Key (Francis Scott) Elementary vs Parker (Jean) Elementary

Parker (Jean) Elementary sits at #81 of 9,533 California elementary schools while Key (Francis Scott) Elementary ranks #613 of the same pool — a gap of 532 positions that translates to a 0.7-point overall rating difference (Parker at 9.4/10, Key at 8.7/10). Both schools clear the bar for high performance, but Parker's state-rank position places it in the top 1% of California elementaries, a distinction Key does not share.

On academics, the two schools are identical: both Key (Francis Scott) Elementary and Parker (Jean) Elementary score 9.2/10, meaning the rating gap is driven entirely by growth. Parker's growth score of 9.7/10 is nearly a full point ahead of Key's 8.8/10 — growth measures how much students advance relative to peers with similar prior performance, so Parker is consistently accelerating students beyond expectations at a higher rate than Key.

The schools serve very different populations. Key (Francis Scott) Elementary enrolls 562 students against Parker (Jean) Elementary's 125 — more than four times the headcount. That size difference shows up in the student-teacher ratio: Key runs 24.4 students per teacher versus Parker's 17.9, a gap of 6.5 students per classroom that meaningfully affects individual attention. Economically, 80% of Parker students qualify for free or reduced lunch compared to 26% at Key, indicating Parker serves a substantially higher-need population — which makes its growth score of 9.7 even more notable.

Both schools serve grades KG–05 and are separated by 5.7 miles within San Francisco. Neither school appears to offer divergent grade bands or level distinctions, so families choosing between them are comparing school performance within the same grade structure rather than program type.