Key (francis Scott) Elementary, San Francisco CA

Original Research by School Decision on Key (francis Scott) Elementary

Key Elementary sits in a residential part of San Francisco's Outer Sunset, a quiet neighborhood at the western edge of the city. The school serves grades from kindergarten through fifth grade with an enrollment of about mid-sized for its grade range, distributed fairly evenly across the six grades.

The school's academic performance reflects a generally solid picture across tested grades. In English language arts, proficiency across grades three through five sits in the mid-to-high range, with particularly strong performance in grade four. Math proficiency is comparable, clustering in a similar band, though grade five math is noticeably lower than the other grades. Science, tested only in grade five, is the softer subject, with proficiency at roughly the halfway mark. Overall, Key's proficiency index places it in the top quartile of district schools countywide.

The student body is predominantly Asian, with a substantial minority of white students and smaller populations of multiethnic students and Hispanics. Black and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander enrollment is minimal. About one in four students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, suggesting moderate economic diversity within the school community.

The neighborhood around the school is residential and predominantly white and Asian, with relatively high property values and rents. This is a homeowner-oriented area with single-family houses, though increasingly mixed with some newer multifamily construction. Families here tend toward stability; this is not a rapid-turnover neighborhood. San Francisco as a whole is highly walkable and transit-connected, and Key's location is served by Muni bus service.

Kindergarten through fifth grade means the school serves no standardized-tested grades below third, so there is no state testing data for K through 2. The school does not offer any data on English learner enrollment or special education enrollment counts, gaps that are common for schools at this level. Title I status was not provided in the available data.

For a family considering Key, the relevant questions center on neighborhood fit, peer composition, and that softer performance in grade five math and science. The school's English arts strength and solid math foundation across the tested middle grades appear reliable. A parent might want to inquire directly about what drives the grade-five science performance, whether that reflects resource constraints, instructional approach, or the particular student cohort, and what interventions exist for students who fall below proficiency.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 371%

School 71% · District 52% · ▲ 19 pts above district

▲ 28 pts above state median · ▲ 25 pts above county median

Grade 477%

School 77% · District 49% · ▲ 28 pts above district

▲ 39 pts above state median · ▲ 31 pts above county median

Grade 567%

School 67% · District 46% · ▲ 21 pts above district

▲ 36 pts above state median · ▲ 25 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 376%

School 76% · District 47% · ▲ 28 pts above district

▲ 35 pts above state median · ▲ 29 pts above county median

Grade 478%

School 78% · District 51% · ▲ 27 pts above district

▲ 36 pts above state median · ▲ 26 pts above county median

Grade 577%

School 77% · District 55% · ▲ 22 pts above district

▲ 31 pts above state median · ▲ 24 pts above county median

Science

Grade 556%

School 56% · District 42% · ▲ 14 pts above district

▲ 28 pts above state median · ▲ 14 pts above county median

This schoolSan Francisco Unified, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 3Lower-income59%Higher-income81%22 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income67%Higher-income84%17 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income59%Higher-income84%25 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income46%Higher-income80%34 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income57%Higher-income87%30 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income44%Higher-income76%32 pp gap