How safe is the school, really — beyond what the marketing says?
Lowell’s recorded discipline is light: in 2024–25 the state counted 4 students suspended at least once (0.2% of cumulative enrollment) and no expulsions. The school also posted two safety notices in March 2026 — on March 4, after an anonymous report of a possible weapon, the San Francisco Police Department determined there was no credible threat and the school day continued; on March 10 it announced the all clear from police, with students resuming regular activities.
| Measure | Figure | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Students suspended at least once | 4 (0.2%) | 2024–25 |
| Expulsions | 0 | 2024–25 |
| Suspensions for violent incidents | 5 (1 with injury) | 2024–25 |
We found no school-climate survey result and no published safety plan for Lowell, so this answer rests on incident and discipline records and on what the school has posted itself. A campus tour shows the entrance flow and sightlines better than any record can.
How do students perform on state assessments in reading and math?
In spring 2025, 87% of Lowell’s 11th-graders met or exceeded the state standard in English language arts and 71% in math, against 57% and 30% for California as a whole.
| Year | English | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 87.0% | 71.4% |
| 2024 | 84.5% | 66.3% |
| 2023 | 93.4% | 83.2% |
| 2022 | 96.4% | 85.4% |
| 2019 | 92.9% | 83.9% |
Grade 11 only, share meeting or exceeding the standard. Math has fallen from 85% in 2022 to 71% in 2025, and English from 96% to 87%.
How qualified and stable are the teachers — credentials, average tenure, turnover?
Lowell has 137 teachers, who average 13 years of experience; 4% of them are in their first year (2024–25). We found no published figure for credentials or turnover.
What’s the graduation rate, and how college-ready are graduates?
94.1% of Lowell’s 2024–25 cohort graduated within four years (587 of 624), and 84.5% were rated Prepared on California’s College/Career Indicator. Of the class of 2023, 92.5% enrolled in college within a year.
| Where they went | Graduates | Share |
|---|---|---|
| University of California | 260 | 40% |
| California State University | 111 | 17% |
| California community college | 97 | 15% |
| In-state private college | 30 | 5% |
| Out-of-state 4-year college | 107 | 16% |
| Not enrolled | 49 | 7% |
Class of 2023, 654 completers. A–G completion is 83.1%, and the four-year graduation rate was 98.4% in 2023 and 95.4% in 2024.
Which future-critical STEM fields is this school genuinely strong in—and which ones are major gaps?
Lowell is strongest in robotics and biotechnology, both at the Advanced level: a FIRST Robotics team that has qualified for the Championship, and Biotechnology and fruit-fly research courses taught with Stanford. The major gaps are aerospace and battery storage, where we found nothing, and cybersecurity, where we found one topic inside AP Computer Science Principles; AI and data, clean energy and advanced manufacturing reach the activity level, and computer science is structured but stops short of advanced work.
How strong is it in robotics, engineering and hands-on problem solving?
Robotics at Lowell is a competition team rather than a course: CardinalBotics, FIRST Robotics Competition Team 4159, has competed since 2012. About 60 students join, each putting in roughly 130 hours during build season, and the team builds in a machine shop with a lathe, a Tormach mill and MakerBot printers. It has qualified for the FIRST Championship in 2018, 2022 and 2024, and won the Engineering Inspiration Award in 2024.
| Season | Result |
|---|---|
| 2018 | Regional finalist; qualified for the Championship |
| 2022 | Regional Chairman’s Award; qualified for the Championship |
| 2024 | Engineering Inspiration Award; Woodie Flowers Finalist; qualified for the Championship |
| 2025 | Silicon Valley Regional: 6–6 in qualification matches |
| 2026 | Ranked 212 of 343; did not qualify for the Championship |
We found no robotics or engineering course, so the team is the pathway. Around it, AP Computer Science Principles includes robotics and Arduino programming, and the visual and performing arts department offers Architecture 1–2 and Technical Theater 1–3.
Does the school expose students to biotechnology, biomedical engineering and the life sciences beyond ordinary biology?
