students will have the attention of a district position to manage "lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning" youth issues. The new resolution including the funding requires the district to monitor harassment and discrimination based on sexual orientation. It's about time!

According to the SFGate article** states that approximately 13% of San Francisco's middle school students and 11% of high school students self-identified as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. The article goes on to say these students are more likely to consider suicide.

It would be churlish to inquire where SFUSD has been on this issue of protection for the safety and dignity of our children. We rejoice in the district's action now, and urge the district to fill those appointments without delay for everyone's well-being. In fact, we would call this action a bargain. LLII.

** With apologies for the secondary source reference. The SFUSD site is data rich - so much that one can get lost. I simply didn't have the staying power to find the primary budget data reference. Nonetheless, if you have an interest in school funding by program, check out SFUSD's online resources. They are excellent. We understand the district's library, open to the public, also is first-rate.

San Francisco School Disrict. Above Average. But only barely?

The Advocacy committee of the League's San Francisco Chapter is fact-finding to learn whether the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) distributes resources equitably to the City's students. SFUSD takes a fair amount of bashing. Is it justified? The committee has much, much more investigating to do before a conclusion can be drawn. From time to time, this blog will report what we find.

From SFUSD itself, we read the district is the top performing large urban school district in California, comparing the results of the seven largest school districts on the California Standards Test (CST). It is, however, a weak field. Even "top performing" San Francisco has only "approximately half" of its schools scoring above average in state test scores. This equivocal phrasing surely means more than half of the schools scored below average. As one example, only 49% of students tested in 2007 earned a score of proficient or advanced in English Language Arts.

School Digger, a national site that uses most recently reported school test scores to rank schools provides easily accessible data by school and school district, lets us compare SFUSD with other California school districts. Again, the stats reflect only test scores. For these numbers, the year is unknown, but the data concurs with SFUSD's only barely average profile. According to School Digger, SFUSD ranks 387 (lower is better) out of 763 ranked districts for an indexed score of .519 (higher is better, with 1.0 tops). Oakland ranks 584 with a score of .353. Los Angeles Unified, 523 and .394. Berkeley, 245, and .645. San Jose, 394 and .515. Walnut Creek (no high schools included), 36 and .923. Sacramento, 483 and .432.

In support of the Chapter's investigation there is data everywhere. For example, there is a wealth of data related to pre-K - 12 education. The California Department of Education publishes mountains of data; unfortunately, not a single Adequate Yearly Progress Report or Academic Performance Index page was functioning today. Not for any of the years purportedly available. Hmmm. We'll check again later. Of course, SFUSD makes available no end of numbers, both online and (we understand) at its library in the District offices.

EdSource, a non-profit all about California, publishes massive amounts of data. I could not locate a comparison by school district, but that is forgiven in light of the analysis EdSource provides related to student performance by every demographic variable you can imagine. There are also many summary reports about hot topics.

The Chapter will be fact-finding through the data as well via interviews with education stakeholders. Come join us if you have an interest or can bring expertise. Suggestions to enhance our efforts are welcome. Email lwvsf@lwvsf.org. LLII.