Big move to keep Oakland students
New public school strives to prevent families’ flight
For the first time in more than a decade, Oakland Unified is opening a new public school in a bid to keep families from fleeing the district to attend charters they see as innovative or private schools they view as superior.
The Oakland School of Language, or Oakland SOL, will be the district’s first dual-immersion middle school when it opens its doors to nearly 75 sixth-grade students Monday, offering academic subjects in Spanish and English. The school will phase in seventh and eighth grades over the next two years.
The students who enrolled live all over Oakland, and many came from elementary school dual-immersion programs, said Principal Katherine Carter. Without Oakland School of Language, she said, they essentially had nowhere to go in the district if they wanted to continue with this kind of Spanish-language program, except a K-8 immersion school that offered few spaces for middle school students.
“We knew there was a really big demand there,” she said.
At the same time, Oakland didn’t need a new
school. Officials acknowledge the district already has too many schools — about twice as many as districts with similar enrollment. And operating so many schools has contributed to the district’s fiscal crisis, with administrators warning earlier this year of a $30 million budget shortfall.
“I know it looks a little funny right now,” said Sara Stone, district network superintendent. With only 75 students and startup costs, she added, Oakland School of Language is “definitely expensive.”
But by opening the school, which is located a few blocks east of the Oakland Coliseum, the district is fighting to keep students by offering a program that parents want, Stone said. In the last decade, families in the city have increasingly spurned the district, opting for private schools, charter schools or schools in nearby cities.
Such moves commonly come after elementary school. Roughly 1 in 4 district students leave after finishing fifth grade, their families concerned about safety, academic rigor and a lack of desirable electives like foreign language in middle school.
“If we can provide programs that help them to make the choice to stay in our district, I actually do think that’s fiscally responsible,” Carter said. “But it also shows the district cares about creating quality experiences for our kids and our families.”
Parent Che Abram feared she would be among those abandoning Oakland schools when her son, Naasir, hit middle school. After sending him to the Spanish dual-immersion program at Manzanita SEED, a district K-5 school, Abram wanted her son to continue learning in both Spanish and English.
“I knew in second grade, we only had one charter option, one public option (which had few spaces) and one private option,” she said. “I was like, what are we going to do?”
Abram was among the parents who worked to open the new middle school. Naasir, 11, will be in the inaugural class Monday, excited to be in a school he helped create — though he wished for a longer summer, he said.
“I’m looking forward to Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas break and spring break,” he said.
At Oakland School of Language, daily Spanish and weekly art classes will be taught only in Spanish. The other academic subjects, including history, English, science and math, will incorporate Spanish into the English instruction.
While many dual-immersion schools require students in upper grades to have secondlanguage skills, Oakland School of Language welcomes Spanishlanguage newcomers, Carter said. Teachers will personalize instruction to accommodate all levels, she said.
Judith Mendez was another parent involved in the early planning of the new school. Her sons attend International Community School, a district dualimmersion program, and she was determined that they be bilingual and biliterate.
“Their first language is Spanish, and I don’t want them to lose the ability to speak and read and write in Spanish,” she said. “That prepares them to have a better future, have better jobs and have a better income, to have access to those things not because they can speak Spanish and English, but also read and write.”
Her 9-year-old son, Erick, is entering fourth grade this year, but he was among the students to urge skeptical and moneyconscious Oakland school leaders to open a dual-immersion middle school.
“This is my first time being on a team that makes a school,” he said. “It’s fabulous.”
District officials said some of the families attending Oakland School of Language were previously at charters and private schools. When Oakland Unified offered what they wanted, they came back.
“This was really rooted in parent demand,” said Gloria Lee, president and chief executive of Educate78, a nonprofit group that supports new public school options for Oakland families and helped fund the planning of Oakland SOL. “I hope it is the first and not the only example of a way the district can continue to evolve and create new innovative programs that serve the really diverse families in Oakland more effectively.”