Yes, in biotechnology. Lowell’s science department teaches Biotechnology in Grades 11–12, a lab course that includes gel electrophoresis and DNA splicing, and Drosophila Fruit Fly Research, a research course taught in collaboration with the Seung Kim Lab at Stanford Medical School, where students work toward presenting — and potentially publishing — their research. We found no biomedical engineering course.
Ahead of the 2019–20 school year, the student newspaper reported that Stanford professor Seung Kim had developed the research course’s curriculum, and that Lowell’s teachers would train at Stanford.
How strong is this school in AI, data science and computer science compared with other schools?
Lowell’s computing is a short ladder and not an AI program: Computer Programming A and B (JavaScript) lead to AP Computer Science Principles (JavaScript, Python and SQL), then to a Java course the school lists as AP Computer Science, alongside AP Statistics. We found no AI or machine-learning course or club, so our review rates AI & Data Weak and computer science Developing; every school in the directory is read on the same ladder.
| Course | Grades | Covers |
|---|---|---|
| Computer Programming A & B | 9–12 | JavaScript, with the Khan Academy curriculum |
| AP Computer Science Principles | 10–12 | JavaScript, Python, SQL, networking and security, robotics and Arduino |
| AP Computer Science (Java) | 10–12 | Java, searching, sorting, object-oriented programming |
The College Board’s 2025–26 authorization list for Lowell includes Computer Science Principles and Statistics but not Computer Science A, so the Java course rests on the school’s own description; it is worth asking whether it runs this year.
Will your child be ready for jobs that don’t exist yet?
Here’s what the evidence actually shows for Lowell — not what the brochure claims.
56/100 — Developing overall. Lowell’s robotics and biotechnology provision is advanced: CardinalBotics, the school’s FIRST Robotics Competition team, builds in an on-campus machine shop and has qualified for the FIRST Championship, and the science department teaches a Biotechnology course and a Drosophila research course taught with Stanford’s Seung Kim Lab.
But: aerospace and battery storage are absent, and cybersecurity is lacking.
Best positioned forRobotics, Biotechnology
Underdeveloped inAerospace, Batteries, Cybersecurity
Future-critical exposure4/15 domains
Very strong
- None
Strong
- Robotics
- Biotechnology
Limited
- Computer Science
- Earth & Geospatial
Little / no pathway
- Aerospace
- Batteries
- Cybersecurity
- AI & Data
- Clean Energy
- Advanced Manufacturing
Best fit for
Less ideal for
Where the marketing exceeds the evidence
AP Computer Science A does not appear among the 34 authorised subjects.
Where the school is stronger than its marketing suggests
Curriculum
- AP Statistics, and AP Computer Science Principles with programming in Python and SQL
- Computer Programming A & B, introducing JavaScript
Evidence seen
- Course descriptions on the SFUSD mathematics department page
- The College Board AP Course Audit list for 2025–26, as reported by SchoolScope
What's missing
- No AI or machine-learning course identified
- No data-science club or competition record found
Curriculum
- Computer networking and security as one listed topic in AP Computer Science Principles
What's missing
- No dedicated cybersecurity course identified
- No club, competition or CTF record found
Curriculum
- CardinalBotics, FIRST Robotics Competition Team 4159, founded 2012 and housed in the Science Building
- Robotics and Arduino programming as a listed topic in AP Computer Science Principles
Evidence seen
- FIRST event records: Championship-qualifying seasons in 2018, 2022 and 2024, and the 2024 Engineering Inspiration Award
- Team 4159’s own site: a machine shop with a lathe and a Tormach mill, and industry sponsors
What's missing
- No robotics course identified — the team is extracurricular
- The 2026 season ranked 212 of 343 teams and did not qualify for the Championship
Curriculum
- Environmental Science and AP Environmental Science, both in Grades 11–12
Evidence seen
- Course descriptions on the SFUSD science department page
- AP Environmental Science on the College Board list for 2025–26, as reported by SchoolScope
What's missing
- No energy-systems, renewable-energy or climate-technology course identified
- No club or competition record found
Curriculum
- Biotechnology in Grades 11–12, with gel electrophoresis and DNA splicing
- Scientific Research: Drosophila Fruit Fly Research in Grades 11–12, taught with the Seung Kim Lab at Stanford
- AP Biology
Evidence seen
- Course descriptions on the SFUSD science department page
- The Lowell student newspaper’s report on the Stanford course
What's missing
- No competition record or published student research identified
Creativity cannot be graded the way a course can. It can only be evidenced through what students made.
