Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts

For many years, Ruth Asawa, sculptor and advocate for arts in education, as well as others had campaigned to start a public high school in San Francisco devoted to the arts, with the ultimate goal of such a school to be located in the arts corridor in the heart of San Francisco's Civic Center.

At its inception in 1982, School of the Arts was created as a part of J. Eugene McAteer High School, on its present site on Portola Drive. Ten years later, in 1992, the school - now a full-fledged public school separate from McAteer - was relocated to the former SFUSD Frederick Burke Elementary School at 700 Font Boulevard on the campus of San Francisco State University. Due to the dissolution of McAteer High School in 2002, SOTA was offered to return to the more appropriate, fully equipped high school site.

In 2010, School of the Arts was renamed the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts in honor of Ruth Asawa.^[2] In 2011, the school was recognized as a "California Distinguished School" by the California Department of Education as one of the state's most "exemplary and inspiring" public schools, demonstrating significant gains in narrowing the achievement gap among its students.^[3]

In 2005 a new public high school, the Academy of Arts and Sciences, was started and shares the McAteer campus with SOTA. Although it shares the campus with the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts, it is a completely separate school.^[4] Now called The Academy - San Francisco @ McAteer, it admits students through the normal high school admissions process.

Ruth Asawa School of the Arts offers visual and performing art classes daily in addition to a rigorous college-preparatory curriculum. Asawa SOTA has eight art departments with ten strands. The departments are:

• Architecture and Design
• Dance — Conservatory Dance or World Dance
• Media and Film
• Music — Classical Instrumental, Contemporary Instrumental, Vocal, or World Music
• Technical Theater — Stagecraft or Costume and Fashion Design
• Theater — Acting, Musical Theater
• Visual Arts — Drawing, Painting, Digital, and Sculpture
• Writing - Creative Writing or Spoken Arts

With a graduation rate of 98% and 91% of those students going on to two- and four-year colleges and universities in 2023, academic success is as important as the arts education component. During the 2022–2023 school year, nine Advanced Placement courses were offered with 30% of the 700+ students taking an AP test that year.^[5] Of the 236 students who took an AP test in 2023, 79% of them scored a 3 or above. Each year SOTA posts these scores and extensive information on the Annual School Profile where prospective students and parents can see an academic snapshot of school performance and a list of colleges, universities and conservatories where SOTA graduates have continued their education. ^[6]

All students who complete the audition assignment are offered an opportunity to audition in person for admission to SOTA the following year. Auditioning students are admitted based on audition results; no academic criteria are used.

Applications are due in mid-December. Auditions are held in early February for placement the following school year. Ruth Asawa School of the Arts application process is different from other SFUSD high schools. Applicants must apply to both the school site and the San Francisco Unified School District.^[7]

• Aya Cash, actress
• Margaret Cho, comedian, actress, fashion designer, author, and singer-songwriter
• Natalie Cressman, musician^[8]
• Lena Hall, actress, singer and songwriter
• Peregrine Honig, artist, filmmaker
• Crystal Lee, beauty pageant title holder
• MK Nobilette, singer
• Sam Rockwell, actor^[9]
• Salvador Santana, instrumentalist^[10]
• Joe Talbot, filmmaker^[11]
• Jesse Thorn, radio show host
• Miranda Lee Richards, singer-songwriter
• Aisha Tyler, actress, comedian, director and talk show host^[12]

• Official website