THE PERIMETER PRIMATE: High school retention: Oakland's charter schools vs. OUSD schools

Sunday, August 12, 2012

High school retention: Oakland's charter schools vs. OUSD schools

Are the privately-operated charter high schools in Oakland doing a better job than Oakland Unified School District's high schools with holding onto their freshman students until the twelfth grade?

One way to explore the answer is by comparing the enrollment at the different schools using figures posted by the California Department of Education’s DataQuest. This was done for the two cohorts at charter high schools and OUSD high schools who entered Grade 9 in 2007-08 and 2008-09, and arrived at Grade 12 for the school years 2010-11 and 2011-12.*

Comparison of Grade 9>12: 2010-11

· OUSD high schools had a higher student retention rate than Oakland’s charter high schools, by 7.2% points.

· At OUSD high schools (11 schools this year), the Grade 12 enrollment was 69.1% of the enrollment when that cohort was in Grade 9 (2007-08).

· At Oakland charter high schools (11 schools this year), the Grade 12 enrollment was 61.9% of their Grade 9 enrollment (2007-08).

· The retention of students at OUSD high schools ranged from 34% to 100%.

· The retention of students at Oakland charter schools ranged from 42% to 100%.

Comparison of Grade 9>12: 2011-12

· Oakland’s charter high schools had a higher student retention rate than OUSD high schools, by 6.7% points.

· At Oakland charter high schools (13 schools this year), the Grade 12 enrollment was 68.6% of the enrollment when that cohort was in Grade 9 (2008-09).

· At OUSD high schools (12 schools this year), the Grade 12 enrollment was 61.9% of their Grade 9 enrollment (2008-09).

· The retention of students at OUSD high schools ranged from 51% to 100%.

· The retention of students at Oakland charter schools ranged from 48% to 100%.

Most notable is that the charter school results are not that all impressive, especially considering the self-selection aspect that is an unequivocal characteristic of all charter school families. The figures likely demonstrate that Oakland’s charter schools do not necessarily provide immunity against students dropping out. No surprise there.

In addition, it is likely that the high attrition seen at the charter schools known for demanding high levels of compliance -- such as American Indian Public High School and Oakland Military Institute -- are the result of lower performing and/or non-compliant students being pressured (or greatly desiring) to ~~escape~~ leave. There have been reports from other states about students with disciplinary issues being advised by charter school administrators to withdraw from the school in exchange for having their records cleaned.

Special kudos to Life Academy, a small OUSD school that is retaining its students year after year; it is definitely doing something right.

And stay tuned for more results at the end of the 2012-13 school year.

* Excluding alternative OUSD and charter high schools.

Enrollment Grade 9 > Grade 12, with percentage Charter schools in blue; OUSD schools in black	2011-12	2010-11	2009-10
American Indian Public High School	37 >21 57%	34>19 56%	52>29 56%
ARISE High School	62>33 53%	63>32 51%	n/a
Bay Area Technology School	36>18 50%	38>16 42%	n/a
Business Information & Technology High School (Castlemont)	116>64 55%	112>71 63%	153>80 52%
Coliseum College Prep Academy	60>52 60%	na	na
College Prep & Architecture Academy (Fremont)	144>80 56%	110>67 61%	129>92 71%
East Oakland Leadership Academy High	21>15 71%	n/a	n/a
East Oakland School of the Arts (Castlemont)	107>58 54%	105>51 49%	85>45 53%
Envision Academy of Arts & Technology	72>59 82%	60>38 53%	62>32 52%
Golden State College Preparatory Academy	29>15 52%	n/a	n/a
Leadership Preparatory High School (Castlemont)	126>64 51%	130>114 88%	116>92 79%
Life Academy	63>62 100%	60>64 100%	65>60 92%
Lighthouse Community Charter High School	60>29 48%	65>31 48%	48>30 63%
Lionel Wilson College Preparatory Academy	106>52 49%	90>81 90%	165>101 61%
LPS College Park	70>63 90%	110>57 52%	104>63 61%
Mandela High School (Fremont)	136>78 57%	122>74 61%	108>60 56%
McClymonds High School (EXCEL 2009-10, and prior)	111>58 52%	84>79 94%	72>54 75%
Media College Preparatory High School (Fremont)	110>61 56%	152>51 34%	120>71 59%
Oakland Charter High School	29>32 100%	30>16 53%	n/a
Oakland High School	599>389 65%**	508>387 76%	576>391 68%
Oakland Military Institute	94>51 54%	76>38 50%	86>57 66%
Oakland School for the Arts	77>74 96%	26>47 100%	58>48 83%
Oakland Technical High School	606>401 66%	597>371 62%	563>346 61%
Oakland Unity High School	53>56 100%	49>43 88%	46>51 100%
Skyline High School	709>419 59%	565>429 76%	625>426 68%

**Recalculated since original posting

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1 comment:

Kristen Caven said...: I don't know if there is any tracking done to see what the overall graduation rate is - obviously some of these kids drop out of one high school and graduate from another.; August 13, 2012 at 8:30 AM

Inform yourself about the Gulen movement!