| Criterion | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Art + technology | ||||
| Design | ||||
| Architecture | ||||
| Engineering design | ||||
| Media / digital production | ||||
| Maker learning | ||||
| Interdisciplinary projects |
Two strands run for three years or more; the third is a single year. 2024 is the densest, at 5 of 7 criteria.
The record — 3 artefacts
Lowell’s FIRST Robotics Competition team, Team 4159, designs and builds a new competition robot each season in the school’s own machine shop; the 2024 robot was named “Sparrow”.
FIRST event records for Team 4159 · team4159.org
Students report, write, photograph and lay out the school’s news site and print magazine, and thelowell.org holds the published record.
thelowell.org · student publication, archive online
Lowell ninth-graders illustrated their own poems in watercolour, acrylic, oil pastel, pen, collage and clay; about eighty ninth-grade projects were shown at the SFUSD Youth Arts Festival, in the Design Space Gallery at San Francisco State University.
California Poets in the Schools · post of 29 April 2024
Nothing found for
No student work was found evidencing these. For a school this well documented, an unrecorded programme is unlikely to be a large one.
What a family should ask about directly
- No dedicated cybersecurity course was identified — networking and security is one topic inside AP Computer Science Principles, and no club, competition or CTF record was found.
- Aerospace & Space and Batteries & Energy Storage have no course, club or competition record at all — treat them as absent, not just thin.
- No AI or machine-learning course was identified, and clean energy rests on two Grades 11–12 environmental-science courses; a student aiming at either would find the groundwork and little beyond it.
- Robotics is an extracurricular team rather than a course, so the experience depends on joining it. Ask whether AP Computer Science A runs: the school lists it, and the College Board’s 2025–26 list, as reported by SchoolScope, does not.
| Domain | Evidence class | Key sources |
|---|---|---|
| AI & Data | Verified · Officially recorded | SFUSD mathematics department page, College Board AP Course Audit list (via SchoolScope); no AI or machine-learning course, club or competition found |
| Cybersecurity | School-reported | AP Computer Science Principles course description; no cybersecurity course, club or competition record found |
| Robotics | Officially recorded · Verified | FIRST event records for Team 4159, team4159.org, The Lowell |
| Clean Energy | Verified · Officially recorded | SFUSD science department page, College Board AP Course Audit list (via SchoolScope); no energy-systems course found |
| Computer Science | Corroborated · School-reported | AP Computer Science Principles confirmed by the College Board list (via SchoolScope); AP Computer Science (Java) on the school’s page only |
| Earth & Geospatial | Verified | SFUSD science department page (Geology, Marine Science, Environmental Science); no GIS provision found |
| Aerospace | Unsubstantiated | No dedicated coursework, club or competition record found |
| Advanced Manufacturing | School-reported · Observed | Team 4159’s machine-shop description, SFUSD visual and performing arts pages (Architecture, Technical Theater); no manufacturing course found |
| Batteries & Energy Storage | Unsubstantiated | No dedicated coursework, club or competition record found |
| Biotechnology | Verified · Corroborated | SFUSD science department page, The Lowell’s report on the Stanford course, College Board AP Course Audit list (via SchoolScope) |
Academics
Our commitment at Lowell is to prepare students for their next step in life.
The curriculum is sequential to ensure high academic achievement, aligned with common core curriculum standards, graduation requirements, and A-G subject requirements for CSU/UC Admissions. Our elective program boasts the largest Visual and Performing Arts Department in the city and a World Language Department of eight languages.
