Oakland vs Berkeley public schools
I'm looking for feedback generally on Oakland vs Berkeley schools. As a result of some family configuration changes, we are considering a move to a family-owned house in Berkeley from north Oakland. We have a young toddler, so public schooling is a ways off but still a salient consideration.
I would love insight or links to resources about how to understand OUSD vs. Berkeley schools. We don't care a ton about max academics and aren't interested in test scores. Mostly looking for positive, supportive environments that provide good differentiation and a lot of stuff like art/music/languages/etc. Would prefer a diverse school (we are white, queer, overeducated, nonprofit/trades work), which it looks like both our zoned Oakland school and the Berkeley schools mostly provide. What should I know about the school systems?
In case folks have input based on the specific places we're considering, our current home in north Oakland is zoned for Emerson Elementary. If we moved, we would live in a house zoned for Central elementary schools (Cragmont, Oxford, Washington, Berkeley Arts Magnet, Malcolm X) and King middle school.
Parent Replies
I don't think public schools in the Bay Area have the bandwidth to provide much differentiation, particularly at the elementary school level. That has been my experience with OUSD.
I moved from N. Oakland to Berkeley a couple years ago, and I transferred my son into BUSD right after preschool, before we became Berkeley residents. It was during the time of the last round of school closures/mergers before this current one, and that's part of what fueled our choice. Unfortunately there is still a lot of transition happening in OUSD, and it's heartbreaking to see kids being uprooted from the schools they love. Oakland has wonderful schools that get dragged down by mismanagement at the district level. That being said, I have friends and family with kids at Emerson, and they're happy there. My son was placed at Emerson in BUSD, and he loves it. His class and the school as a whole is very diverse, he's had incredible teachers for both K and 1st, and he has art, music, and gardening classes every week. The district is also developing an Ethnic Studies program for grades TK-12, which we're really excited about. We toured a few other schools (this was pre-pandemic) and I loved Malcolm X as well, that was one of our top choices. Overall I'm happy we chose BUSD.
I'm a teacher who has worked in both OUSD and BUSD, and my own child attended an Oakland public elementary school for 6 years. If you have the option to send your child to a Berkeley public school, I would absolutely recommend you do so! Berkeley voters passed some parcel taxes to help level the playing field so that all elementary schools receive "extras" such as gardening, art, music, science, classroom libraries, etc. You won't find in this at all schools in Oakland. Some OUSD schools with active PTAs fundraise as a means to supplement the standard curriculum, and this dynamic has created real equity issues within OUSD. Berkeley is just as ethnically diverse as Oakland, but more economically gentrified. In Oakland, 73% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch while 26% of Berkeley students do. Berkeley is a much smaller district than Oakland (only 10 elementary schools), has no charter schools, and it was the first district in Alameda County to have students return in person last school year. Also unique to Berkeley is their district-funded bus program for elementary students who live more than 1.5 miles away from their school. If I could do it all over again, I would move to Berkeley and send my child to school there.