1501 Lincoln Way #405
San Francisco, CA 94122

Welcoming school with a diverse student body. Amazing opportunities for students to pursue the arts

My child attends this school. She just started 11th grade. She was selected to participate in a STEM program held at UCSF Mission bay hospital. She is excited and enthusiastic about her future. While this school doesn’t excel in the statistics it is what you make it. She is in AP classes and thriving.

I was a student and it was the absolute worst experience I’ve had. Conditions in this school were poor and I only saw one old janitor cleaning from 11-6. Bathrooms were also in terrible conditions, especially the gender neutral bathrooms; which included inappropriate writing, unplaced items, and urine everywhere. There are some teachers in this school that either liked you or did not care about you at all. For example, when you make a specific teacher mad, they say, “shut up” and yell to the whole class, setting up a bad example for students. Talking to the counselor about, it was not helping at all other than just talk to the teacher about it, which did not change anything. When parents reach out to the counselor about a problem through email, they don’t even reply. This displays a horrible work ethic. Additionally, when trying to change classes, you have to TELL the teacher why you aren’t “suited” for that class. So when telling your reasons the counselor, it’s useless because they won’t do anything if you are not comfortable in a situation. The counselor will continue to ask irrelevant questions in your switch and it’s truly disturbing. Speaking on teachers, there are some teachers that grade you based on how you behave in class. The way you behave affects your letter grade which is truly despicable. Some Students are also not well-behaved and therefore, disturb the whole class ambiance. They slack and go to the bathroom just to skip class and either play with their phone in the restroom or vape. I’ve encountered multiple scenarios and needless to say it’s “weird”. When looking at the brighter side, this school has a great sport reputation and range of electives but other than that, there are barely any students that participate in clubs. School is underfunded because people are barely involved due to the teachings of this school. Too many kids are in this school and kids barely learn.

I had a really fun time at Lincoln. I dropped out during Covid but I made a lot of cool connections and saw a lot of interesting things. It was a very fun time and I enjoyed every second of it. Off campus lunch means students can go down to taraval and enjoy some of the food. It also means its very easy to leave school at any time because none of the doors are locked! Which is awesome if you don't care about school. I had a lot of cool and caring teachers/staff here, big shoutout to Aaron Yang, Mark Ruffalo, Omar Campos, Joel Balzer, and Lance Tagamori. The staff here cares about their students and wants them to succeed, they understand the variety of adversities that students face and are willing to help anyone succeed. I highly recommend Lincoln to anyone who wants to have a somewhat challenging school experience that fosters growth and life skills. The school is great. If you apply yourself here you will succeed and grow, I did the opposite but still learned a lot about life. I have very fond memories of my time here and wouldn't trade it for anything. Only reason it gets a three for safety is cause it's easy to leave and I knew a lot of kids who brought weapons to school, but these weren't dangerous or malicious people and only people who wanted to stay safe because of the neighborhood they live in and it is likely 97% of students were unaware to this fact, so don't worry.

We have two kids at "Wash" and they are both thriving in their unique ways. One is requiring additional educational support which has been fostered by the teachers and the amazing counselors, and the other is more self-motivated and is able to take advantage of the advanced classes offered in the subjects they enjoy. Additionally, each area of the school, whether it is the arts or athletics has teachers that are encouraging and will motivate kids to try something new. Finally, we have found that the core curriculum classes have teachers that will work with your child to actually learn the topic, so they are prepared for college or just a lifetime of learning. The best way I can describe it is that it is a classic traditional high school that has the kids interests at heart.

We have had an amazing experience so far, and our expectations have been exceeded. In particular, I want to call out the high-quality of the classroom and enrichment teachers. They are experienced, well-trained, loving, and devoted to their students. I've been impressed with the academic and socio-emotional progress my daughter has made, as well as the strength of the community that exists at the school, among staff, teachers, and parents.

Three decades later, I’ve come to appreciate the safe haven (for sf) that Lowell provided for me. Stressful? Check ..safe? Check ….. challenging/competitive? Check …. Camaraderie among students and lasting relationships? Check, but you do need to go outside your comfort zone and find your tribe - May take a year(s) … teacher quality? Average….. this school literally saved me and my siblings from having to attend our dangerous neighborhood high school in the city. We were definitely not the brightest, but we put in quite a bit of effort. And that’s all you need. From there, it’s a high probability that you can go to a UC bc Lowell’s reputation does carry a lot of weight. One caution is if your child is overly anxious or does not deal with stress well in terms of academics or testing or a highly competitive academic environment , then I think Lowell may not be the best for a student for his/her mental health. And that’s perfectly fine bc grades are just that and perhaps just a subjective judgment of knowledge or competency in a subject at a particular point in time as compared to the pool of students in one or two classes. And it’s not the end of the world if you don’t go to the best academic public high school in sf.

HORRID AND NIT GOOD VERY LOW RATING

First of all, this school requires 100 hours of community service and does not allow free periods even if you have finished all your required credits. So with the 7 classes across SFUSD, that's about a year of 5 unnecessary classes. You will also learn very little at this school, if you're looking for a extremely easy school you can play video games 65% of the day at, go here. But if you want a education avoid this school at all costs! Getting an A in a class is little to no effort, except for test heavy classes, which was 2 out of the 7. However, I realize I am not every single human on earth, so my experience may be different. My relative coursework is around 2 assignments a day maximum, tests are never difficult by material, just teachers not being clear what's on it. Although that does depend on the teacher, they have 1 office hours per week on wednesday, and that might be a good time to clear what's going to be on the test if they didn't give a study guide or weren't clear. But overall, if you plan on going to college this school will not prepare you at all!

The education here is very terrible as the teachers are severely underpaid and are not motivated to make sure the students have the best education. Teachers and staff also are known for being involved and taking sides with teens during drama and conflict and often take favoritism. many problems about this school include the bathroom policies where they don't allow students to use the bathroom for a little less than half a period (20 mins). Teachers and staff treat using the bathroom like it's a special privilege and fail to emphasize with students. Burton only allows a handful of students to use the bathroom and only one 1 of the 3 bathrooms is usually opened, leading to a chaotic transition period between classes where you have to pick whether to hold in your juices or risk your attendance absent. The principal of the school is also super unprofessional as she lets her own biases and political agendas influence her decision-making. For example, the JROTIC and other military branches were removed and blacklisted from this school, as she wants to pump up the numbers of students who attend college, in turn making the school statistically look better than it really is. (and that's putting it lightly)The lunch policies are also the worst, as they serve an inadequate amount of food, with an inadequate amount of nutritional value per meal. Often, I have to go through the day with an empty and my bladder full. Overall this is not the place for you if a great education is what you are looking for.