Test Scores for Oakland Public Schools

January 2003

School scores do not necessarily have to do with the quality of teaching. For Oakland schools specifically, the two major factors bringing scores down artificially are:

1. 40+% of kindergarteners (per OUSD statistics) do not speak any English at the time they start school. These children are not spread evenly among the district but are concentrated in certain schools instead. That gives other schools' kids a chance to score artificially higher on the tests.

2. OUSD mandated Open Court program which does not cater at all to the needs of already-reading-when-starting- kindergarten children, in some hills schools. Parents in these schools are very involved in their children education, and many opted out of letting their children be tested, in their attempt to send their protest message to Mr. Chaconas. Thus, performance of the would-be-top-scoring testers does not get counted in the overall school score.

These two factors are the major factors messing up Oakland scores. They may or may not be applicable to other school districts, though. Maria