A charter school in North Oakland and a district school in the hills. Two schools around Lake Merritt; one is a charter and the other a district school. Yu Ming Charter School, Hillcrest Elementary, Crocker Highlands Elementary and AIMS Elementary: these are Oakland’s four Distinguished Schools for 2023, identified by the California Department of Education as deserving of special recognition based on their performance on state indicators as specified on the California School Dashboard. (Specifically, that means “including assessment results, chronic absenteeism, suspension rates, and socioeconomic data.”)
Congratulations to the educators, students and families at these schools! It is an amazing accomplishment to be among the best schools in the state and a reason to be proud.
The academics at these schools are also light years ahead of what most Oakland students experience at their school: Oakland is also home to some of the lowest-performing schools in the state, with one in four schools making CDE’s list of California’s poorest-performing schools the last time it was released in 2019.
So what do the student populations look like at the schools that the state has deemed “best in The Town”? In a recent opinion piece for the San Francisco Chronicle, Sarah Wheeler, who identifies herself as an Oakland educator and resident (and is identified in the article as the founder of Get Schooled Oakland) calls out the “extreme segregation” of the two OUSD schools, Crocker Highlands Elementary and Hillcrest Elementary.
Wheeler notes Hillcrest and Crocker are located in wealthy neighborhoods with mostly White populations, and do not serve student populations that reflect the district, with far lower percentages of students who are Black, Latino, low-income, English Language Learners or require special education services. The educators at those schools are doing amazing work, Wheeler concedes, but the schools aren’t being lauded by the state for innovation but because of privilege. “But why should a school be applauded for its failure to reflect the city it serves?” Wheeler writes.
The Chronicle article doesn’t even mention the two other public schools in Oakland to receive the prestigious distinguished school award this year, Yu Ming Charter School and AIMS College Prep Elementary School. It has to be because they are charter schools, right? Or maybe because their student demographics don’t fit the narrative: fewer than 10 percent of students at both Yu Ming and AIMS are White, both of the charter schools serve a higher percentage of low-income students than the two district schools, and 41% of AIMS students are Black compared to 22% across OUSD schools. Yu Ming is committed to serving more low-income students and it amended its enrollment policy in an effort to further diversify its student population.
The California School Dashboard contains reports on measures of school success 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, Chronic Absenteeism, College/Career Readiness, English Learner Progress, High School Graduation Rate and Suspension Rate. You can learn more about the Dashboard here.
So what does that data from the California School Dashboard say about our award-winning schools in Oakland? It tells us that Black, Latino and low-income students have less of a chance of attending a distinguished school in Oakland than White, more affluent students. It’s hard for any student to get into Crocker or Hillcrest, with demand rates that far outpace most schools in the district (for example, both schools had a demand rate of over 170% for Kindergarten for the 2022-23 school year).
We break down the student population by subgroups so you can compare the four schools.
Here are low-income students compared across the four schools:
| School Name | Percentage of Low-Income Students at School | Percentage of Low-Income Students in OUSD |
| AIMS | 64.4% | 72% |
| Crocker Highlands | 18.3% | 72% |
| Hillcrest | 15.8% | 72% |
| Yu Ming | 23.5% | 72% |
Here are Black students compared across the four schools:
| School Name | Percentage of Black Students at School | Percentage of Black Students in OUSD |
| AIMS | 40.6% | 21.5% |
| Crocker Highlands | 8.9% | 21.5% |
| Hillcrest | 7.3% | 21.5% |
| Yu Ming | 8.2% | 21.5% |
Here are Latino students compared across the four schools:
| School Name | Percentage of Latino Students at School | Percentage of Latino Students in OUSD |
| AIMS | 9.6% | 45% |
| Crocker Highlands | 14.5% | 45% |
| Hillcrest | 7.1% | 45% |
| Yu Ming | 8.5% | 45% |
Here are English Language Learners compared across the four schools:
| School Name | Percentage of ELL Students at School | Percentage of ELL Students in OUSD |
| AIMS | 33.6% | 33% |
| Crocker Highlands | 4.3% | 33% |
| Hillcrest | 1.1% | 33% |
| Yu Ming | 14.1% | 33% |
Here are Asian students compared across the four schools:
| School Name | Percentage of Asian Students at School | Percentage of Asian Students in OUSD |
| AIMS | 41.2% | 11.2% |
| Crocker Highlands | 11.6% | 11.2% |
| Hillcrest | 15.8% | 11.2% |
| Yu Ming | 47.6% | 11.2% |
Here are White students compared across the four schools:
| School Name | Percentage of White Students at School | Percentage of White Students in OUSD |
| AIMS | 5.3% | 11.2% |
| Crocker Highlands | 41% | 11.2% |
| Hillcrest | 45.2% | 11.2% |
| Yu Ming | 9.1% | 11.2% |
Here is more data from the California School Dashboard, a school-by-school look at the distinguished school’s academics and student demographics.
