When Toni Rochelle moved to Oakland in 2017, she didn't know much about the local school system. It was a busy time for her — it was late summer, she was in the middle of a divorce and she was juggling two jobs.
"I did everything late because of what was going on at the time," she admitted. That included enrolling her daughter, Talia, for transitional kindergarten.
Rochelle decided to simply go with her neighborhood school, Sankofa Elementary. It checked off a lot of boxes: It was right down the street from her job, right around the corner from her house, and it had an after-school program. It seemed perfect.
Once school started, however, Rochelle began to have concerns.
"I think we had maybe two or three principals at the time during that school year," said Rochelle. "It was just a lot of things. Coming in, picking up my child and she's watching TV!"
It wasn't until Rochelle met parents from a local activist group called Oakland Reach that she learned the school's test scores were far below state standards.
Those same parents also told her about a way to try to enroll her children in better schools, through a process called open enrollment.
"There's no public announcement for this," said Rochelle. "It's a secret. A well-kept secret."
During Oakland's open enrollment period, parents of kindergartners and students transitioning into middle or high schools can indicate and rank their school preferences. It's also when students in any grade can try to change schools. Parents must submit applications between November and February for both OUSD and charter schools.
Parents are notified of their child's placement in mid-March and must make a final decision about enrollment by April 2.
Oakland parents who understand the enrollment process can start researching their options months in advance, and not surprisingly, most who apply request the city's best-ranked schools, both district-run and charter. Nearly half of these applications come from parents living in Oakland census tracts where residents are wealthier and more educated, according to district data.
And timing matters. Parents who apply during the initial enrollment window have a real advantage. According to the district's enrollment director, Charles Wilson, 66 percent of families who applied during the main enrollment period last year got their first choice.
Those who don't know about open enrollment or miss the deadline can find themselves in long lines trying to switch schools right before the beginning of the school year, when most in-demand schools have already filled up.
'Concentration of Advantage'
Peralta Elementary is one of the most requested schools in Oakland and is located in a neighborhood where homes are valued at over $1 million. One parent of a Peralta student, Jonathan Osler, is questioning Oakland's current enrollment system, which is largely based upon neighborhood boundaries.
"What this means is, if you can't afford to live in the neighborhood, you have very little chance of getting into this school," Osler said. "We are in a district where the kids are segregated along lines of race and class, and resources are segregated along those lines as well."
Osler said he was able to afford a house in a neighborhood that is within Peralta's attendance zone, which meant his child had priority to be enrolled there. Eighty percent of Peralta's students live nearby.
"You also have about 60 elementary schools in the district, and 70 percent of all white kids attend only 10 of those schools," said Osler, who works for the Oakland Public Education Fund. "As a white person I feel the responsibility to lift up these questions of what has led to this concentration of advantage, and what are those of us in these positions going to do to ensure there are more equitable opportunities and outcomes for kids across the city."
