For years, even San Francisco parents with private-school predilections were happy to send their kids to these “fab five” public elementary schools: Lakeshore, Rooftop, Claire Lilienthal, Clarendon, and Lawton. Today, the list of schools considered humming (or at least confidently emerging) has grown significantly. We asked six public-school experts and activists* which of the city’s 71 public elementary schools are now on their radar—and why.

Glossary
First-choice requests: The number of families who put this school at the top of their list in the district’s public-school lottery system.
API score: The measure of a school’s performance on state proficiency tests. The target score is 800 out of 1,000.
Change in requests: The rise or decline in the number of total lottery requests a school received.

SPECTACULAR TURNAROUNDS
Alvarado
Neighborhood: Noe Valley
Kindergarten slots: 80
First-choice requests: 164
API score: 826
Change in requests since 2004: 56%
Plus signs: Grand, high-ceilinged building. Artist-in-residence program. Emphasis on social justice. Parents just built classroom workstations. Spanish-immersion track: muy popular. “A real multicultural, multiclass, tight-knit community.”
Overall feel: ¡Sí se puede! (Yes, we can!)

Grattan
Neighborhood: Cole Valley
Kindergarten slots: 60
First-choice requests: 73
API score: 787
Change in requests since 2004: 306%
Plus signs: Award-winning gardening program pro­duces the healthiest herbs around. Moviemaking in an awesome tech lab. Kids beg to stay after school for chess, drama, Spanish, and world music. “Reflects Cole Valley’s friendly, funky vibe.”

Miraloma
Neighborhood: Miraloma Park
Kindergarten slots: 60
First-choice requests: 96
API score: 825
Change in requests since 2004: 170%
Plus signs: Raised scores in seven of the last nine years. (Beloved skateboarding principal said he would get a mohawk whenever it happened.) Getting in is “winning the lottery.” Volunteers are so ubiquitous that they’re mistaken for paid staff.

Sherman
Neighborhood: Cow Hollow
Kindergarten slots: 60
First-choice requests: 84
API score: 891
Change in requests since 2004: 223%
Plus signs: Exploding parent volunteerism. Gorgeous, well-kept, Spanish-tiled building. Chinese bilingual kindergarten class of 20. Hip-hop dance for third- and fifth-graders. “The best teachers fight to get in here.”

ALWAYS BEEN STRONG, AND GETTING STRONGER
Alamo
Neighborhood: Richmond
Kindergarten slots: 80
First-choice requests: 116
API score: 902
Change in requests since 2004: 33%
Plus signs: Outperforms Claire Lilienthal on the API. Full-blown ceramics program with two kilns. Popular in the neighborhood for decades. “Foun­dation raises more money every year than we can even spend.”

Alice Fong Yu
Chinese Immersion
Neighborhood: Inner Sunset
Kindergarten slots: 60
First-choice requests: 262
API score: 948
Change in requests since 2004: 45%
Plus signs: Highest-scoring elementary in S.F. last year. Parents can sleep in (9:30 a.m. start time). Academics trump arts (lots of homework—big surprise). “Teachers are focused; even the kids seem to walk in straight lines.”

Argonne
Neighborhood: Richmond
Kindergarten slots: 70
First-choice requests: 82
API score: 873
Change in requests since 2004: 55%
Plus signs: District’s only year-round school. Real go-getters co-head the school’s parent organization, including Newsom’s former chief of staff. New computer labs and a new building. Half hour twice a week of Russian culture and language. “One of the best-kept secrets in San Francisco.”

Buena Vista
Spanish Immersion
Neighborhood: Mission
Kindergarten slots: 60
First-choice requests: 114
API score: 642
Change in requests since 2004: 9%
Plus signs: 25 years of Spanish-immersion experience. Unusually accessible principal. Fifth-graders perform with the San Francisco Opera. Playground has grass.

Dianne Feinstein
Neighborhood: Parkside
Kindergarten slots: 80
First-choice requests: 91
API score: 840
Change in requests since 2007: 273%
Plus signs: Newest school in SFUSD—spiffy, modern, airy. Huge playground. The senator herself is beefing up the book supply. “This definitely feels like a big, warm family.” Even the cleaning supplies are green. PTA raised $70K last year—only the second year of the school’s existence.

Sunset
Neighborhood: Sunset
Kindergarten slots: 60
First-choice requests: 53
API score: 873
Change in requests since 2004: 189%
Plus signs: Principal (MCDS headmaster’s sister) knows every one of the 351 kids by name. PTA has already raised $100K. API puts it in top 10. After-school Mandarin and Cantonese. “This is definitely a school on the move.”

West Portal
Neighborhood: West Portal
Kindergarten slots: 90 First-choice requests: 185
API score: 907
Change in requests since 2004: 84%
Plus signs: “You can only use so many superlatives to describe it.” Dynamic principal is hugely invested—his own son is starting kindergarten in the fall. Emphasis on critical thinking. Five kindergarten classes increase your odds.

RISING TOWARD THE TOP
Fairmount
Spanish Immersion
Neighborhood: Noe Valley
Kindergarten slots: 60
First-choice requests: 55
API score: 720
Change in requests in the last year: 62%
Plus signs: Newsom’s school czarina, Hydra Mendoza, sends kids there. “Very integrated community.” Hands-on science. Rock-star princi­pal just took a job in SFUSD administration—will his legacy live on?

Lafayette
Neighborhood: Richmond
Kindergarten slots: 80
First-choice requests: 49
API score: 853
Change in requests in the last year: down 1.5%
Plus signs: Curbside drop-off. Recently named a California Distinguished School. Principal is a 25-year Lafayette veteran. Diverse mash-up of white, Chinese, Vietnamese, Russian, and Indian. As close to a neighborhood school as exists here. Annual school musical. “Definitely a Miraloma or a Sherman.”

