Focus on Education
SFUSD third graders struggle to read
• • • • • • • • November 2025 • • • • • • • •
My take on the results of the latest SFUSD reading scores is a bit different than the more cheery district press release. And that’s on purpose. San Francisco continues to have a reading crisis and it's time to shine a spotlight on it.
District reading scores are sliding slowly in the wrong direction. The Board of Education has set audaciously high reading goals that will never be met.
Let’s take a look. Get ready for lots of numbers that tell the same story.
There is a high price for failure. Students who read below grade level standards are more likely to drop out, have fewer job opportunities, and –ugh– be more likely to end up in the criminal justice system.”
SFUSD long term THIRD GRADE reading goal:
Increase third grade reading proficiency from 52% in 2022 to 70% by 2027.
The bad news: SFUSD third graders slipped from 52 % proficient to 47.41% in the school year 2024-2025. This means more than half of the third graders can’t read very well.
(For both Black/African Americans and Hispanic /Latinos, the average reading proficiency in 2024-25 for third grade was much lower, 20%. The reading proficiency for all third grade English learners was about 12%, significantly lower than last year.)
The importance of reading at grade level by third grade
The District’s setting of a third grade reading proficiency goal was a smart move. Third grade reading proficiency is key to student success. From kindergarten to third grade, students learn to read. After that, students should be reading to learn.
There is a high price for failure. Students who read below grade level standards are more likely to drop out, have fewer job opportunities, and –ugh– be more likely to end up in the criminal justice system.
So where is SFUSD? Way Off Track
SFUSD also has set reading goals for African American and Pacific Islander kindergarteners, all first graders, and all English learners. This focuses on the lowest performing student groups.
Kindergarten:
The district goal for African Americans and Pacific Islanders who are Kindergarteners was to increase reading proficiency from 52% in May 2024 to 60% by May 2025. But the starting point was way off track. In Fall 2024, based on the Star Early Literacy Assessments, just 39.4% of these students were proficient or above.
First Grade
The goal for all First Graders is to increase reading scores from 57% proficient in May 2024 to 62% by May 2025. Once again, the starting point was off track. First graders dropped from 52.4% proficiency in 2023 to 51.6% in Fall 2024.
English Learners
The goal for Third grade English Learner students was to increase reading proficiency from 15% in March 2024 to 23% by March 2025. But their 20% percent proficiency in 2023 dropped to 14.3 % in Fall 2024. By the Spring 2025, the rate dropped to 11.76%.
You may ask, “What the H…is going on?”
Lots.
BAD NEWS:
Chronic absences
San Francisco, like so many school districts across the nation, is struggling with chronic absenteeism. There is a simple but pretty obvious correlation. If kids are absent a lot, they don’t do well in school. Period. Full stop.
In 2023-24, about 20 percent of SFUSD students in grades 1-3 were chronically absent. This is almost twice as high as the absence rate before the pandemic. Add to that, the absentee rate for all African American and Asian Pacific Islanders was almost 60% each in 2023-24.
GOOD NEWS
Reading Instruction.
San Francisco is changing how it teaches reading. After many years of less than stellar results, SFUSD is now piloting a new curriculum based on the science of reading. The district hopes the “impact of instructional coaching and the new language and literacy curriculum may begin to appear in student outcomes by the end of this current school year.” So do parents.
Transitional kindergarten.
California is starting instruction for all 4-year-olds the year prior to Kindergarten. Based on a readiness assessment, SFUSD’s current kindergarten students appear to have started the current school year as an academically stronger group than last year’s. Nice!!
Recommendation: It is time to create new reading goals that are more attainable. For those with a history of education policy, the No Child Left Behind law was abandoned when they suddenly discovered the goals were impossible to meet.
Carol Kocivar is a children’s advocate and lives in the Westside. Feedback: kocivarATwestsideobserver.com
November 2025
