Sutro Elementary vs Cobb (William L.) Elementary

Sutro Elementary and Cobb (William L.) Elementary are both San Francisco elementary schools serving kindergarten through fifth grade, located 1.8 miles apart — but their overall ratings diverge by 0.4 points, with Sutro Elementary at 9.4/10 versus Cobb Elementary at 9.0/10. That gap is more meaningful in context: Sutro Elementary ranks #50 of 9,533 California schools, placing it in the top 0.5 percent statewide, while Cobb Elementary ranks #241 of 9,533 — still an excellent result, landing in the top 2.5 percent of all California elementary schools.

The sharpest difference between the two schools sits in academic proficiency. Sutro Elementary scores 9.7/10 on academics versus Cobb Elementary's 7.2/10 — a 2.5-point gap that represents meaningfully higher tested achievement on state assessments. Cobb Elementary closes ground on growth, earning a 10.0/10 growth score compared to Sutro Elementary's 9.7/10, indicating that Cobb students are making exceptional year-over-year gains relative to academic peers statewide. A family weighing current achievement against trajectory will find a real trade-off here.

Enrollment and classroom size differ in ways that matter for day-to-day experience. Sutro Elementary serves 248 students at a student-teacher ratio of 22.5:1, while Cobb Elementary enrolls 137 students with a tighter ratio of 19.6:1 — nearly three fewer students per teacher on average. Both schools serve economically similar populations, with free and reduced-price lunch eligibility at 64 percent at Sutro Elementary and 66 percent at Cobb Elementary, indicating comparable socioeconomic demographics despite their different sizes.

Both schools cover the same grade span — kindergarten through fifth grade — so families do not face a structural difference in years served. The distinction is more about scale and academic profile: Sutro Elementary is a larger school with a higher absolute academic score, while Cobb Elementary is a smaller, tighter-knit environment where students are growing at an exceptional rate relative to where they started.