SF Middle School Navigator: find the right San Francisco middle school

Adaptive Match Engine • Personalized for 5th Graders

Find the San Francisco middle school where your child will thrive.

Select your child's personality traits, favorite subjects, community scale, and target high school trajectory to compute customized match scores across public SFUSD and independent private options.

Student Profile & Preferences

Fine-tune the weights to reflect your child's personality and goals.

1. Student Personality Archetype (Pick up to 3) 0/3 Selected

Middle school is an emotional milestone. What kind of environment brings out their best?

Outgoing & Spirited Loves high-energy environments, rallies, team spirit, and big social circles.

Sensitive / Low-Sensory Needs Thrives in smaller groups, calmer hallways, and tight-knit teacher mentorship.

Analytical & Independent Deep-diver in math, coding, puzzles, or science with strong self-direction.

Creative & Expressive Passionate about musical instruments, drama, sketching, and artistic expression.

Literary, Reader & Storyteller Loves fiction, creative writing, journalism, speech & debate, and humanities discussion.

Hands-on, Kinetic & Team-Oriented Learns by building, maker labs, social activism, and active athletics.

2. Student's Favorite Subjects & Passions (Pick up to 3) 0/3 Selected

🎺 Band & Music 🔬 STEM & Robotics 📐 Accelerated Math 🗣 Dual Immersion 🎭 Theater & Art ⚽ League Athletics

3. School Scale & Community Structure

Open to Any Scale Rank purely on student interests and strengths.

Large Comprehensive (900+) Big elective catalogs and teams (Giannini, Presidio, Hoover, Aptos).

Mid-Sized (450–899 students) Balanced neighborhood hubs (Roosevelt, Marina, Denman, James Lick).

Small School (under 450 in grades 6–8) K-8s, independents and small middle schools (Everett, Willie Brown, MLK).

4. School Sector Preference

5. Preferred SF Geographic Area

6. Desired High School Trajectory (Optional)

Your Top 10 Recommended Fits

Live rankings computed from 6 custom fit dimensions.

San Francisco Middle School Directory

Explore San Francisco middle schools: profiles, feeder pathways, programs and recent news. Schools marked "Basic listing" show key facts only for now.

Search School Name

Neighborhood Area

Language Immersion Track

Signature Specialty

San Francisco Journalism Audits (2023–2026)

Recent SF Middle School Press Coverage

Curated investigative reporting, programmatic turnarounds, and school profiles from The San Francisco Standard, The Frisc, Mission Local, and the San Francisco Chronicle.

San Francisco Middle School Campus Map

Examine school locations relative to Muni transit corridors, parks, and residential neighborhoods.

Public Comprehensive & Charters Public K-8 Independent Private Basic listing (private / faith-based)

Side-by-Side School Comparison

Compare up to 3 middle schools on test scores, growth, demographics, attendance, suspensions and admission odds.

School #1

School #2

School #3

SFUSD enrollment · 2027–28 school year

How SFUSD assigns 6th-grade seats

Middle school in SFUSD is by application. There's no automatic neighborhood placement, so every family applies, including families already in SFUSD. Rules below are taken from SFUSD's own pages and were last checked on October 16, 2026.

Coming in 2028–29: neighborhood assignment for elementary school

On October 14, 2026 the school board voted 5-2 to replace the elementary lottery with address-based assignment starting in fall 2028, with citywide programs (such as immersion and some K-8s) still open by application. It doesn't change this year's middle school process, and coverage so far describes it as an elementary change only. Two possible knock-on effects for middle school later: SFUSD said in 2022, for an earlier version of the zone plan, that feeder patterns may need adjusting as elementary zones change, and the plan floats turning two or three citywide K-8s into K-5 neighborhood schools. The final policy vote is scheduled for April 13, 2027.

Sources: SF Standard · KQED · SF Standard (options explained)

1 · You have to apply

Students are not automatically enrolled at their feeder middle school. Submit an application by the Main Round deadline (February 1, 2027) to be considered in the first round.

2 · List your feeder school

Every SFUSD elementary school has a feeder middle school. SFUSD says applicants who list their feeder middle school "typically all" get in, and strongly recommends including it alongside your other choices. It's your safety net.

3 · Rank in true preference order

You're assigned to your highest-ranked choice that has space. Adding more schools lower on your list never hurts your chances at the ones above it, so list every school you'd accept, favorite first.

Feeder map: which middle school does your elementary school feed?

Each line connects an SFUSD elementary school to its feeder middle school. Pick your school, or tap a dot or a middle school below. From SFUSD's 2026–27 school list.

Small dots are elementary schools; large pins are middle schools. An elementary school with two solid lines feeds both schools. Dotted red lines: Spanish immersion students from these schools continue in James Lick's Spanish pathway (other students feed Everett). K-8 schools (e.g. Lawton, Rooftop, Alice Fong Yu) keep their own students and aren't shown. Listing your feeder school gives you a strong tiebreaker, not a guaranteed seat.

When a school has more applicants than seats

Tiebreakers decide who gets the seats, in this order. A student in an earlier group gets in before anyone in a later group.

1. Sibling
A brother or sister enrolled at, and continuing at, the requested school.
2. Middle school feeder
Currently enrolled at an SFUSD elementary school that feeds the requested middle school.
3. Bayview elementary
Attended Carver, Drew, Harte or Malcolm X for K–5; applies to any SFUSD middle school.
4. Test score area (CTIP1)
Lives in a census tract with the city's lowest average test scores.
5. Staff
Child of a staff member at the school.
6. Random number
Everyone else is ordered by lottery.

Willie Brown Middle School adds a 94124 ZIP code tiebreaker right after the Bayview elementary tiebreaker.

Applying to a language pathway

Students must first meet the pathway's eligibility requirements. Elementary immersion and biliteracy programs continue as a Secondary Dual Language Pathway for students already proficient in the language; a Secondary World Language Pathway is open to all students. Tiebreaker order for pathways: language pathway sibling → language pathway continuation → sibling → middle school feeder → CTIP1 → staff → random.

What about the new neighborhood-school plan?

On October 14, 2026 the school board voted to replace the elementary lottery with address-based assignment starting in the 2028–29 school year. Applications this fall for 6th grade in 2027–28 use the current rules described here.

Key dates for fall 2027 entry

Independent and charter schools set their own deadlines and tour schedules. Check each school's admissions page.

Sources: SFUSD: Apply to SFUSD schools · SFUSD: Tiebreakers · SFUSD: Enrollment key dates · SF Standard: Board votes for neighborhood school plan. Always confirm details with SFUSD's Educational Placement Center before you apply.

Find the San Francisco middle school where your child will thrive.

Student Profile & Preferences

Your Top 10 Recommended Fits

San Francisco Middle School Directory

Recent SF Middle School Press Coverage

San Francisco Middle School Campus Map

Side-by-Side School Comparison

How SFUSD assigns 6th-grade seats

Feeder map: which middle school does your elementary school feed?

When a school has more applicants than seats

Key dates for fall 2027 entry

School Name

Recent Press & Investigative Reporting (2023–2026)

Your Child's Fit Score Calculation

Momentum · Press Coverage Trend

Reading & Math Test Results

Staffing & Climate Metrics

Student Demographics & Socioeconomics

Campus Overview

Website Data Sources & Methodology

What is School Scale & Teaming?

How the Momentum score works

How the FIT Score is Calculated