Sutro Elementary vs Lilienthal (Claire) Elementary

Sutro Elementary and Lilienthal (Claire) Elementary are both top-tier San Francisco schools, but Sutro Elementary edges ahead in overall rating — 9.4/10 versus Lilienthal's 9.0/10, a 0.4-point gap. That gap translates to a meaningful difference in state standing: Sutro Elementary ranks #50 of 9,533 schools in California, while Lilienthal (Claire) Elementary ranks #242 of the same pool. Both are exceptional results, but Sutro's placement puts it in the top 0.5% of all California schools compared to Lilienthal's top 3%.

Academically, the two schools are identical — both earn a 9.7/10 academic score, meaning neither school has an edge on raw proficiency. The separation opens up on growth: Sutro Elementary scores 9.7/10 on student growth versus Lilienthal (Claire) Elementary's 8.8/10, a 0.9-point difference. That gap suggests students at Sutro are advancing at a faster rate relative to their starting points, an important signal for families who weigh year-over-year progress alongside absolute test performance.

Sutro Elementary enrolls 248 students compared to Lilienthal (Claire) Elementary's 670 — more than 2.5 times larger. Despite the size difference, student-teacher ratios are nearly identical at 22.5:1 and 22.3:1 respectively, so classroom density is not a practical differentiator. The schools diverge sharply on economic diversity: Sutro Elementary serves 64% of students on free or reduced-price lunch, while Lilienthal (Claire) Elementary's figure is 21%. Sutro's student body is significantly more economically diverse, while Lilienthal skews toward higher-income families.

Grade span is the other concrete structural difference: Sutro Elementary covers kindergarten through 5th grade, while Lilienthal (Claire) Elementary extends through 8th grade — making Lilienthal a K–8 school. For families who want their child to stay in one building through middle school and avoid a transition at age 11, Lilienthal removes that step entirely. Sutro's families will navigate an elementary-to-middle school transition after 5th grade, which is the norm in SFUSD but still a factor worth planning around.