Each year, Innovate Public Schools celebrates the Bay Area public schools achieving excellent results for low-income Latino and low-income African American students.
Our annual Top Schools report examines 2016-17 results in both English and math to identify schools where students from these groups have higher proficiency rates than all students combined in the state – effectively closing the achievement gap. Since our first report in 2014, few Bay Area schools have achieved this. Right now, only 1 in 20 low-income Latino and African American students in the Bay Area attend a school achieving these results. In the Bay Area, the odds are low that these students will get to attend a school that truly changes the trajectory of their life. That must change. Our list highlights the schools that are leading the way.
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NextFor decades, achievement gaps between low-income Latino and African American students and other students have remained large. Poverty alone does not cause these gaps. Historically, systemically racist policies have made it harder for low-income Latino and African American students to get ahead. These students attend schools with lower expectations, fewer resources and less effective teachers. They are given less rigorous content and are more likely to be over-disciplined.1
These school-based inequities are reinforced by inequities outside of education. Decades of housing discrimination, unequal access to healthcare, and a generational wealth gap push these communities further and further behind.2
Unfortunately, in the Bay Area, public schools have not been the equalizing force they should be.
1Yes We Can: Telling Truths and Dispelling Myths About Race and Education in America. Washington, DC: The Education Trust, 2006. Accessed April 2, 2018. https://1k9gl1yevnfp2lpq1dhrqe17-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/YesWeCan.pdf
2 Janie Boschma and Ronald Brownstein, “The Concentration of Poverty in American Schools,” The Atlantic, February 29, ,2016, https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/02/concentration-poverty-american-schools/471414/ ; “Mind the (achievement) gap,” LA Times, November 26, 2007, http://www.latimes.com/la-op-dustup26nov26-story.html
Percentage of Bay Area students meeting standards in 2016-17
Name of school | % proficient for subgroup | Change from last year | District/Authorizer | Charter | Charter school network | Subgroup % in school | In 2015-16 Report | In 2014-15 Report |
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Name of school | % proficient for subgroup | Change from last year | District/Authorizer | Charter | Charter school network | Subgroup % in school | In 2015-16 Report | In 2014-15 Report |
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Name of school | % proficient for subgroup | Change from last year | District/Authorizer | Charter | Charter school network | Subgroup % in school | In 2015-16 Report | In 2014-15 Report |
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Name of school | % proficient for subgroup | Change from last year | District/Authorizer | Charter | Charter school network | Subgroup % in school | In 2015-16 Report | In 2014-15 Report |
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Name of school | % proficient for subgroup | Change from last year | District/Authorizer | Charter | Charter school network | Subgroup % in school | In 2015-16 Report | In 2014-15 Report |
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Name of school | % proficient for subgroup | Change from last year | District/Authorizer | Charter | Charter school network | Subgroup % in school | In 2015-16 Report | In 2014-15 Report |
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Name of school | % proficient for subgroup | Change from last year | District/Authorizer | Charter | Charter school network | Subgroup % in school | In 2015-16 Report | In 2014-15 Report |
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Name of school | % proficient for subgroup | Change from last year | District/Authorizer | Charter | Charter school network | Subgroup % in school | In 2015-16 Report | In 2014-15 Report |
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Name of school | % proficient for subgroup | Change from last year | District/Authorizer | Charter | Charter school network | Subgroup % in school | In 2015-16 Report | In 2014-15 Report |
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Name of school | % proficient for subgroup | Change from last year | District/Authorizer | Charter | Charter school network | Subgroup % in school | In 2015-16 Report | In 2014-15 Report |
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Name of school | % proficient for subgroup | Change from last year | District/Authorizer | Charter | Charter school network | Subgroup % in school | In 2015-16 Report | In 2014-15 Report |
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Name of school | % proficient for subgroup | Change from last year | District/Authorizer | Charter | Charter school network | Subgroup % in school | In 2015-16 Report | In 2014-15 Report |
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There isn’t one single program or model that leads to the remarkable results these schools have accomplished. Innovate Public Schools has studied high-performing schools across the country and found that they are as diverse as the communities they serve. However, we found that many of them do share certain core school-wide practices and beliefs that distinguish them from other schools in the Bay Area.
Our World-class Schools Framework outlines these practices. Below we highlight four schools from this year’s Top Schools list that show what these practices look like in action:
Each year, we aim to describe educational opportunity in the Bay Area in the most accurate and up-to-date way possible. We have made several improvements to our methodology.
NextWe lowered the enrollment threshold: Given the displacement of low-income families from the Bay Area and declining enrollment numbers for African Americans in particular, changing our enrollment criteria allowed us to consider more schools for this year’s list, while still maintaining a high bar for performance. Just ten years ago, the median number of African American students enrolled in Bay Area schools was 23. This year, this number dipped down to just 13. Since we can only reliably report data for schools with over 20 students tested in a particular group (like “low-income African American”), over 80% of schools were excluded. As enrollment numbers continue to decline, fewer and fewer schools are even considered for the Top Schools list for African Americans.
We used both the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) data and the California School Dashboard accountability system: This year, the California Department of Education released the California School Dashboard accountability system (“Dashboard”), a new online tool that replaces the Academic Performance Index (API) for how the state of California evaluates all public schools. We used this newly-available data to include other measures of school quality beyond just proficiency rates on state tests and ensure that the Top Schools are more holistically impacting student learning. That criteria is explained below:
that did not overly rely on harsh discipline policies in order to achieve their results. While the Dashboard provides new and useful data on school performance, it does not allow us to analyze data for the subgroups our report focuses on low-income African American and low-income Latino students (the Dashboard does show data for African American and Latino students but not for low-income African American and low-income Latino students). These two subgroups have been historically left behind and are still the lowest-performing subgroups in almost every school and district in California and across the country. We believe it is important to truly focus our attention on these severely underserved subgroups and show that it is possible for schools to support low-income Black and Latino students to achieve at a high level. This is why, ultimately, we decided not to use the Dashboard as our only measure in our methodology.
3“State Schools Chief Tom Torlakson Announces Fifth Year in a Row of Declining Student Suspensions and Expulsions,” California Department of Education, November 1, 2017, https://www.cde.ca.gov/nr/ne/yr17/yr17rel80.asp ; “Civil Rights Data Collection. Data Snapshot: School Discipline,” US Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, March, 2014, https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/crdc-discipline-snapshot.pdf
4 Libby Nelson and Dara Lind, “The school to prison pipeline, explained,” Justice Policy Institute, February 24, 2015, http://www.justicepolicy.org/news/8775
Schools had to successfully close the achievement gap for underserved students: The school’s proficiency rates in English and/or math for these two student groups had to be at or above the statewide proficiency rate for all students in English and/or math in a given school type (elementary, middle, or high).
Schools with selective admission criteria excluded in the pool of eligible schools: Schools that are selective in choosing which students to admit were not eligible for inclusion in this report. Public schools should be expected to serve all children, especially the schools we lift up as examples of what’s possible in public education.
Schools had to test at least 95% of their students to be considered: This is key to ensuring their data paints a true picture of their performance and how well they’re serving all of their students. Schools with low participation rates on tests can have over-inflated scores, for example, if students who are absent often and have lost
With its enormous wealth, resources, and opportunity, the Bay Area should be one of the best places in the country for all students to receive a quality education, including low-income African American and Latino students. At Innovate Public Schools, we are committed to supporting families and communities as they work hard to make this a reality.
Let these Top Schools serve as a model for what’s possible.