Summary
Wells (Ida B.) High is a small San Francisco Unified high school serving 198 students in grades 9–12. The most urgent concern is student attendance: in 2025–2026, chronic absenteeism was 99% at Wells, compared with 33% in San Francisco Unified and 18% statewide. Graduation is also low: 42%, versus 55% in the district and 88% statewide. Taken together, the exceptionally high absenteeism and low graduation rate are the school’s most important challenges.
Wells’ academic results vary sharply by subject. In 2025–2026, ELA proficiency was 8%, far below 49% statewide and 54% in the district; Wells ranked last in ELA among seven nearby district high schools. Math is a relative strength locally: 17% were proficient, compared with 38% statewide and 46% in the district, but Wells ranked second among those nearby schools. Science proficiency was 7%, versus 36% statewide and 44% in the district, making Wells second-lowest among the nearby schools. So math stands out against local peers, while ELA and science remain especially weak compared with the district and state.
Math has improved over time, rising from 0% proficiency in 2022–2023 to 17% in 2025–2026; its gap with the state narrowed by 13 percentage points. ELA, by contrast, fell from 18% to 8% over that span, despite a rebound from 0% in 2024–2025. SchoolDigger places Wells at the 20th statewide percentile and gives it one star for 2025–2026; that is up from the 11th percentile in 2022–2023, but below the nearby-school average of the 27th percentile. Contextually, Wells’ 2024–2025 student-teacher ratio was 16.3, near the local median, and 77% of students were free/reduced lunch eligible that year, compared with a 64% average among nearby district schools with the same measure. These figures describe school context, not causes of student outcomes.
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