1. WATCH the Gulen Movement 101: Session One webinar presentation (1/22/2014)
2. READ the "Expose the Gulen Movement" report.
3. LISTEN to my interview with At The Chalk Face , slide marker to 32:00 min. (5/19/2013)
4. WATCH the 60 Minutes segment "U.S. charter schools tied to powerful Turkish imam" broadcast. (5/13/2012)
5. READ my response to the 60 Minutes piece.
6. READ my guest article about Gulen charter schools published by The Washington Post. (3/27/2012)
7. WATCH my interview talking about Gulen charter schools, or my presentation at LaborFest (segment between 49:18 min. & 1:07:36 min.)
8. READ my postings labeled "Gulen movement" HERE.

As one observer tweeted, "U.S. media have focused too much on the Islamic nature of the Gulen movement. Real concern is its shady dealings and improprieties."

Please be aware that Gulenists have created a large number of anonymously-operated damage control websites. They started to appear a few months after publication of Greg Toppo's article in USA Today (August 2010).

WE CAN DO IT!

Jim Hightower on populism:

"... what populism is at its essence is just a determined focus on helping people be able to get out of the iron grip of the corporate power that is overwhelming our economy, our environment, energy, the media, government."

Jim Hightower on plutocracy:

"Plutocracy and democracy don't mix."

More Jim Hightower HERE.
Read his Lowdown newsletter HERE.

Plutocracy is rule by the wealthy, or power provided by wealth. In a plutocracy, the degree of economic inequality is high while the level of social mobility is low.

On Bill Gates' ed reform

Joel Shatzky's comment on Huffington Post:

The inferior "test-prep" agenda which bases the pedagogically fraudulent "data" standardized test scores serves as a way of diverting the concerns of working parents who hope that better test scores will lead to better job opportunities for their children. If they realized that they were being given a con job, they might consider other, more "active" forms of political and social protest than simply lobbying for more money for charter and public schools.

New wealth gap report

Research and Policy Brief from the Institute on Assets and Social Policy, Brandeis University, May 2010:

"New evidence reveals that the wealth gap between white and African-American families has more than quadrupled over the course of a generation."

You absolutely must click on this link to view the graph.

Now compare that graph to the one you'll see here.

Now read this entry.

And if you are a person who blames the schools, or believes they are responsible for fixing these problems, you can stop that type of thinking right now.

A Keeper

Posted on the Oakland Public School Parents listserv by a member:*

As a public health nurse, I am working with a generation of young parents who were drug-exposed, who are now having children who are drug-exposed, and it's a whole new ballgame. Many who were premature and will carry some deficits for life.

There are also many other families who have several generations of all kinds of abuse, not enough to eat, violence in and out of their homes, as well as chronic exposure to pollution and nutritional deficits. And there are regular people in the same neighborhoods who are just trying to live, but are poor and can't get ahead.

And there is major grief, and continuous LOSS. So many folks have lost so many folks, people around them dying, of one thing or another, every month almost. Young people (cousins, brothers, friends) dying from violent means, the elders dying too young of chronic disease and disparities in health care, among other things.

What we know about learning and development is that stressed nervous systems CANNOT learn, and that's what we have. Children with many major stressors. Abandonment, attachment disorders, fear, post traumatic stress, sadness, inability to trust or sleep. Many children. Many.

Resulting in: Lack of impulse control, lack of executive function, difficulty in expressing and controlling emotions, difficulty in sleeping, holding still, and paying attention, not to mention following directions and prioritizing tasks.

Our teachers will (perhaps already do) need more training, support, and smaller class sizes. They need major support and help with mental health issues. We really need some kind of expanded vocational track for those who can't perform even at the community college level.

We can't expect teachers to undo years and years of living. The availability of universal preschool would help. Sometimes a classroom is the first kindly, safe, structured, stimulating environment a child encounters.

Wise insights such as these are never uttered by people like Eli Broad, Joel Klein, Michelle Rhee, Arne Duncan, Joe Williams, or any others who are of this type of school reform ilk. And this is why I know for certain that they just don't "get it." Maybe they don’t want to, OR maybe they don’t care.

* Thank you, B.R.

What Children Need

From Playing to Learn by Susan Engel (New York Times, 2/1/2010):

"Our current educational approach — and the testing that is driving it — is completely at odds with what scientists understand about how children develop during the elementary school years and has led to a curriculum that is strangling children and teachers alike.

…Simply put, what children need to do in elementary school is not to cram for high school or college, but to develop ways of thinking and behaving that will lead to valuable knowledge and skills later on."

And to tag onto that, check out this video about the wood shop at one of Oakland's middle schools.

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Sunday, August 12, 2012

High school retention: Oakland's charter schools vs. OUSD schools

1 comment: