Students Affected By School Closures
OUSD is committed to providing a high quality education to all of our students. When any school is closed, it is important to follow the affected students to ensure that they receive the additional supports they need to thrive. This page was created to provide information on past school closures and data on students affected by recent school closures. Affected students are defined as those who could have continued in the closed school had it remained open. For example, students in grades K-4 in a traditional elementary school, students in grades 6-7 in a traditional middle school, or students in grades 9-11 in a traditional high school.
What schools were closed?
2012: Lakeview Elementary, Marshall Elementary, Maxwell Park Elementary, and Santa Fe Elementary Schools
2019: Roots Middle School
2019: Roots Middle School
What happens to the students?
For the 2012 closures, students from each closing school were hand assigned to a new school that had better student outcomes than their closed school (based on API). The percentage of students who re-enrolled in OUSD district-run programs (as of fall census day) were 78.9% for Lakeview, 86% for Marshall, 91.3% for Maxwell Park, and 79.5% for Santa Fe. The overall next-year return rate for students across these closed schools was 83.7%.
In 2019, the OUSD school board adopted a policy called the opportunity ticket which was designed to set aside a percentage of seats at OUSD schools to give students affected by school closures first pick of seats across district schools. For the 2019 closure of Roots, the policy was implemented as a pre-lottery priority due to the timing of policy adoption and the vote to close the school. In 2020 this policy will be integrated into the lottery itself as a priority above sibling and neighborhood. Read the policy here.
In 2019, the OUSD school board adopted a policy called the opportunity ticket which was designed to set aside a percentage of seats at OUSD schools to give students affected by school closures first pick of seats across district schools. For the 2019 closure of Roots, the policy was implemented as a pre-lottery priority due to the timing of policy adoption and the vote to close the school. In 2020 this policy will be integrated into the lottery itself as a priority above sibling and neighborhood. Read the policy here.
The opportunity ticket in actionOf the 160 Roots students in grades 6 and 7 at the time of the closure vote, 134 (83.8%) participated in re-enrollment for 2019-20. Ninety of these students (67.2%) were offered their 1st choice (Rank = 1) school. Of the 44 who were not offered their 1st choice, 41 (93.2%) were offered their 2nd choice. All 3 students who were not offered seats in their 1st or 2nd choice school were offered their 3rd choice school.
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How are these students doing since the closures?
There are a variety of different measures we can use to track student outcomes. The measures highlighted here are those which are typically considered to be essential to student success, including attendance, reading level, and standardized test performance. Note that we only have the ability to monitor the outcomes of those students who re-enrolled in OUSD schools and not those who moved out of Oakland or left the district to attend other public or private school options, so comparisons are based upon those students who remained in district-run schools and thus had data available in both the year before and after each closure.
2012 Closures
Attendance
The attendance rates for the 532 students who returned to OUSD schools following the 2012 closures did not significantly change from the year prior to the year after the closures: 94.03% vs. 94.31% in 2011-12 vs. 2012-13, respectively; t(531)=1.3, p > .05. The majority (389 or 73.1%) of returning students were not chronically absent (missing 10% or more days of school) in either year. Fifty of 101 students who were chronically absent in the year prior to closures improved their attendance out of the chronic absent category in the year following closures. Forty two students, however, who were not chronically absent in 2011-12 became chronically absent in 2012-13.
The attendance rates for the 532 students who returned to OUSD schools following the 2012 closures did not significantly change from the year prior to the year after the closures: 94.03% vs. 94.31% in 2011-12 vs. 2012-13, respectively; t(531)=1.3, p > .05. The majority (389 or 73.1%) of returning students were not chronically absent (missing 10% or more days of school) in either year. Fifty of 101 students who were chronically absent in the year prior to closures improved their attendance out of the chronic absent category in the year following closures. Forty two students, however, who were not chronically absent in 2011-12 became chronically absent in 2012-13.
Reading
Of returning students, only 221 completed the district reading assessment, the Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI), in 2012-13.
Of returning students, only 221 completed the district reading assessment, the Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI), in 2012-13.
2019 Closure
Students affected by the closure of Roots Middle School will be monitored to ensure these students receive any additional supports necessary to be successful.