Academic Philosophy

Leadership High School’s Mission is to serve the diverse students of San Francisco by providing an excellent education and by developing effective community leaders. We believe that we will achieve our Mission by ensuring that every student is known well by at least one adult and by fostering a learning community that, based in inquiry, is focused on equity and achievement.

Leadership High School is committed to preparing all its students for college. We believe that rigorous high expectations, coupled with support and care, will lead to achievement.

We also believe in the importance of preparing students to be leaders in their own lives and in the community. To that end, Leadership has designed its program around four core concepts, known as the School-Wide Outcomes or “SWOs,” that define what every graduate must know and be able to do:

• Social Responsibility: To effectively work and lead in groups, families, and communities by actively demonstrating respect and accountability to others and their differences.
• Personal Responsibility: To be self-aware; to identify, access, and utilize skills, knowledge, and resources toward development as a life-long learner; and to be accountable to one’s self.
• Critical Thinking: To draw conclusions, solve problems, or create through analysis, reflection, interpretation, reasoning, and evaluation.
• Communication: To understand and clearly and confidently express ideas, opinions, information, attitudes, and feelings to and from diverse audiences, through a variety of media. 

Through our program, we expect students to learn to be leaders for positive change in their own lives and in the community. We expect students to develop not only a social consciousness so that they may imagine a more just, equitable, and healthy world but also concrete skills so that they may bridge differences and act as allies to others. We believe that strong students understand how knowledge and information are constructed in our world and that they use their minds well in order to navigate our complex world of information. We are committed to graduating students who have the tools, knowledge and experiences to be self-sufficient and empowered life-long learners.