By Zoneil Maharaj, Photos by Angelica Flores and Steve Wake
Jul 16, 2007 - 9:20 PM
East Oakland Community High School students march for their education and lose, but only come out stronger
Holding the American flag, school board member Noel Gallo (far right) marches with students from East Oakland Community High School for eight miles on February 28, 2007. (Photo by Angelica Flores)
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In 2003, the Oakland Unified School District went bankrupt because of the administration’s monetary mistakes. This resulted in a state takeover and an issuing of an emergency loan through Senate Bill 39. All power was turned over to State Superintendent Jack O’Connell who appointed Randolph Ward to govern the school district; Ward was replaced by Dr. Kimberly Statham in August of 2006. Under this new administration, the power of the community-elected school board representatives was eliminated, turning them into an advisory board.
Because of overcrowding, failing test scores and a low graduation rate, the school district dismantled large campuses into small schools under the state’s reign of reforms. East Oakland Community High School was born from the belief that smaller classrooms would engage students and raise test scores.
The school opened its doors in 2004. Located at 3550 64th Ave, it welcomed an incoming ninth grade class of 100. The following year, it relocated to 8251 Fontaine St., joining Youth Empowerment School, another small high school, at the former King Estate Middle School campus. Each morning, students from the East Oakland flatlands make the commute to attend classes at both schools.
In October 2006, the microscope was placed on East Oakland Community High. Students, faculty and parents claim there are political motivations behind the shut down. School district officials point to hard numbers.
The school went up for review due to its dramatic drop in its Academic Performance Index (API) during the 2005-2006 school year—the largest drop in the district, according to Wendy Gudalewicz, executive officer of the school district’s high school network.
The API, which summarizes both the California High School Exit Exam and California Standardized Testing and Reporting scores, serves as a school’s report card. The school went from 545 in its first year to 473 last year. The statewide goal is 800. The California average is currently at 720. The district average, 653.
In the 2005-2006 year, East Oakland Community High dropped to the worst ranked school with only four percent at proficient and advanced levels in English and language arts, along with 99 percent of its students below basic levels in math.
Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, schools are given five years, along with additional resources and grant money, to show a significant improvement before a shut down is issued.
“What we have is one year of bad test data,” says school co-founder Wayne Yang, who also teaches trigonometry and sociology. “If you want to think of it in terms of warfare, this is kind of like a preemptive strike.”
Gudalewicz looks at it as a proactive intervention.
“The worst thing you can do is wait till a school falls off completely,” Gudalewicz says in a phone interview in November.
Along with low test scores, board member Alice Spearman, who represents district seven where the school resides, argues that the school is setting its students up for failure because it lacks proper “A through G” courses. “A through G” courses are a 15-unit set of courses that students must take to be eligible for enrollment in the UC and CSU college systems.
“I’m honeslty telling you, the district is going to have a problem with some of the 11th graders because they’re not going to have the required classes to graduate,” Spearman says. “It’s sad because a lot of the instructors at EOC don’t know it.”
The faculty counters, claiming their students are well prepared for college. Wayne Yang and Jeffrey Duncan-Andrade, an ethnic studies professor at San Francisco State University, co-teach an advanced placement sociology course. Once of a month, the 31 students in the class take public transportation in order to learn how to access college and learn in a college environment.
Though faculty members agree the school needs improvement, they feel that threatening the school with a closure is the wrong way to go about it.
“This issue that we’re facing right now is that it’s too soon to celebrate the school, and it’s too soon to condemn the school,” Yang says. “This kind of accountability testing has not produced results. It does not promote higher achievement. All it does is attack schools.”
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Smoke and Mirrors
Ever since the district began threatening to close East Oakland Community High, it’s more ardent supporters have clung to a roller coaster of testy hearings and dueling statistics.
During the December 5, 2006 district meeting held at the school, 150 parents, students and faculty members fill the cafeteria. Surrounding them are colorful murals, one with the words “Educational Uprise” painted on it.
Village United, a community organization founded by parents of students and faculty at the school, presents their plan to improve the low levels of success and address the district’s concerns, hoping it may deter them from issuing a closure. They will revise this plan and present it yet again at a district meeting the following month. They remain skeptical.
“The way the district has acted in the past is that, even when they have these meetings, it’s just smoke and mirrors. It’s just part of the show before they shut you down. And that’s what we’re not really clear about yet,” Yang says afterwards. “Is this part of the show, or is this really about examining the school and how it can improve?”
The district presents data highlighting the low test scores. School supporters ask district official Wendy Gudalewicz to consider various factors before making their decision: the school is still new, moved to a new location involuntarily and had a high teacher turnover rate in the subjects with low test scores.
Jeffrey Duncan-Andrade, an SF State ethnic studies professor and teacher at East Oakland Community High, is taken back by the district’s business-like numbers presented at the meeting.
“All this achievement data is a façade,” Duncan-Andrade says. “What they care about is money.”
Each student has dollars on his/her head. According to school board member Christopher Dobbins, this price tag is anywhere between $5,000 and $7,000 per student per year. This is known as the Average Daily Attendance. The school ground also has a price tag attached to it. The larger it is, the heftier the cost.
The school has a student enrollment of 192, which didn’t meet its projected enrollment of 256, causing problems with budget allocation. The combined dollars the district receives for the students isn’t enough to cover the cost of keeping the campus open.
“If they shut us down because of low achievement, they’d have to shut down 80 percent of the schools in the district,” Duncan-Andrade says. “Come back in a year or two and follow-up with these students. I guarantee won’t a thing change in their achievement.”
Aside from the internal pressures of the district, the school is faced with another attack. Members from the community surrounding the school have filed a petition and collected 600 signatures to kick both East Oakland Community High and Youth Empowerment School out of the neighborhood and reinstate a middle school due to an increase in daytime burglaries.
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