High Schools that Black Families Should Consider Based on the Latest Data

Where you send your child to school is one of the most important decisions you can make.  The new school quality data was released by the state recently, and I wanted to highlight some of the schools making progress with Oakland children, and encourage families to visit.  Every child is different, and I will break it down into subgroups (schools showing progress with Black, Brown and low income students) in the next few weeks and you can also take a look at the schoolfinder tool to find local schools.

But before I get to the public schools showing the highest graduation rates and most progress, let me give a warning.  These numbers may be imperfect. The numbers don’t reflect if more high needs students came into a school, and no number can capture a school, or the variation within it.  So please take these lists as starting points and do your homework.  I have written before about the perils of using tests exclusively to judge schools.  I include data on graduation rates, change (how much scores went up or down from year to year) and status (overall scores), which together provide a more balanced look at school quality.

Digging into the Latest Data

Different schools often produce different results with different students so I will also produce blogs looking at schools showing results for Black, Latinx, API and other subgroups. So keep tuned. The results I analyze here are for Black students.

GO produced this report, looking at how low income Black and Latinx students are doing. You can view all the middle school results here.  But let’s dig in a little on some of the schools showing results for Latinx High school students.

You can see earlier posts on on the data for all students for elementary schools here, middle schools here, and high schools.

I previously looked at some elementary schools showing results for Black students and middle schools too.

Here are the results for Latinx high school students.

You can view all the high school results here.

We’ll start with A-G completion for Oakland public schools

The Oakland public high schools with the highest A-G completion rates for African American students were Envision, Bay Tech and American Indian with 100% completion rates; followed by Madison Park (69%) and OSA (61%). Big thanks to Dana Wellhausen from the Rogers Family Foundation for help pulling this data, which is hard to find and sometimes incomplete, from DataQuest.  And note several schools had missing data and erroneously show a 0% A-G rate, I will update the data if I can get better numbers. A-G is a critical number since it determines who can apply to state colleges.

Here are the college and career numbers for 6-12 schools

6-12 Schools with the highest college/career rates for African American students were: Madison Park, followed by OMI, OSA and BayTech. 

High Schools with the highest college/career rates for Latinx students were: Lighthouse and LPS Oakland leading the way; followed by Envision, Oakland Unity, MetWest, Skyline, Oakland International, Tech, and Oakland Charter High. 

Graduation Rates

6-12 Schools with the highest graduation rates for African American students– Aspire Golden State posted a 100% graduation rate for African American students; with OSA, BayTech, Madison Park, OMI and CCPA also posting strong numbers.

High Schools with the highest graduation rates for African American students– ARISE, COVAH, LPS Oakland, MetWest, Oakland Charter High and Oakland International High all had 100% cohort graduation rates for African American students.

Here are the Math Scores for 6-12 Schools and High Schools

6-12 School African American Math Growth Schools are Below– OSA significantly improved its math scores, while Bret Harte and BayTech increased and EBIA maintained.

High School African American Math Growth Schools are Below– Fremont and Tech significantly increased; Mack and Castlemont also increased.

Here are the Latinx English Language Arts Scores for 6-12 schools and High Schools

6-12 schools that made progress in ELA scores for African American students were led by Madison Park, where students made significant progress; followed by Bret Harte and EBIA which also increased while OSA maintained its previous year’s score.

High schools that made progress in ELA scores for African American students were Fremont and Mack significantly increasing; while Castlemont also increased. All other schools measured either declined or significantly declined. 

Suspension Rate

6-12 Schools with the lowest suspension rates for African American students are Sojourner Truth Independent Study, OMI, EBIA, Madison Park and BayTech.

8 Oakland High Schools, district and charter, did not suspend any African American students: Civicorps, COVAH, Gateway to College at Laney, MetWest, Oakland International High, Oakland Unity High and Opportunity Academy.

Chronic Absence 

6-12 Schools with the lowest chronic absence rates for African American students are Sojourner Truth Independent Study, OMI, EBIA, Madison Park and BayTech.

Knowledge is power

please, take advantage of your options and the information at your disposal.  There are enrollment portals for OUSD and Enroll Oakland and the window for round1 closes in early February, so get your applications in.  Your children are counting on you to do the best by them, and that starts with making informed choices.

Let me know if I can help, and I will be doing future posting on middles and high schools, as well as subgroups.

You have the tools, now use them.

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