Phillip and Sala Burton High School

History

Phillip & Sala Burton Academic High School was established in 1984 under the court’s guidance as a consent decree between the NAACP and the City and County of San Francisco.

Demographics

According to US News and World Report, 98% of Burton's student body is "of color," with 73% of the student body coming from an economically disadvantaged household, determined by student eligibility for California's Reduced-price meal program.

Over the last few years, African-American enrollment has steadily declined in regards to the overall student enrollment. The trend of the shrinking African-American population from Burton’s enrollment may correlate with the shifting popularity of Burton from families of students who hail from Bayview-Hunters’ Point to families of students who reside in the Ingleside and Excelsior neighborhoods. Both neighborhoods adjoin the Portola District, Burton’s home neighborhood. This trend may also correlate with the overall city trend of African-American families leaving San Francisco for more affordable locales (from 1970 the city’s African-American population was 13%; in 2006 the population declined to just 6%).

Beacon Status

With the awarding of city funding to host a citywide Beacon on campus, Burton adopted the community schools model as means to elevate the status of the school, improve its reputation in the community, and better serve the students. The Beacon arrived with three major tenets that focus on the enrichment and development of the Burton studentry, school-age children in the community, and adult members of our larger community. Under the coordination of the Beacon the school hosts workshops for youth and adults, as well as one of the district’s Saturday and Evening High School credit recovery and enrichment programs. Burton students participate in intramurals, club meetings, and a wide range of other youth development activities.

Employing restorative practice principles, focusing on de-escalation strategies as professional development, and carving out time for students to partake in a unique, cutting edge program called Quiet Time have helped the school think differently about discipline and the lessons that come from poor decisions that some adolescents make. The school has significantly reduced out-of-school student suspensions over the last several years. As late as school year 2008-9 Burton once had been among the top four highest suspending schools in the city: one of the two highest suspending high schools in the district. Currently, the school's suspension rate is close to the district average: both overall average for all schools and average for high schools.

One of the school district’s goals is for all schools to focus on access and equity. San Francisco Unified School District considers equity in terms of disrupting the predictability of success or failure that currently correlates with any social or cultural factor. Even though the school has made significant strides in increasing the instructional time for all of the students by reducing our suspensions, providing case management, and building a positive school culture, there is still a large inequity in which students are suspended from school. Even though African-American students are 10% of the Burton enrollment, they represent almost half of the out-of-school suspensions. Over the last five years, the trend of suspending African-Americans have hovered at 40%. Latino students are suspended at a lower rate; their rates of suspension have fluctuated dramatically over the past five years.

Over the past few years, the school has experienced continued improvement of attendance rates and reduction of truancy rates for African-American students; however, the overall student body has plateaued just over 91%.

Standardized Testing

In regards to student achievement and state accountability measures, Burton’s Academic Performance Index climbed steadily 109 points over the last several years. The API calculation under the most recent state accountability system occurred for the SY 2012-13, at which point Burton’s API was 732. For the most recent reporting period our decile state ranking and similar schools ranking is 4, 4. The three year non-weighted API average is 716 and the weighted API average is 718. The California Department of Education approved the use of a 3-Year Average API Report, which includes a non-weighted average API and a weighted average API.

Curriculum

Currently, the course offerings for Burton students are as follows:

Wall-to-Wall Academy Model

Burton piloted the National Academy Foundation’s wall-to-wall academy model for San Francisco. Following the freshman year, Burton students self-select into one of three career-themed academies. Students who elect to continue playing for one of the Burton bands elect to postpone their academy selection until their junior year. Each academy is designed to provide students with a relevant experience that is grounded in academic content. Students have the choice between engineering, health science, and media arts and entertainment. Over the course of their study, students partake in a wide range of field trips and job shadowing experiences. Guest speakers from the industry come to Burton to present and discuss with students what skills are necessary to pursue jobs in a particular industry. Additionally, guest speakers speak to the assortment of jobs that each industry actively recruits. Students have the option to participate in summer internships—some of which are paid! Collectively, academy students work as a class or as a member of a small group on a final project leading up to their graduation. All students commemorate their participation as a member of the academy with a celebration and a sash that adorns their graduation gown. The primary objective of the Burton wall-to-wall academy structure is to utilize the rigor, relevance, and articulation of the curricular program to fully engage students, thus reducing the truancy and dropout rates, closing the achievement gap, improving test scores, and increasing the graduation and college entrance rates.

Post-Secondary Success Plans

Burton High School works closely with the San Francisco Education Fund, a non-profit, that works to support schools on building and following through on their Post-Secondary Success Plans for graduates. Through the data culled from National Clearinghouse Student Database, the Burton community can reflect using real data on the success of our program in terms of measuring our graduates’ success following high school graduation. Like other San Francisco high school graduates who elect to enroll in a two-year program like City College of San Francisco, only 10% of students leave the program in five years with any degree or certificate. However, 90% of Burton graduates who attend a four-year institution immediately following high school successfully complete their program within five years. Additionally, when compared to similar high schools in San Francisco, Burton graduates are more likely to attend a two-year program over the four-year program. These data points and realities are beginning to emerge as priority areas for the school.