Top colleges want School for the Arts grads

On Friday, when seniors of the Oakland School for the Arts march across the stage at the Fox Theater to receive their diplomas, many of them will be headed to some of the most prestigious colleges and universities around the nation.

Opened in 2002, the arts school in downtown Oakland is proving to be one of the city’s most valuable education initiatives in the past decade.

In a public school system that once endorsed street slang as an acceptable form of speech known as Ebonics, an arts school that teaches classic forms of dance, literature, theater and music is a treasure.

The school was established by then-Mayor Jerry Brown. Now governor, Brown’s other charter venture, the Oakland Military Institute, has an enrollment of more than 600 students and was ranked as among the best high schools in California by U.S. News & World Report.

But it’s the city’s performing arts school that has captured the imaginations of parents and attracted students not only from Oakland, but from all over the East Bay, said Donn Harris, the school’s executive director. About 1 in 5 students at the school comes from outside Oakland, he added.

The first senior class graduated in 2006, and all of those

graduates were accepted to colleges and universities throughout the nation. The school has 581 students enrolled in grades six through 12. After two terms as Oakland’s mayor, the arts school may prove to be Brown’s greatest legacy — and most lasting achievement as mayor.

“When you give kids a purpose, whether it’s playing the piano or blowing on their saxophone, it immediately allows them to express themselves and it helps them understand the whole experience,” Harris said. “Suddenly, U.S. history has meaning and students may push a bit harder for that trigonometry quiz in order to get to that music class or that play rehearsal.” Among this year’s graduating class of 73 students, 71 have been accepted to colleges in the fall — and the list of colleges and universities that have accepted them is impressive.

Members of the 2012 class will attend Cornell and Howard, the Berklee College of Music, Boston Conservatory, the American Musical and Dramatic Academy and all 10 campuses in the University of California system, Harris confirmed. It’s not too often that you hear those citadels of higher education mentioned in the same breath as the Oakland public school system.

For students who attend the arts school, it’s about as close to a private school experience as can be found in an Oakland public school. As an education resource and source of inspiration for students and parents, it’s worth every penny that has been spent to make it attractive and successful. With personal music coaches and an emphasis on music theory, “It’s much closer to a conservatory experience,” Harris said.

Harris said the arts school spends about $8,000 per student, or roughly 25 percent more than public schools typically receive from the state for public instruction. The school has rectified some of its financial shortcomings and is no longer as dependent on donations as it once was, he added.

“Oakland is pretty amazing, and people are now beginning to realize it,” Harris said.