Science
The goal of the Lowell Science program is to develop positive and critical attitudes towards science and its role in society, and to tap and nurture the innate scientist in Lowell students of all backgrounds so that they graduate from high school scientifically and ecologically literate.
- Biology and AP Biology
- Biotechnology: gel electrophoresis, DNA splicing
- Scientific Research: Drosophila fruit fly research
- Chemistry, Environmental Science, Physics
Mathematics & Computer Science
Computer Programming A is a lively introduction to JavaScript programming. Students learn to program drawings, animations and games, and the course uses the Khan Academy computer programming curriculum.
- Algebra, Geometry, Precalculus
- AP Calculus AB/BC, AP Statistics
- Computer Programming A & B
- AP Computer Science Principles, AP Computer Science
Visual & Performing Arts
The Visual Performing Arts (VPA) Department offers a wide variety of courses at beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels, in the largest Visual and Performing Arts Department in the city.
- Courses at beginning, intermediate and advanced levels
- AP Music Theory
AP courses in these departments
Department heads
Karl Hoffman
Jonathan C. Fong
Jason Chan
Ask about academics
Calendar
Our year at Lowell, October 2026 to June 2027.
Key dates for our year, taken from the SFUSD 2026–27 calendar and our admissions page. Admission to Lowell is through the SFUSD application, and applicants must live in San Francisco.
October
November
December
January
February
March
May
June
Ask about the calendar
Our Story
Founded in 1856 in San Francisco, we are the oldest public high school west of the Mississippi.
Our mission is to encourage the individuals who attend to contribute their skills, creativity, and intellect to benefit both themselves and the wider community of which they are a part.
Our CHIRP values
Community
We aim to be inclusive, not exclusive, by opening and maintaining supportive spaces.
Helpful
We aim to be of assistance and useful, through collaboration, constructive feedback, acts of kindness, and support towards others.
Integrous
We aim to be honest, sincere and of strong moral principles both privately and publicly, which often leads to trust and respect from peers, teachers, and family.
Risk-Taking
We take chances and try new things, and we provide opportunities to take risks: trying out for a sport, auditioning for the school play, pursuing extended learning or challenges.
Patience
We aim to wait, persevere despite difficulties, and take into account people’s situations, with compassion for ourselves and others.
Leadership
Jan Bautista
Isaac (Jandro) Alcantar
Gwen Lau
Abby Matthews
Matthew McDonell
We have been recognised 4 times as a National Blue Ribbon School, 8 times as a California Distinguished School and once as a Gold Ribbon School · We offer 100 active clubs and service organizations · 32 teams play 27 sports · Our PTSA and Alumni are a vital part in maintaining Lowell’s excellence.
Ask about our story
News
What is happening on our campus.
Recent announcements from our school, newest first.
Principal’s Weekly Update
Our principal’s weekly update for 9/25/26 is on our homepage, together with the 2026–27 bell schedules and the A and B lunch assignments.
Senior Final Transcript Request
Important transcript information for seniors.
All clear at Lowell: everyone is safe, school activities resume
Lowell High School has received the all clear from police. Everyone at the school is safe, and students are now resuming their regular activities.
No credible threat at Lowell: everyone is safe, school day continued as scheduled
At approximately 12:35 p.m., the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) responded to an anonymous report through the Say Something Anonymous Reporting System (SS-ARS) regarding a possible weapon at school. After further investigation, SFPD determined that there was no credible threat to student safety. There was no disruption to classes during the investigation.
Spring campus tours coming in March
Spring campus tours will be 3/13, 3/17, 3/20, and 3/24. Sign up online starting 3/11.
School tours begin on October 3rd, sign-ups start October 1st
Our school tours for Fall of 2025 began on October 3rd and continued each Friday afternoon and Tuesday morning until the district application deadline in December.
Back to School Night opening address
Our principal, Jan Bautista, gave the opening address at Back to School Night 2025.
CaliforniaColleges.edu launch
SFUSD high school students can begin their college and career planning on CaliforniaColleges.edu.
Ask about the news
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