Oakland School for the Arts
Oakland · Alameda County · Oakland Unified · Public
📄 Shareable scorecard →Compare with peers
Most similar nearby schools
Piedmont High School → Coliseum College Prep Academy → Lodestar: A Lighthouse Community Charter Public → Five Keys Charter (sf Sheriff's) → Castlemont High School → Compare all similar →🧭 A parent's read
- About 9 in 10 students read and write at grade level. On the state's own 11th-grade test, 88% met or exceeded the college-readiness bar — the top 10% of California high schools (statewide: 54%).
- Kids actually show up. Only 0% of students are chronically absent, versus about 23% statewide — day-to-day engagement most schools would envy.
- 8 in 10 graduates leave eligible for UC and CSU. 80% finish the A-G courses California's universities require before a student can even apply — most California schools manage about 6 in 10.
- One question for any counselor: who should still test? Plenty of strong students skip the SAT/ACT now — but merit scholarships at dozens of colleges still key off scores. Ask how the school decides who should still sit for one.
Composed from this page's data — every claim is backed by a number in the sections below.
🎓 Where grads go — and what it costs & pays
UC admits by campus · Class of 2025
Getting in is step one. The cost above is the average family's net price — yours depends on your income — and your child's odds depend on their GPA + scores. See your family's real numbers at these campuses:
🎯 Get my child's odds + our real net price →Sources: UC Office of the President (admits); IPEDS net price + College Scorecard 10-yr earnings (cost & payoff). Full campus-by-campus breakdown below.
How Oakland School for the Arts compares for families
Above-average college outcomes statewide.
- ▸ StatewideUC Reach Score of 27 — 9 points above the California median of 18. Ahead of 68% of California high schools.
- ▸ Locally🎯 Top 5% in California on Attendance (lowest chronic absenteeism) — plus 1 more top-rank.
- ▸ vs Similar SchoolsTrails the peer median (UC Reach Score 27 vs a 46 median) across the 5 most similar nearby schools.
For Parents
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Objective, government-grade data — no school pays us for placement.
SBAC academic outcomes — grade 11, 2025
Share of grade-11 students meeting or exceeding the California standard on Smarter Balanced ELA and Math. This is the academic-readiness signal that pairs with UC Reach (post-grad outcomes), stability (retention), and absenteeism (engagement). Note: statewide median Math is only ~20% — a school at 20% isn't an outlier; one at 45%+ genuinely is.
Source: California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) Smarter Balanced research files. Benchmarks limited to non-virtual public & charter HS with ≥30 tested students.
Student composition — 2025-26
HS grades 9–12 racial/ethnic composition and program subgroups, from CDE Census Day Enrollment. Two-year shift shown when ≥1 pt — surfaces how the community served has changed since 2023-24.
Race / ethnicity
Program subgroups
Source: California Department of Education, Census Day Enrollment 2025-26 (HS grades 9–12). Δ shown when shift is ≥1 pt since 2023-24. Categories below 0.5% omitted.
Chronic absenteeism — 2024-25
Share of students missing 10% or more of expected attendance — the leading indicator that often precedes the demand decline shown above. Families disengaging tend to raise absenteeism first, then formally leave. Basis: grades 9–12.
Low and stable absenteeism — students are engaged and showing up. The leading indicator is healthy.
Source: California Department of Education, Chronic Absenteeism 2024-25. Benchmarks limited to non-virtual public & charter HS with ≥100 eligible students. CDE didn't publish a usable 2019-20 file (COVID).
Enrollment trend & projection
If this trend holds (+0.9%/yr, Total enrollment)
At per-pupil funding of $ / student:
| Horizon | Projected Total enrollment | Change | Funding impact / yr |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 yr (2027) | ~822 | +7 | $0 |
| 3 yr (2029) | ~838 | +23 | $0 |
| 5 yr (2031) | ~853 | +38 | $0 |
Straight-line extrapolation of the recent annual rate — a what-if, not a forecast of intent. Default = California's LCFF base grant for grades 9–12 ($12,423/ADA). Edit the figure to match your school.
How does Oakland School for the Arts really compare on getting kids to college?
We've ranked it #4 of 6 most similar nearby schools on UC Reach. Unlock the full snapshot to see the head-to-head — who's ahead, by how much, and where it's heading.
Your similar-school group includes
Piedmont High School · Coliseum College Prep Academy · Lodestar: A Lighthouse Community Charter Public · Five Keys Charter (sf Sheriff's) · Castlemont High School · Oakland Military Institute, College Preparatory Academy · +4 more
Enrollment stability & demand — 2024-25
Two complementary signals: retention (do students stay once enrolled?) and demand (are families choosing the school?). Read against the Alameda County baseline — the demographic tide is moving every CA HS, so a school's gap vs. county is the actionable signal.
Oakland School for the Arts is recruiting families faster than Alameda County is shrinking (school +8.7% vs. county +0.6%), but 47 students didn't make it to year-end. The recruitment engine works; the mid-year exits are worth understanding.
47 of 486 students who enrolled at Oakland School for the Arts this year didn't maintain continuous enrollment (9.7% non-stability). Mid-year transfers, dropouts, and other exits are all counted.
