and who is elected using this voting method. we will also talk about with the ranked joyce l. looks like and how to market correctly. finally, we will see how the ranked joyce voting process works and to you an example of an election using ranked choice of voting. so, what is ranked joyce voting? in march 2002 san francisco voters adopted a charter to implement ranked choice of voting, also known as instant runoff voting. san francisco voters will use it to elect most local officials by selecting a first choice candidate in the first column on the ballot and deborah second and third choice candidates in the second and third columns resect to do -- respectively. this makes it possible to elect local officials with the majority of votes. more than 50% without the need for a second runoff election. in san francisco, ranked choice

of voting is for the election of members of the board of supervisors, the mayor, sharon, just -- district attorney, city attorney, treasurer, this is a recorder, and public defender. ranked joyce voting does not apply to elections for local school and community college board members. number the election of state or federal officials. ranked choice of voting does not affect the adoption ballot measures. when voters received their ballot, either at a polling place or an absentee ballot in the mail, it will consist of multiple cards. voters will receive cards with contests for federal and state offices, as well as for state propositions and local ballot measures. for ranked choice voting contest, voters will receive a separate ranked choice ballot card. it will have instructions to rank three choices, which is

new. the ranked choice ballot is designed in the side by side column format that lists the names of all candidates in each of the three columns. when marking the ranked choice ballot, voters elect their first choice in the first column by completing the aero pointing to their choice. for their second choice, voters selected different wind by completing the arab pointing to their choice in the second column. for their third choice, voters elect a different candidate by completing the arrow pointing to their choice. voters wishing to vote for qualified write-in candidate can write it in on the line provided. and they must complete the arrow pointing to their choice. keep in mind, it voters should select a different candidate for each of the three columns of the ranked choice ballot card. if the voters elect the same candidate in more than one column, his or her vote for that

candidate will count only once. also, a voter's second choice will be counted only if his or her first choice candidate has been eliminated. and a voter's third choice will be counted only if both his or her first and second choice candidates have been eliminated. we have talked about how to mark the ranked choice ballot. now let's look at how ranked choice of voting works. initially, every first choice vote is a candidate. any candidate that receives a majority, more than 50% of the first choice to vote, is determined to be the winner. if no candidate receives more than 50% of the first choice votes, a process of eliminating candidates and transferring votes begins. first, the candidate who received the fewest numbers of first choice votes is eliminated from the race. second, voters who selected the

eliminated candidate as their first choice will have their vote to transfer to their second choice. there, all the votes are recounted. fourth, if any candidate receives more than 50% of the votes, he/she is declared the winner. if no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, the process of eliminating candidates and transferring votes is repeated until one candidate has a winning majority. now let's look at an example of an election using ranked choice of voting. in this example, we have three candidates. candidate a, b, and c. after all the first choice votes are counted, none of the three candidates has received more than 50%, or a majority of the first choice vote cast. candidate a g-205% ofb the votes% received 40%.

and c received 35% of the boats. because no candidate received a majority, the candidate who received the fewest number of first choice votes, a candidate a, is eliminated from the race. voters to pick a candidate a as their first choice candidate will have their but transferred to their second choice. and the voters to pick and a, 15% chose candidate b as their second choice, and 10% chose c as their second choice. these votes are then applied to b and c, and the votes are recounted. candidate b now has 55% of the votes. candidate c as 45%. candidate b has more than 50% of the votes and is determined as the winner. >> thank you for watching. we hope you have ranked choice learned ranked choice of voting and was elected. you have seen the ballot,

learned how to market, and learned how the voting process works. if you have any further questions about ranked choice voting, please contact us at department of elections, city hall, room 48, 1 dr. carlton be good lit place, sentences go, california, 94102. or 415-554-4375. visit our website, www.sfelections.org.

>> we are going to start today first talking about the data and then after that, we want to

actually put some faces behind the data, so we will hear from some of our district leaders as well as a school principal and a student here at washington high school. we will try to make it sink, and we will stick around at the end to answer questions, of course -- we will try to make it sink -- we will try to make it succinct. >> thank you so much, and welcome to our press conference. i have the opportunity to present these wonderful results. we see an upward trend for this year. the students were tested in the month of may. as you can see, they have moved in english language from 47.5% to 57.4%, so you do see a

double-digit increase from 2006 to 2011 in an english-language arts. we have seen over these years a 10% -- approximately 10% -- increase. come on, let's hear it for san francisco. [applause] and our spectacular students, outstanding teachers, and greek leaders. let's move on to mathematics. the mathematics test is given from grades two to seven, and after that, they start taking algebra, geometry, algebra ii. you see that the scores have gone from 56.6% to 66%.

