Webster (Daniel) Elementary vs King (Thomas Starr) Elementary

Webster (Daniel) Elementary and King (Thomas Starr) Elementary sit 0.5 miles apart in San Francisco, yet their state rankings tell meaningfully different stories. King (Thomas Starr) Elementary holds an overall rating of 9.3/10 and ranks #91 of 9533 in California — placing it in the top 1% statewide. Webster (Daniel) Elementary earns a 9.0/10 and ranks #240 of 9533, a strong result in its own right but 149 positions behind King on the same scale. For families where aggregate school quality is the primary filter, that gap is concrete and consistent across multiple measures.

On academics, King (Thomas Starr) Elementary scores 8.9/10 versus Webster (Daniel) Elementary's 8.0/10 — a 0.9-point difference that reflects meaningfully stronger tested proficiency outcomes. Webster (Daniel) Elementary closes some of that gap on growth, posting a 9.8/10 growth score against King (Thomas Starr) Elementary's 9.5/10. That 0.3-point growth edge suggests Webster students are gaining ground at a faster rate relative to their starting points, making it a potentially stronger environment for children entering with lower baseline skills who need above-average year-over-year progress.

The demographic and staffing picture diverges clearly between the two schools. Webster (Daniel) Elementary enrolls 356 students at a student-teacher ratio of 22.2:1, while King (Thomas Starr) Elementary serves 335 students at 16.8:1 — a difference of more than five students per teacher. That smaller class environment at King typically translates to more individualized instruction time. On socioeconomic mix, Webster (Daniel) Elementary reports 31% of students receiving free or reduced-price lunch versus 40% at King (Thomas Starr) Elementary, indicating King serves a meaningfully higher share of economically disadvantaged families while still achieving its top-1% statewide ranking.

Both schools serve grades KG–05, so families with children across the full elementary span face no structural difference in grade coverage. The key distinction is instructional environment: King (Thomas Starr) Elementary's 16.8:1 ratio gives it a pronounced structural advantage in teacher attention per student, while Webster (Daniel) Elementary's 9.8/10 growth score suggests its teachers are maximizing progress within a larger classroom model. Parents weighing raw academic achievement against demonstrated growth velocity will find a genuine trade-off between these two closely located schools.