On April 2, the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University and Oakland Community Organizations (OCO) released a new report that credits OCO with being the catalyst for launching the city's successful small school reform effort and for creating the political will to sustain this reform for nearly a decade.

The report -- entitled "Building a Districtwide Small Schools Movement: Oakland Community Organizations" -- documents how parents, teachers and concerned community members from OCO launched a campaign to improve the overcrowded, unsafe, and underperforming schools in the city's flatlands that, 10 years later, has resulted in the creation of 48 small schools, serving primarily low-income students of color.

Based on a six-year study conducted with support from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the report finds that:

• Academic achievement was consistently higher at small schools than large schools at the elementary, middle and high school levels, according to the California Academic Performance Index. (p. 26-27)
• Small schools have been effective at increasing graduation rates. For example, at Life Academy, the graduation rate for the class of 2005 was 59.5 percent, and for the class of 2006 the rate was 74.6 percent. In comparison, at Fremont High School, the large school from which Life Academy was created, the graduation rate for the class of 2002 was 30.9 percent, and for the class of 2003 the rate was 34.4 percent. (p. 28)
• The Annenberg study also documents improvements in school climate, school safety, stronger parent-teacher relationships, and greater equity between the higher and lower-income neighborhoods of Oakland.
• Parent-led community organizing was the key to sustaining school reform through an $80 million deficit; a state takeover of the school district; and five changes in superintendent or state administrator leadership. (p. 8-9)

The report -- which is part of a larger, national study on the impact of community organizing on school reform that Annenberg will release in May 2009 -- comes as President Obama focuses greater attention on improving student achievement and increasing graduation rates and includes $5 billion for innovation in the stimulus package.  It concludes with highlights of the key aspects of the Oakland model that could help school reform efforts nationwide (p. 28-30).

For more information about the report and OCO's Small Schools Movement, as well as watch a video of the event where they released the report, visit www.piconetwork.org/ocosmallschools.

Media Coverage

Oakland's small schools movement, 10 years later, May 6, 2009, Oakland Tribune