Where you send your child to school is one of the most important decisions you can make. We are now in the “late” application period as the “on time” application closed on Feb. 10 for OUSD schools and closed Feb. 3 for charter schools on Oakland Enrolls. Get those applications in!
This week, we’re getting in to high schools and middle schools. But before we get to all the public middle and high schools with the highest performance in math and English Language Arts (ELA) for African American and Latinx students, here is 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. Dirk wrote about the perils of using tests exclusively to judge schools.
We want to highlight some of the schools making progress with Oakland children, and encourage families to visit. Every child is different, and we will break it down by student groups (schools showing progress with Black, Latinx and English Language Learner students) and highlight schools that have open seats for next school year (we publish this weekly). You can also take a look at the Oakland Enrolls and OUSD school finder tools to find local schools.
There was only one middle or high school in Oakland that showed a high performance in ELA and math for African American students: Yu Ming Charter. For Latinx students, the high-performing high schools or middle schools are Claremont Middle; Hillcrest; Oakland School for the Arts; Oakland Unity High; Yu Ming Charter. For ELL high school or middle school students, the highest-performing schools are Downtown Charter Academy and Yu Ming Charter.
Digging into the Data
The data source we’re using for this is the California State Dashboard, which includes information from both district and charter schools. The California School Dashboard contains reports on measures of school progress for every school in the state. A school receives one of five status levels (from very low to very high) across six state measures used to compare schools across the state: Academic Performance (ELA and math), Chronic Absenteeism, College/Career Readiness, English Learner Progress, High School Graduation Rate and Suspension Rate. You can learn more about the Dashboard here. The results analyzed here are for high school and middle school African American, Latinx and English Language Learner students.
2022 CA School Dashboard English Language Arts Performance: English Language Learner Middle and High School Students
| School Name | School Type | Student Group | Status Level |
| Downtown Charter Academy | Charter | ELL | Medium |
2022 CA School Dashboard Math Performance: English Language Learner Middle and High School Students
| School Name | School Type | Student Group | Status Level |
| Downtown Charter Academy | Charter | ELL | Medium |
| Yu Ming Charter | Charter | ELL | Very High |
2022 CA School Dashboard ELA Performance: Latinx Middle and High School Students
| School Name | School Type | Student Group | Status Level |
| Claremont Middle | District | Latinx | High |
| Hillcrest | District | Latinx | High |
| Oakland School for the Arts | Charter | Latinx | Medium |
| Oakland Unity High | Charter | Latinx | Medium |
2022 CA School Dashboard Math Performance: Latinx Middle and High School Students
| School Name | School Type | Student Group | Status Level |
| Hillcrest | District | Latinx | Very High |
| Yu Ming Charter | Charter | Latinx | Very High |
2022 CA School Dashboard ELA Performance: African American Middle and High School Students
| School Name | School Type | Student Group | Status Level |
| Yu Ming Charter | Charter | African American | High |
2022 CA School Dashboard Math Performance: African American Middle and High School Students
| School Name | School Type | Student Group | Status Level |
| Yu Ming Charter | Charter | African American | Very High |
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 Round 2 window, so get your applications in. Your children are counting on you to do the best by them, and that starts with making informed choices.
You have the tools, now use them.