SF Schools Expand Tutoring Program to Get More Students Reading at Grade Level

San Francisco’s school district is expanding a tutoring program that more than doubled students’ reading proficiency rates last year, a bright spot in the district’s push to raise literacy scores after pandemic-era disruptions and changes to the reading curriculum.

Last spring, the district and San Francisco Education Fund rolled out short, individualized tutoring sessions for struggling students across 20 of its highest-needs schools, but the district’s significant funding cuts and looming state and federal budget constraints posed a problem. SF Ed Fund said it had a waitlist of more than 800 students, without money to pay for the services.

That’s set to change this week, after the district and nonprofit announced Tuesday that they would be able to clear those waitlists, and more than double the total number of students participating, with new city funding through San Francisco’s Department of Children, Youth and Their Families.

“This is the single most effective literacy intervention we have, and this expansion allows us to do what we know works,” said Ann Levy Walden, CEO of the SF Ed Fund. “With strong public partnership and clear goals, and in collaboration with the work of the district and its teaching staff, we’re able to deliver real, measurable gains for students who benefit most from support.”

The expansion comes as SFUSD is trying to meet a lofty goal to raise districtwide literacy rates among third-graders to 70% by 2027. The rate of third-graders reading at or above grade level dropped year-over-year from 49% to 47% in spring 2025, according to the district’s most recent literacy proficiency data, the lowest percentage since schools returned fully to in-person instruction in the 2021-2022 school year after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The initial phase of the program provided about 1,250 students with short personalized tutoring sessions at least three days a week. Seventeen early literacy interventionists worked in 12 schools, across which the percentage of participating students reading at grade level jumped from 24% to 54% in five months. The biggest gains were among kindergartners, with proficiency rates topping 71%, and at Sanchez Elementary, which saw proficiency levels nearly quadruple, from 15% to 59%, SF Ed Fund said.

Walden said that while the tutoring alone is not a “silver bullet” to boost reading proficiency, it is highly effective when coupled with a strong curriculum and classroom support. The district rolled out new literacy curricula for transitional kindergarten through eighth grade for the first time in 20 years in 2024, which then-Superintendent Matt Wayne said was “research-based” and aimed at meeting the district’s 70% proficiency rate next year.

In pilots run in some SFUSD schools in 2023, the programs were found to include more grade-appropriate assignments and stronger instruction than the district’s previous programs, it said at the time.

Now, DCYF is allocating city Student Success Fund dollars to expand the tutoring program to 1,440 more students, focusing on second- through fourth-graders, who are in a pivotal window for literacy development, according to SF Ed Fund. The city fund was created by Proposition G, which voters passed in 2022 to provide SFUSD schools with grants paid for by residents’ excess property tax revenue. The goal was to invest in schools where students were struggling with the academic and social/emotional impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“High-impact literacy tutoring helps students build confidence, strengthen critical thinking, and develop the skills they need to thrive in school and beyond,” said Sherrice Dorsey-Smith, executive director of DCYF. “By investing Student Success Fund dollars and working in close partnership with our SFUSD and SF Ed Fund partners, we are expanding access to these services, bringing students off waitlists, and delivering more robust, coordinated support for students and families across San Francisco.”

The new funding will pay for tutors — employed through private providers Chapter One and Braintrust Tutors — to work at additional elementary schools that SFUSD considers those with highest needs. During the initial rollout last spring, tutors were sent to priority schools, which have less than 50% of students meeting literacy standards and more than 50% qualifying as low income.

SFUSD is bringing on an additional 19 tutors for a total of 36 across 20 schools. SF Ed Fund said tutors will start at eight “high potential schools” that weren’t a part of last year’s rollout, including: Paul Revere School in Bernal Heights; Carver, Drew and Malcolm X elementary schools in Bayview-Hunter’s Point; César Chávez and Bryant elementary schools in the Mission; and Visitacion Valley and El Dorado elementary schools in Visitacion Valley.

A spokesperson for SF Ed Fund said most schools’ new tutors will begin next week, while some are expected to start the first week of February, pending hiring and scheduling.

The district said the focus on these campuses aims to address significant literacy disparities across certain groups of students: While just about half of SFUSD students are reading at grade level, only 7% of English language learners, 26% of Latinx and 19% of Black students met state standards for third grade, according to the district.

“This expansion enables us to focus resources on the grade levels and school communities where high-impact tutoring can most effectively accelerate literacy development — helping students catch up, stay on track, and build a strong foundation for future learning,” Superintendent Maria Su said.