Leonard Flynn
Spanish Immersion
Neighborhood: Mission/Bernal Heights
Kindergarten slots: 40
First-choice requests: 64
API score: 697
Change in requests in the last year: 70%
Plus signs: Lead tour guide had chosen it over the lauded, private Friends School. Where parents of co-op preschoolers want their kids to go. Fundraising has increased from $3K to $30K in three years. “So much art, music, and dance that the third-grade teacher said, ‘No more!’”

McKinley
Neighborhood: Castro
Kindergarten slots: 60
First-choice requests: 40
API score: 785
Change in requests in the last year: 40%
Plus signs: Writing, writing, writing. “Whole child” approach. Strong environmental ed program. PTA lucky to raise $10K in ’02 now raises nearly $70K. Drumming performance group, soccer team.

Monroe
Neighborhood: Excelsior
Kindergarten slots: 80
First-choice requests: 100
API score: 783
Change in requests in the last year: 20%
Plus signs: Spanish immersion and Chinese bilingual. Visual arts, theater, and music. “Slice-of–San Francisco kind of place, where all different types of students are doing well.”

George Peabody
Neighborhood: Richmond
Kindergarten slots: 40
First-choice requests: 24
API score: 859
Change in requests in the last year: 38%
Plus signs: Only 235 kids. Whiz-bang new play structure courtesy of parents (and grants they fought for). Teach for America–trained principal. UCSF M.D. and renowned public-school evangelist parent Adams Dudley is quickly spreading the word. Recess “coaches” lead basketball, kickball, pickle ball, and more. “I see an awful lot of focus on the individual child.”

SF Community
Neighborhood: Excelsior
Kindergarten slots: 30
First-choice requests: 33
API score: 802
Change in requests in the last year: 32%
Plus signs: Innovative, project-based teaching. Intimate, mixed-age classes at every grade level. Free after-school program. Teacher-run (no principal). “The healthiest, most authentically democratic, collaborative environment in which to be a teacher.”

Starr King
Chinese Mandarin
Neighborhood: Potrero Hill
Kindergarten slots: 40
First-choice requests: 25
API score: 697
Change in requests in the last year: 78%
Plus signs: Dynamic academician principal. Free after-school program run by YMCA. Mornings, Jimi Hendrix and salsa music in the yard. Chronicle sang its praises. “Had I known then what I know now, it would have been my first choice.”

Yick Wo
Neighborhood: North Beach
Kindergarten slots: 40
First-choice requests: 45
API score: 865
Change in requests in the last year: –2.5%
Plus signs: State and fed­eral accolades are piling up. Rigorous academics. Poetry is a priority. Students are now crossing the city to attend. “I am stunned that public schools can deliver at this level.”

NEXT UP?
Daniel Webster
Neighborhood: Potrero Hill
Kindergarten slots: 40
First-choice requests: 4
API score: 612
Change in requests in the last year: 23%
Plus signs: Eight go-getter neighborhood families have made turning it around their life’s mission (and have committed to sending their own kids in 2009). New Spanish-bilingual program you can actually get into. Fresh paint, mural, and plants. Pet project of former mayor Art Agnos.

Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy
Neighborhood: Castro
Kindergarten slots: 40
First-choice requests: 14
API score: 772
Change in requests in the last year: 38%
Plus signs: Emphasis on social justice (last year, kids organized themselves into a peace sign on the blacktop). Longtime principal and active parent body. Steady interest from LGBT families.

Jose Ortega
Chinese Mandarin
Neighborhood: Ingleside
Kindergarten slots: 20
First-choice requests: 8
API score: 808
Change in requests in the last year: 4.5%
Plus signs: API score broke 800 this year. Individualized learning plans for each student. Principal has held many positions in the school. “This place has tons of heart.”

Marshall
Spanish Immersion
Neighborhood: Mission
Kindergarten slots: 40
First-choice requests: 35
API score: 706
Change in requests in the last year: –9.5%
Plus signs: Lovely facility that transports students to another world. Woodworking once a week. Always needs English-speaking families. “Very organized, respectful environment.”

Paul Revere
Spanish Immersion
Neighborhood: Bernal Heights
Kindergarten slots: 40
First-choice requests: 18
API score: 633
Change in requests in the last year: 61%
Plus signs: SF K Files blogger Amy Graff had her “Eureka!” moment here: An unknown public school can rock. Fabulous old building. A dream school, which means more hours of instruction. “Bernal families have taken this place under their wing.”

Rosa Parks
Japanese Bilingual Bicultural Program
Neighborhood: Western Addition
Kindergarten slots: 40
First-choice requests: 15
API score: 743
Change in requests in the last year: –10%
Plus signs: Young, action-oriented principal with EdD. Sun-filled classrooms. “Here’s an example of how a good leader can make a huge difference.”

Sunnyside
Neighborhood: Sunnyside
Kindergarten slots: 60
First-choice requests: 16
API score: 750
Change in requests in the last year: –22%
Plus signs: A close-knit, cozy place. All-school jumping jacks and toe touching start the day three times a week. Focus on science. “Maybe the next Miraloma.”

* OUR PANEL

Gentle Blythe, director of public outreach and communication for the San Francisco Unified School District
Crystal Brown, parent at Sherman Elementary and extremely active in Parents for Public Schools
Amy Graff, founder of SF K Files
Ellie Rossiter, executive director of Parents for Public Schools, San Francisco chapter
Lisa Schiff, an author of Beyond Chron’s weekly education column and a national board member of parents for public schools
Lorraine Woodruff-Long, former head of Parents for Public Schools and a Miraloma Elementary pioneer