Alameda AUSD School Comparison
Hello! Hoping to move to Alameda soon and I'm wondering if anyone has insight into the comparison between the schools on the central part of the island (Love Elementary, Wood Middle) as compared to the east end (Edison/Frank Otis Elementary, Lincoln Middle)?
I know AUSD is known to be a pretty solid school district, but I'm wondering how the schools differ in environment, admin, and academics. I checked already here on Berkeley Parents Network and there is not a lot of recent discussion. So far my best source of information has been from School Digger which shows some income and testing disparity. Still, it's hard to tell what tangible impact that has on the overall education and experience of the children.
Any thoughts would be really appreciated!
Parent Replies
When you dig through the SARC data it basically boils down to ELD, socioeconomic status & diversity (and resulting test scores). Generally Edison/Otis is zoned for more single family homes and as such has a higher income threshold, lower likelihood of ELD learners, and based on the AUSD statistics a lower diversity student population. They are not as diverse as Love which is a Title 1 school & receives additional funding to support lower income student populations. The reality of east/central/west is deeply rooted in classicism & more, district utilizes the same curriculum across sites, teachers can move around etc. In my experience with AUSD no kid has been under-educated because they learn in a diverse environment.
For size, Otis has the largest student population and despite ranking well can feel overwhelming for some kids/families - disruption also coming soon with the construction. Love has strong and consistent leadership, and I think you're overlooking Maya Lin which has more regular access to arts/music and does two year looping (unless you're only looking at schools that feed into Alameda High vs Encinal).
Edison is considered to be the most popular school, followed by Otis, followed by other schools. Edison is a school with very experienced teachers and we have been very happy with the education and the environment.