General Education
Instructional approaches foster critical thinking, authentic learning experiences, and a growth mindset. The focus is on literacy and social-emotional growth with the goal to foster engaged and joyful learners and support each student to reach their fullest potential. School-wide events, such as holiday and multicultural performances, and assemblies that recognize student achievement and create a strong community that builds our students’ confidence.
Garfield’s middle school feeder for the General Education Pathway is Francisco Middle School.
Cantonese Dual Immersion
Garfield’s Cantonese Dual Immersion Pathway is designed to ensure both English Learner and native English speaker students become bilingual, biliterate, and bicultural. For kindergarten to 2nd grades, instruction is approximately 70-80% in Cantonese and 20-30% in English. For 2nd and 3rd grades, Cantonese immersion time is 60-70%, and for 4th and 5th grades, instruction is approximately 50% in Cantonese and 50% in English. In 5th grade, students also start learning some Mandarin.
All dual-immersion classroom instruction is enhanced through cultural enrichment activities including field trips in and around Chinatown, cultural celebrations and awareness days, visual and performance arts, media, and use of technology.
Garfield students wishing to continue in a Chinese language pathway in middle school can go to Alice Fong Yu, Hoover, Marina, or Roosevelt. Please refer to the SFUSD Middle School Language Pathways tiebreakers page, specifically “Middle School Language Pathways”.
Special Education
Garfield offers Special Day classes for children with mild to moderate autism. Students enrolled in Special Day classes are grouped into two multi-grade classrooms: one serving grades K-2, and one serving children in grades 3-5. Special Day Class teachers and paraprofessionals work collaboratively with general education classroom teachers and the IEP team to plan services and provide classroom instruction. Garfield also has Resource Specialist teachers who provide support to students with IEPs.
