For Immediate Release: July 12, 2000

San Francisco, CA – As the state prepares to release the latest achievement tests, Failing Grade: Crisis and Reform in the Oakland Unified School District, a new study by the Pacific Research Institute, confirms that the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) ranks among the worst academic performers in California.

"Oakland students have the lowest scores in the state," said authors Gwynne Coburn and Pamela Riley. "As the new STAR scores are set to be released, educators and legislators should consider the continuing breakdown and take action to prevent the district from destroying the opportunities for Oakland's children."

Failing Grade rejects insufficient funding or demographics as explanations of failure. Instead the authors blame the district’s bloated bureaucracy, union rigidity, fiscal mismanagement, weak curricula, low standards, and low expectations.

"Oakland has managed to translate above-average spending into below-average results," the authors said. "Demographically, Oakland is similar to San Francisco, San Bernardino, and Fresno. Yet none of those districts has experienced failure on the magnitude of Oakland’s."

According to Failing Grade, some of Oakland Unified’s worst failures include:

á Across all grade levels, OUSD students scored significantly lower than students in both the state and Alameda county on the 1999 California Standard Achievement Test-Version 9 (SAT-9).

á In the initial year of Academic Performance Index (API) rankings, 42 of the district's 57 elementary schools receiving an API ranking scored a five or below, and no Oakland public high school reached the targeted performance goal of 800.

á Over four years, 21.8 percent of Oakland high school students will drop out of school, compared with 11.7 percent of students throughout California.

á Two-thirds of Oakland graduates did not meet the necessary requirements for eligibility into the California State or University of California systems.

á Only 11 percent of OUSD high school seniors taking the SAT scored above 1000.

á More than one-third of OUSD students are designated as limited-English-proficient, yet only one percent of those students are reclassified English proficient.

á Nationwide, Oakland has the second-highest percentage of parents dissatisfied with the public education system.

Coburn and Riley applaud Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown’s efforts to implement change, including his fight for charter schools. However, they argue that the true key to reform is a publicly-funded scholarship program that would allow Oakland students to attend the school of their choice, such as the successful public scholarship program in Milwaukee.

"Without competition in the form of publicly-funded scholarships, it is impossible to guarantee parents, especially low-income and minority parents, the freedom to shed the shackles of a failing school," explain Coburn and Riley. "With 2,142 Oakland families on the waiting list for local privately-funded scholarships, demand for choice outstrips supply. We need to meet the needs of these families."

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For interviews, contact Dawn Dingwell at 415/989-0833 x136. For a copy of Failing Grade: Crisis and Reform in the Oakland Unified School District visit PRI's web site at www.pacificresearch.org