Summary:
The Alternatives in Action District in Oakland contains just one small high school, Alternatives in Action, serving about 106 students in grades 9-12.
This school serves a community with significant economic needs, and its state academic rankings have consistently been in the bottom quartile. A notable finding is the stark difference in subject performance: while 10% of students were proficient in mathematics, 0% met proficiency in English Language Arts, a gap that points to specific literacy challenges. Despite these low scores, the school shows strengths in keeping students engaged, with a dropout rate and chronic absenteeism rate both better than the state average, and it graduates over 72% of its students.
The school's stable performance over time and its higher-than-average per-student spending suggest it provides consistent support for a high-needs population. For parents, this indicates a school environment focused on student retention and graduation, which is successfully keeping vulnerable teens in the system, but one where academic achievement, particularly in reading and writing, requires urgent improvement and support at home.
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