again, an upward trend every single year. again, let's hear the joy. [applause] ok, when we look at other content areas like science and social science, we do see similar patterns. especially in science, both at the middle school and elementary school -- grade five and a grade 8 -- you see almost 60% of the students performing at advanced. in social science, both at the middle and high school levels, you see the students performing at proficient or advanced, more than 50% of them. ok? those are the other content area scores. the other thing the district has been charged with, and it is always focusing itself around, is narrowing the achievement gap. here are the results for our

targeted students. we say we are narrowing the achievement gap if the student groups as a whole showed greater improvement than even the district. ok? so, they have to show greater improvement than even the district. this year, for the third year in a row, i am proud to announce that the african-american students in english language arts and the latino students in math and samoan students in both are narrowing the achievement gap. come on, let's hear it. [applause] ok, so those were some of the results you have seen charted in here. if you picked up the press release, some of our school- level successes are also included in there, so i would ask you to look at those. as compared to the state, we are higher than the state in ela and math. we look at the results for our

program students as well, both english language learners and math, and we saw similar success is where they are going -- growing at a great rate. last were our superintendent zone schools in both the mission and the bayview. successes as well, and i think that deserves a mentioned. with that, i will turn it over. >> thank you. she brings all the good news. first, i wanted to recognize a few of our board members who are here. emily, grace, joe, and dennis, one of our partners, president of the teachers association. welcome. this is really exciting, not only because it is the first day

of school -- you always feel like a kindergartner all over again because you get a chance to start over again -- and running around our schools makes you realize how lucky we are to have such a dynamic, great teachers that are doing a fabulous job -- to have such a dynamic, great teachers that are doing a fabulous job -- to have such dynamic, great teachers. you are wondering how we can do all this when in reality, if you look at our funding, it would be a steeper decline in terms of how much money we get, and yet, we are improving student achievement. especially in a school like this that took it upon themselves. the staff here -- they had some assistance by different groups. what is the name of the group that helped you guys quite a bit? yes, national urban alliance actually stepped up to do a lot

of training. it makes people realize that if we really do want to close the achievement gap, it will not happen by accident. nothing happens by accident. we have to be strategic and ask ourselves what we can do better. if we cannot do better, we ought to get out of the way and let somebody else do the job. the reality is teachers here in san francisco, principals, staff can do it better. i am really proud when we took on a strategic plan that we adopted in 2008, we said that we would make a priority to have african-americans, latinos, and pacific islanders to show some growth. unfortunately, they have always kind of been at the lowest levels, and that has been unacceptable to the board and, i think, to our community. everybody stepped up and said that it was a social justice issue, and modern-day apartheid, having an achievement gap.

who is affected by it? the neediest people in our city. we made a point, and every school convened with their staff and community and say -- and said, "what can we do about this? this is a civil rights issue. what difference can we actually make?" everyone got together and started thinking differently. we noticed in some of the schools, some of the kids did not have access to things that ought to have access to. we started thinking about what an equity-centered school will look like. what you see is the dreams and aspirations of a great community like san francisco with the school board, the teachers' union -- everybody, administrators, classified workers saying this is a civil rights issue and our children deserve a better education. and they are doing it.

that is a tribute to the folks out there. the doctor does not want me to brag a lot about stuff, but why not? everyone is always pointing out what is wrong with education. today, i am going to tell you what is right. 82 percent of our students now are graduating from our high schools -- 82% of our students now are graduating from our high schools in san francisco. it is only 74% in the state of california, so we are doing with better than everyone else. when you look at drop out rates, the state is 18%. our rate is 11%. we are doing some great things. when you look at suspensions' over the last few years, in the last five years, we have reduced over 1000 kids getting suspended in the school district -- when you look at suspensions over the last few years. what good is it to suspend the

same kid over and over again? let's find out why they are getting suspended. we talk to their families. everybody is pitching in to make a difference, and it is paying off. one of the things that we brag about, 10 years now, we have had increasing test scores in this school district, for 10 years. that is something that is amazing. if you look at the last three years, what we have done with african-americans, latinos, our samoan brothers -- they are showing the most growth of any group in san francisco. they are showing the double digit -- they are showing double-digit growth. find me anywhere else in america where that is happening. when you start looking at some of our superintendent zones. we identified some of our schools under the school

improvement grants, and when you look at the growth they showed this year -- go visit everett middle school. go see why they had double-digit growth in math and language arts. we were at paul revere this morning. look at the growth they had. i always tell people those people in the public who are the naysayers who do not believe it can be done -- to us a favor -- get out of the way of the people in the school districts who are doing this fabulous work because they get it done every day. i think this is something we ought to be celebrating, the success of our children. we want to continue because even though we are closing the gap, that is not good enough. we have to eliminate the gap. until we eliminate it, shame on us. there is still work to be done. our goal is sunday, the word does not exist in our vocabulary.