How does your school compare? Find your school on the Dashboard and see how the different student populations at your school are doing. What questions come up when you compare the schools? What questions do you want to ask your school about its results?
AIMS College Prep Elementary
LOCATION
746 Grand Ave, Oakland; Grand Lake Neighborhood
ACADEMICS
| Progress Measure | Status | Data Detail |
| Chronic Absenteeism | Medium | 7.9% chronically absent |
| Suspension Rate | Very Low | 0.3% students suspended one day+ |
| English Language Arts | High | 21.9 points above standard |
| Math | High | 12.3 points above standard |
| English Learner Progress | Very High | 66.7% making progress towards English language proficiency |
STUDENT DEMOGRAPHICS
| Total Enrollment: | 643 |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 64.4% |
| English Learners | 33.6% |
| Foster Youth | 0% |
| Race/Ethnicity | Total | Percentage |
| Asian | 265 | 41.2% |
| African American | 261 | 40.6% |
| Hispanic | 62 | 9.6% |
| White | 34 | 5.3% |
| Two or more races | 12 | 1.9% |
| Filipino | 4 | 0.6% |
| Pacific Islander | 3 | 0.5% |
Crocker Highlands
LOCATION
525 Midcrest Rd, Oakland; Crocker Highlands Neighborhood
ACADEMICS
| Progress Measure | Status | Data Detail |
| Chronic Absenteeism | Medium | 9.7% chronically absent |
| Suspension Rate | Very Low | 0% students suspended one day+ |
| English Language Arts | Very High | 48.7 points above standard |
| Math | Very High | 38.2 points above standard |
| English Learner Progress | No Performance Level | 87.5% of students making progress toward English language proficiency |
STUDENT DEMOGRAPHICS
| Total Enrollment: | 415 |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 18.3% |
| English Learners | 4.3% |
| Foster Youth | 0.5% |
| Race/Ethnicity | Total | Percentage |
| White | 170 | 41% |
| Two or More Races | 74 | 17.8% |
| Hispanic | 60 | 14.5% |
| Asian | 48 | 11.6% |
| African American | 37 | 8.9% |
| Filipino | 4 | 1.1% |
Hillcrest
LOCATION: 30 Marguerite Dr, Oakland; Upper Rockridge Neighborhood; Oakland Hills
| Progress Measure | Status | Data Detail |
| Chronic Absenteeism | Medium | 8.5% chronically absent |
| Suspension Rate | Very Low | 0.5% students suspended one day+ |
| English Language Arts | Very High | 73.5 points above standard |
| Math | Very High | 58.1 points above standard |
| English Learner Progress | No Performance Level | Fewer than 11 students |
STUDENT DEMOGRAPHICS
| Total Enrollment: | 352 |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 15.8% |
| English Learners | 1.1% |
| Foster Youth | 0% |
| Race/Ethnicity | Total | Percentage |
| White | 160 | 45.2% |
| Two or More Races | 62 | 17.5% |
| Asian | 56 | 15.8% |
| African American | 26 | 7.3% |
| Hispanic | 25 | 7.1% |
| Filipino | 4 | 1.1% |
Yu Ming Charter School
LOCATION
1086 Alcatraz Ave, Oakland; Golden Gate Neighborhood; North Oakland
ACADEMICS
| Progress Measure | Status | Data Detail |
| Chronic Absenteeism | Very low | 0% chronically absent |
| Suspension Rate | Low | 0.6% students suspended one day+ |
| English Language Arts | Very High | 96.8 points above standard |
| Math | Very High | 121.9 points above standard |
| English Learner Progress | High | 55.3% of students making progress toward English language proficiency |
STUDENT DEMOGRAPHICS
| Total Enrollment: | 672 |
| Socioeconomically Disadvantaged | 23.5% |
| English Learners | 14.1% |
| Foster Youth | 0% |
| Race/Ethnicity | Total | Percentage |
| Asian | 320 | 47.6% |
| Two or More Races | 152 | 22.6% |
| White | 61 | 9.1% |
| Hispanic | 57 | 8.5% |
| African American | 55 | 8.2% |
| Filipino | 18 | 2.7% |
| American Indian | 4 | 0.6% |
| Pacific Islander | 1 | 0.1% |