Advice from families living in low GreatSchools.org rated school zones

When my daughter started kindergarten several years ago, our El Cerrito schools were ranked low, at around 2-3. In an effort to keep my life financially and geographically sane, I signed her up for our neighborhood school anyway and decided I would supplement outside of school as necessary. However, the academics, arts, social aspects, everything, were completely fine, despite the low ranking. It turned out that the school had many disabled and low income students who didn't test as well, but the curriculum at all public school is about the same. When my daughter got to middle school, the kids coming from a feeder school that ranked at 10 did much better and had much more academic confidence for the first semester, but after that everyone pretty much evened out. By high school you can't even tell which elementary school a student came from, everyone has acquired the basic skills and success is all about hard work and focus.

Figuring out education in Oakland is complicated.  Roughly 55% of kids go to public schools, 15% go to charter schools and 30% go to private schools or homeschool.  The public school programs are not identical in each school.  This allows schools to offer specialized programs, but it makes the decisions harder.  Low income and ELL students sometimes score lower on tests than more affluent students, so the test scores do not necessarily reflect the quality of teaching at any given school.  GreatSchools.org is starting to show a rating score for low income students, and if there is a big gap between the overall score and the low income score, then I personally doubt that the quality of teaching is that good and the parents are doing more to lift affluent students scores than the teachers are.  There are a few public and charter schools that achieve high scores among all types of students, and the teaching quality is probably better at these schools.  

Oakland's enrollment process is also unique--the Options process allows families to choose any school in OUSD and rank their options from 1-6.  There is intense competition for the most popular schools, so the top choice isn't guaranteed.  Yes, some schools have gentrified over the last few years (Peralta, Crocker Highlands), but there is no guarantee that a school will gentrify even if home prices are soaring.  Strong rent control laws and Prop 13 allow many longtime less affluent residents to stay where they are even if prices for newer arrivals are outrageously high.  Currently, families live near schools that they like or use the Options process to try to get in a school that they like.  If you choose a house that is zoned for a school that you don't want to attend, the enrollment process is very stressful.  After elementary school, many families move away because of the lack of good quality public middle schools in Oakland. 

The school board is also considering changing the enrollment process next year to socio-economically integrate all the schools in Oakland.  If that happens, it is not clear how families will react nor what effect that would have on the schools.

It's hard to recommend Oakland to families with young kids at this point in time.  The school situation is not very predictable right now, and it would be hard to ride out the California housing price fluctuations if you aren't happy with the school choices.  

For more information, visit Gopublicschools.com or the OUSD website.

Those schools really are pretty bad. 
I was a student teacher there. The problem is one of funding, and I haven't seen gentrification in other parts of Oakland having any effect on struggling schools. Many of those parents who are paying a lot for housing are opting for charters or private schools. 

Maybe I am inferring here, but are you hoping that schools become more gentrified?

Great schools heavily relies on standardized tests as an important factor of whether a school is good or not.  In Oakland, there are MANY great elementary schools, but because test scores don't reflect their greatness, they are labeled as poor. Oakland's diversity is an asset that standardized tests do not value. My daughter's school for example is rated 2/10 on GS but I think it is incredible and am so thankful she goes there. What is important in a school for your family? Once you identify that, then visit the schools in areas you are interested in, talk to the principal, parents, and teachers to see if the environment aligns to your values. 

We moved to El Cerrito in January with our two-yr-old. The schools here are rated pretty good, not great, but housing prices are rising so quickly here that I think the schools are going to keep improving due to the inevitable correlation between income/education and school quality. In any case I think you'll be able to count on a critical mass of parents who are focused on academics and will support the schools in various ways. We just moved from a school district with great ratings (9-10s) but the focus there was entirely on test-taking rather than intellectual growth, or even college preparedness. The ratings don't mean everything.

If the public school zoned for your neighborhood is not good, families put their kids in private schools. Personally, I chose to pay more for housing zoned in a good school district. It costs more upfront but we also get something out of it (a house, nice community, and good schools). We really love our neighborhood. We live in Albany and it's very family friendly. We feel safe walking around and going to the playground. It's also easy to get into SF.

Private schools are $8k-$30k/year. If you want a nicer house and larger property for less than you may have more options in the East Bay esp if you are willing to put your kid in private school. I think a lot of people look for an area that are at least zoned in a good elementary area like Kensington while planning to eventually move. A coworker of mine lives up in the Kensington hills and her husband petitioned for their daughter to go to Berkeley High School because he worked in Berkeley. The daughter ended up going to Berkeley.

Lots of choices! Good luck!