2 prestigious San Francisco schools may change admissions criteria

Two top public San Francisco high schools may see big changes to their admissions processes in the coming years.

Lowell High School and Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts could adopt less rigorous admissions requirements under a proposal from the superintendent that will be considered by the school board on Nov. 14. 

The proposal is part of SFUSD Superintendent Matt Wayne’s larger recommendation to “improve student outcomes” at all the district’s high schools, according to a press release issued by the district on Friday. 

The recommendations include eliminating Lowell High School’s extensive application and testing process and instead basing admission on “a minimum GPA and student interest,” the district outlined in the release. The district did not specify what the GPA would be.

In addition to changing Lowell’s admissions, the superintendent is also recommending that the district create a “standardized audition” for Ruth Asawa School of the Arts. The audition process is currently “confusing” and “cumbersome,” according to the release. 

If approved, the revised admissions processes for Lowell and Ruth Asawa won’t be effective until the 2025-26 school year. 

Lowell High School, the oldest public school west of the Mississippi, has long been under fire for its selective process. 

The admissions process is different from most public high schools in San Francisco, which use a lottery system. Lowell admits students based on middle school grades, their test scores, a special application and an essay. 

The proposed process would only require a certain minimum GPA because district officials say it is the “best predictor” of student success, according to the news release. The current process using essays and tests “creates issues of access and equity” and “confusion about who is eligible,” the release said. The new system could also save staff time and money, according to the release.

Lowelll got rid of its exclusive admissions process in 2021 and tried out the lottery system after the COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult to evaluate student metrics when standardized testing wasn’t available. Some community members in support of the lottery system at the time also suggested that the less restrictive system would help with the school’s lack of diversity. 

In 2020, Lowell’s student population was predominantly Asian (50.6%) and white (18.1%), according to the California School Dashboard. The system was implemented “in response to concerns about ongoing, systemic racism,” the district said in its resolution.

The lottery-based system was supposed to be permanent after the board voted on it in early 2021. Soon after, a San Francisco judge ruled on Nov. 17, 2021, that the school violated the Brown Act, a California open-meeting law, when making the decision to continue lottery-based admissions. 

Following the court decision in 2021, then-Superintendent Vincent Matthews still recommended keeping the lottery system in place, but his decision was rejected by the board. During the year of lottery-based admissions, Lowell reportedly fell in national rankings and some students struggled to keep up with the academic rigor. (SFGATE and the San Francisco Chronicle are both owned by Hearst but have separate newsrooms.)

The academic-based system was effective again starting in the 2023-24 school year.

The other school under consideration for admission requirement changes, Ruth Asawa, requires prospective students to complete an application for the school and for the district, submit an audition assignment and attend an audition, according to the SFUSD website.

The High School Task Force of San Francisco Unified School District submitted its recommendations to the district at the end of September, calling for a revised admission process at both schools. The proposals were then submitted to Wayne. The task force was created in June 2022 and designed to implement community feedback for the district’s high schools, including examining admissions criteria.

SFUSD will discuss the recommendations for Lowell and Ruth Asawa but will not vote on them on Nov. 14.