Oakland's middle school "brain drain"

Katy Murphy:

The Chronicle had an interesting story in yesterday's paper (print-only until Tuesday) about the brain drain in the Oakland school district after the fifth grade.

According to this analysis by the Oakland school district, 28 percent of all fifth-graders -- and 40 percent of those who scored "advanced" on this year's reading test -- dispersed to non-OUSD middle schools this year.

At Lincoln Elementary School in Chinatown, the city's first public, non-charter school to win a National Blue Ribbon Award from the U.S. Department of Education, a staggering 77 percent of last year's fifth-graders left the district, up from 57 percent a few years ago.

Superintendent Tony Smith told Chronicle reporter Jill Tucker, whose son goes to Peralta Elementary in Rockridge (a school with the fifth-highest "leaving rate" in OUSD - 44 percent), that the loss of top students was one explanation for the drop-off in district test scores at the middle and high school level.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at December 14, 2010 5:32 AM
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