Lessons in success at Oakland school
Almost all head to college from McClymonds High, known for its struggles
Enasia Mc- Elvaine has a resume that rivals any other high school senior. Volleyball. High school debate team. Student director for the Oakland Board of Education.
This fall she’ll head to Xavier University in Louisiana, a historically black college far away from her rough West Oakland neighborhood. It’s an auspicious path for a teen who spent years cooking dinner and raising two younger siblings while her mother worked long hours for the IRS.
But at Oakland’s McClymonds High School, Mc- Elvaine represents the new normal. School officials say the number of college- bound seniors began ticking up several years ago, with the help of new school amenities, a $ 2.5 million private grant from Intel Corp., and an aggressive 10- year plan for every freshman. These ramped- up efforts coincide with a larger cultural movement in Oakland to get kids on the college track from birth.
The results are promising, said Colleen Piper, the school’s college and career readiness manager. Last year, more than 90 percent of McClymonds’ graduating seniors went on to two- or four- year colleges, she said. And this year’s figures were even better: 60 of the 62 graduates are college- bound, a notable amount
for a school that has struggled with attendance, high poverty and staff turnover.
“There has always been a huge effort here at McClymonds,” Piper said. “The big difference in the last three or four years is the amount of people on the ground helping.”
That extra assistance has propelled 25 seniors into community colleges and 35 into four- year universities, including University of California schools.
Mc- Elvaine, who is the first person in her family to attend college, credits what has become known as the “Mack family” — a close- knit student body and small but fiercely devoted group of teachers and administrators — for getting her this far.
“If I didn’t have McClymonds, I would totally be lost,” she said. “I wouldn’t know how to apply for ( campus) housing. I wouldn’t know what the importance of the SAT or the ACT is — stuff that kids whose parents went to college would know. I just didn’t have the luxury of that.”
Mc- Elvaine is in good company. Many of McClymonds’ graduating seniors are firstgeneration college- bound students, some with extraordinary stories. Haifa Algabri, the class salutatorian, immigrated to Oakland from Yemen at age 4. Her parents never had the opportunity to attend school at any level, but she will be attending Mills College in Oakland.
Valedictorian Neisha Moore said she had to develop an “internal drive” to overcome neighborhood violence and peer pressure — she’ll study English at the University of Southern California.
D’Shun White, who is staying close to home at Cal State East Bay, said he sometimes feels like an outlier among his peers in the city.
“Coming from Oakland, you see all your friends that were with you when you were younger, and now they’re doing bad,” White said. “Some of them gave up. Some are dead.”
Nestled in a neighborhood that for years has been rattled by gun violence, McClymonds has suffered its share of problems. Nine out of 10 of its students live in poverty, and its drop- out rate of 5.6 percent is about twice the state average, according to data from the California Department of Education. The school is on its fourth principal in four years — last year it used a co- principal model — and in 2016 concerns were raised over possible lead contamination in its water.
“Some of our students come in multiple grade levels behind in reading or math, and a lot of them are impacted by some form of trauma,” said Principal Jarod Scott. “And we want to be able to address those issues.”
District officials have treated the school as an ongoing project. In 2011, the district pulled in community organizations to help fund and operate the McClymonds Youth & Family Center, which includes a dance studio and computer lab. UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital runs an on- campus medical clinic for students and their families.
Additionally, school staff members have devised a process to get every student to apply to college. McClymonds sets aside two days in October to teach students in marathon sessions how to fill out college applications, along with a district- wide SAT preparation day. Attendance is required for both.
Longtime English teacher LuPaulette Taylor has incorporated college essays into her junior- year class curriculum.
“It’s part of their grade,” said Taylor, who graduated from McClymonds in 1966. She rejects outside perceptions that the school is struggling and says that teachers work hard to pick up where families cannot.
“We just never get the press,” Taylor said.
Algabri, the senior class salutatorian, said the camaraderie of the student body helped her succeed. Many of the students participate in after- school sports, and a large share of them are also involved in some form of social activism.
Mc- Elvaine hopes to find an equally supportive culture at Xavier University. But she’s also seeking better opportunities.
“My mother has taught me that I do not want to work in a career where I’m miserable,” she said. “She’s pushed me to make sure my grades are good, and that I put myself in a position where I can improve my life.”