Private High Schools in Oakland
Our public high school seems to be fraying a bit along with many other public schools. As parents of an 8th grader we are looking at options for private high school. Most of the information on O'Dowd, CPS, and Head Royce Upper School are a few years old. Would people share their experiences and insights on these schools? We're particularly interested in:
- how flexible the schools are in allowing kids to take upper level classes sooner
- how they handle kids who max out their curriculum and want to go beyond
- how important sports are to the culture of the school
- what is the dominant culture of the school
thank you!!
Aug 14, 2024
Parent Replies
We have a 10th grader at O'Dowd and can answer a few of these questions...
Our child placed into Spanish 3 but they don't allow frosh to take Spanish 3, so she got stuck in Spanish 2, which was super boring for her. But then we found out that O'Dowd has a Heritage Spanish class for frosh, and she switched to that, which was a MUCH better fit. All worked out. I'm not sure what's available in other languages.
We know a few folks whose kids arrived in 9th grade quite advanced in math and were permitted to be at their level (i.e., they started off with trig/algebra 2 instead of the standard geometry/algebra 9th grade course that O'Dowd offers.) By and large, I am extremely impressed with how O'Dowd manages math placement. The kids who are ready for it are allowed to move on, but the school also does A LOT to bring every entering 9th grader up to a level that will allow them to take calculus in 12th grade should they so choose. Relative to other area high schools, this is honestly an amazing feat, and I don't understand why they don't brag about it more. (I did not understand from our tour how their math placement worked. I only learned how awesome their program is after we enrolled our child.) They also offer a lot of really cool math electives, so the options after completing trig/algebra 2 are many.
All 9th graders take the same English, Science and History classes, no choices there. But by 10th grade there are more options (our child wanted to race ahead in science and is taking two hard science classes in 10th, one of which is an honors class. And she was allowed to do so. There are also pathways to petition to get into AP classes sooner if a student wants to. My sense is that the counselors judge that kind of thing case by case, but they are not trying to hold anyone back if they're genuinely ready for more.)
I don't know how they handle kids who "max out the curriculum." (It may depend on subject area.)
Sports are a big part of school culture, and students who participate in sports get a lot of support and are expected to take their commitment to their sport quite seriously. The support they get is partly "soft" support, like positive affirmations in publications, lots of rallies to support the teams, etc. But it's also programmatic support, like physical trainers, great facilities, mental skills coaching if they want it, etc.
My daughter's impression so far is that there is not one dominant culture to the school. She says it is a big enough place that it feels like there are lots of different groups/niches and no one group is dominant.
Good luck!