Healthy Development Measurement Toolkit

Indicator PI.2.a Proportion of households within 1/2 mile of a public elementary school

Data Source

List of schools from San Francisco Unified School District. Accessed online on July 22, 2009: http://portal.sfusd.edu/template/default.cfm?page=school_info.profiles

Proportion of Households from Applied Geographic Solutions, Inc. Spring 2007 Update: Current Year Estimates. Methodology available at: http://www.appliedgeographic.com/library.html.

Map and table prepared by City and County of San Francisco, Department of Public Health, Environmental Health Section using ArcGIS software.

Map and table data are presented by planning neighborhood. Detailed information regarding geographic units of analysis, their definitions, and their boundaries can be found in the HDMT at the following links:

http://www.thehdmt.org/etc/Geographic_Units_of_Analysis.pdf

http://www.thehdmt.org/data_map_methods.php

Explanation and Limitations

The proportion of households within 1/2 mile of a public elementary school is calculated by dividing the total number of households within 1/2 mile of a public elementary school in a particular neighborhood by the total number of households in that neighborhood.

Similar to other HDMT indicators, a half mile was selected for this proximity-based indicator to identify what proportion of households fall within a "walkable" distance of elementary schools. Public health research has shown that living close to a neighborhood school promotes student physical activity, such as walking and biking. Parents who live closer to their child's school face fewer geographic barriers to participating in their child's afterschool and academic activities than those who live in other neighborhoods. Given that some schools can serve as centers of community life and neighborhood interactions, proximity to a public school can also serve as a proxy measure for proximity to social cohesion fostering institutions.

Although there are documented health benefits to living close to one's neighborhood school if it is a high performing school, a neighborhood-based education system can serve to reinforce racial, ethnic and economic segregation between neighborhoods. Residential segregation has been shown to negatively impact mortality, birth outcomes, tuberculosis, depression, and other health burdens, as well as reinforce existing social, economic, and educational disparities. [See PolicyLink's Neighborhood Influences on Health at: http://www.policylink.org/CHB/RacialSegregation/]

Similar to many other urban areas, San Francisco public schools face the challenge of trying to create a high quality, integrated academic environment that compensates for existing racial, ethnic and economic segregation by neighborhood. The education-related indicators in Objective PI.2 seek to illustrate these tensions/tradeoffs by providing multiple different indicators affecting the accessibility and quality of educational facilities in San Francisco. One measure alone cannot capture the complexity of student achievement nor the various push and pull factors causing children and families to leave or move to San Francisco. Therefore educational achievement and performance must be considered both within the broader context of neighborhood, social and economic conditions which are addressed in other parts of the HDMT.

Valuing the historic and social importance of integration, San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) has experimented with a number of different school assignment policies to promote diverse, high performing schools. Currently, SFUSD allows any student to apply to any school in the city. However, there are often situations where there are more requests for spaces at a particular school than seats available. Whenever requests are greater than the number of seats available, the SFUSD uses a Student Assignment System to guide student selection.

The Student Assignment System involves a formula that calculates the probability that in a given grade randomly chosen students will be different from each other based on five race neutral factors. The factors include extreme poverty (defined as living in public housing, being homeless or being a foster youth), socioeconomic status, home language, academic performance rank of sending school, and academic achievement status. As could be expected, not all students can be placed in their top choice school. According to the SF Unified School District, 63% of students in grades K-12 were assigned to their first choice school and 82% were assigned to a school of their choice in the 2008-2009 school year. For more information on the SFUSD Student Assignment System, visit: http://portal.sfusd.edu/template/default.cfm?page=policy.placement.process.

Unlike some other urban areas, San Francisco public schools face declining enrollment rates as many families have moved out of the City because of the cost of living, lack of affordable housing, crime and safety concerns, and limited job opportunities. According the SFSU Urban Institute, "If all the children who were born between 1995 and March 2000…had stayed in the city… there would be 42,866 children age five and under as of Census Day… Instead, in 2000, the US Census Bureau counted 31,633 children five years and under.. a difference of 11,233… It appears that families with children age 5 and younger…are not staying in the city." [Blash et al, Getting Behind the Headlines: Families Leaving San Francisco, SFSU Public Research Institute, September 2005]  As a result, in recent years, SFUSD has had to close and consolidate some of its schools. The map above was generated using the SFUSD list from 2008-2009. For the most up-to-date listing of current schools, visit the SFUSD website at: http://portal.sfusd.edu/template/default.cfm?page=school_info.profiles

It is important to note that demographic analyses and forecasts may be used to reinforce the status quo and therefore not address the needs of people who you may want to bring into a community or prevent from having to leave a community. For example, a demographic forecast may show that a certain neighborhood is projected to have fewer and fewer children attending public schools over the next two decades. The school district may subsequently decide to phase out the school in that neighborhood and invest resources in other schools. By phasing out the school, future families with young children will be less likely to move to this neighborhood and existing residents will either need to move, send their child to school in another neighborhood, or send the child to private school.

In San Francisco, public charter schools are considered part of the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) and are included in the map above. Private schools and county-led special schools (such as schools in juvenile detention facilities) are not included in this map. Schools in San Francisco do not have consistent/clear grade divisions between elementary, middle and high schools. SFDPH defined elementary schools as those which included kindergarteners and the majority of students were less than fifth grade. Using this criteria, schools with K-2, K-3, K-4, K-5, K-7, K-8 and K-9 were classified as elementary schools. Two SFUSD schools, Claire Lilienthal and Rooftop Alternative Elementary schools serve K-8 and are located on two separate campuses. The Lilienthal-Madison campus serving K-2 and the Rooftop-Burnett campus serving K-4 are included as elementary schools but the Lilienthal-Scott and Rooftop-Mayeda campuses are not included.

Why is this a Community Health Indicator?

Nationally, less than 15% of children aged 5 to 15 walk to school. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, long distances to school are a primary barrier to walking to school. Danger from traffic was the second most important barrier.^a Research on travel mode choice also shows that when schools are located closer to home, more children walk and/or bicycle to school and vehicle pollution emissions fall.^b