there is no such thing about talking about a gap because we are providing equity and access in the basic fundamental civil rights to a proper education that every child in san francisco deserves. you're so excited that all of you came -- i am so excited that all of you came. has the mayor had a chance? then he ought to get a chance to speak. mayor lee: it is my pleasure to be here and, certainly, to come to one of the most beautiful campus is in san francisco, by the way. washington high -- when you go out there, it is a wonderful campus. [applause] there are so many things we are doing to engage and be supportive of the school district. even the physical place we have here, we will be sponsoring a

$30 million bond this november to help make sure that all of our schools are seismically safe. i will be a leading proponent of that because it is so important to have every school site as safe as possible for our kids. i have been here many times, and i want to thank the kids that are here today, the students that are here. you have probably seen me before. we were doing this saturday cleanups' together in the whole neighborhood and respecting the neighborhood where the school is located, and that has been wonderful, but these data -- i do not have to repeat them, but they are worth always paying attention to because they do tell the story of what we're doing here. i am not a teacher. i am not a principle -- principal. i am the mayor of san francisco, and i know at the heart of those relationships, it is about the

school district. years ago, the school district was seen as separate, and when they failed, it was seen as their problem. never again will that happen in san francisco. it is our kids, our residents, our families that are here wanting to see help from the city, whatever we can do, and we have been helping a lot, and it has been something i have been proud to do. when i heard, for example, earlier this year that may be about 900 kids from all over the city might not be able to make it through graduation because they had failed their courses in math and science, we went right to work. we found extra money for summer school, and those kids got that summer school where every other jurisdiction in the whole area cut off their summer school. we found that money to make sure kids got a second chance. there are many reasons why they get distracted, and we understand that, but we were not going to let go of those kids

and have another generation of people not able to graduate. without that math and science course, i knew and everyone else knows in this city, they would not be able to qualify for graduation. that is the standards set for people to be able to graduate, enter into college. if you do not get that college degree, you will not have the basic foundation to get those jobs we are trying to create in the city at zynga, twitter, salesforce, really good paying jobs. those are jobs i always talk about to kids. when you get a college degree, you join that millionaire club. that is the difference between people who have a college education and people who do not that are in the work force. over that career, it is a million-dollar difference. that is why this data, this improvement is so important for us. i want every kid in our school

district system to be successful. not just graduate high school, but get into college and then be successful human beings and get the best jobs that we can possibly offer. that is the ultimate story year. while we are doing that, there will be distractions. there will be shortages of funding. there will be challenges that the city faces. i want to work with every element of our school district from our unions to the teachers and administrators. it is like not only cleaning up the area around the schools, but when i am notified that there are some foundations that have special funding to hit at these gaps that are so difficult, and i am going to be there as the mayor of san francisco talking to these foundations. they are also part of the new generation of companies that want our students to be their new work force -- workforce.

so they see an investment for 10, 20 years down the road. if they put in an investment into the public/private relationships we have and grants we are going for that are viewed through and processed through the most excellent educational foundations that are gathering this type of money and focused on where the gaps are and, as carlos said, it is not just about the gaps, but if we could make the bridges on the gaps, with the additional funding, target the things that distract the kids, whether it is -- you know, these tremendous pressures that kids have on balancing looking for a job or going to college. spending time in summer school or trying to get more money for the family. we have family challenges that are not being addressed by the

state. what do we do about that? if we can get them identified so the students have all their attention focused on their career building, the academics, their ability to succeed in all the classrooms, the city then will have done a good job. we cannot abandon this. we cannot let them be isolated. that is why i keep hydra very close to me. every two weeks, we are meeting to discuss what we can do for our school district. what -- where can we help? so we are not only using our rainy day fund properly, but we are doing the added work to identify every single gap so this scoring and performance can continue not just to fill the gaps but to have the highest level of achievement possible for the students here because those companies are going to start recruiting in san francisco even more than they are. companies come in to san

francisco -- it is not because we have a good tax system. in fact, they have to pay a lot of taxes to be in the city. it is not because the streets are where they want to be. it is not because there is a must--- mustached mayor sitting in room 200. all of the clean tech companies are coming to san francisco because they are looking for the work force -- the work force -- the workforce that will make them competitive all over the world. they are looking for the talent to help them. the talent can come from every single school that participates in these achievement improvements, and that is the future. that is current, and that is the future of our city. it is not just the