Stability by student group
Nearest peer high schools
Source: California Department of Education, Stability Rate 2024-25. Benchmarks limited to non-virtual public & charter HS with ≥100 cumulative enrollees so by-design-high-churn continuation schools don't dominate the bottom of the distribution. Cumulative enrollment counts every student on the rolls during the year, so it can exceed peak-day enrollment.
District financial profile — Oakland Unified (FY2020)
From 4 years of NCES F-33 filings (the federally-mandated district finance survey). Public schools don't have their own books — the district does. These figures show the financial scale, revenue dependence, instruction-vs-overhead mix, and long-term debt that shape what a school can sustain.
Local: 41.5%
Federal: 15.1%
Source: NCES F-33 Annual Survey of School System Finances (Urban Institute Education Data API). Latest year currently published: FY2020. F-33 is a district-level federal filing — it reflects the Oakland Unified as a whole, not this individual school's books. Revenue mix shows where the district's dollars come from (state aid dominates in CA via LCFF). Instruction share is current expenditure on instruction ÷ total current expenditure (national benchmark ~60%). Long-term debt is end-of-year outstanding (mostly facilities bonds).
Oakland School for the Arts sent 149 applications to the six most selective University of California campuses and 20.1% were admitted, producing a UC Reach Score of 27 — 9 points above the California median of 18, higher than 68% of California high schools. The school produces 5.4 UCLA + UC Berkeley admits per 100 seniors.
-20 pts vs. peer median (46) · Ranked #4 of 6 similar schools
18
46
51
27
Higher than 68% of California high schools (980 ranked, ≥50 seniors)
Oakland School for the Arts's UC Reach Score of 27 is above the California median (18). The top 10% of CA schools achieve 51 or higher.
But in Alameda County, where the local median is 40 and the top-10% bar is 68, this score is mid-pack rather than exceptional — typical of its market rather than a standout.
Against similar schools, Oakland School for the Arts trails the peer-group median (46) — even though it looks strong vs. the state average.
For context, the elite tier (top 1%) clears 97 — a gap of 70 pp from where this school sits.
Overall, Oakland School for the Arts's UC Reach is higher than 68% of California high schools (980 ranked).
GPA figures reflect 2024 — UC has not yet released applicant/admit GPA for 2025.
UC funnel — which kids are getting in at what GPA
Combining the school's applicant pool GPA, admit pool GPA, actual admit rate, and statewide CA admit rates by individual GPA band, we can read which GPA tiers tend to get in — and which don't.
| Campus | 4.00+ GPA | 3.70–3.99 GPA | 3.30–3.69 GPA | < 3.30 GPA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UC Berkeley | Real shot | Long odds | Filtered out | Filtered out |
| UCLA | Real shot | Long odds | Filtered out | Filtered out |
| UC San Diego | Strong shot | Real shot | Long odds | Filtered out |
| UC Santa Barbara | Strong shot | Moderate | Long odds | Filtered out |
| UC Irvine | Strong shot | Real shot | Long odds | Filtered out |
| UC Davis | Strong shot | Real shot | Moderate | Filtered out |
The numbers behind it
| Campus | Applicant GPA | Admit GPA | Lift ⓘ | Admit rate | vs peer schools @ same GPA ⓘ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UC Berkeley | 3.89 | 4.16 | +0.28 | 39.1% | Peers +0.30 · matches |
| UCLA | 3.90 | 4.07 | +0.18 | 29.0% | Peers +0.32 · wider |
| UC San Diego | 3.97 | 4.20 | +0.22 | 26.3% | Peers +0.27 · wider |
| UC Santa Barbara | 3.81 | 4.09 | +0.27 | 29.6% | Peers +0.34 · wider |
| UC Irvine | 4.02 | 4.16 | +0.13 | 35.3% | Peers +0.20 · wider |
| UC Davis | 3.88 | 4.14 | +0.27 | 55.0% | Peers +0.26 · matches |
📊 Statewide CA admit rates by individual GPA band, 2024 (for reference)
| GPA band | UCB | UCLA | UCSD | UCSB | UCI | UCD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.00+ | 17.1% | 14.4% | 43.5% | 57.3% | 46.0% | 64.1% |
| 3.70–3.99 | 2.8% | 1.5% | 11.2% | 9.2% | 16.5% | 27.5% |
| 3.30–3.69 | 0.8% | 0.9% | 1.4% | 2.3% | 3.4% | 9.1% |
| 3.00–3.29 | 0.5% | 0.4% | 0.1% | 0.5% | 0.4% | 2.1% |
| < 3.00 | 0.6% | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.5% | 0.3% | 0.6% |
Where Oakland School for the Arts sits vs. all California schools ⓘ
Overall, this school admits its UC applicants 15.0 points above what their GPAs predict (35.0% actual vs. 20.1% expected), based on 2024 data.
UC Outcomes Trend — 2018–2025
Class size from CDE grade 12 enrollment. Campus-level data — applicant/admit totals may count a student at multiple campuses more than once.
Campus Breakdown — 2025
| Campus | Applicants | Admits | Enrollees | Admit Rate | UC Reach Score | Yield | Avg GPA (App) '24 | Avg GPA (Adm) '24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UC Berkeley → Elite | 26 | 3 | —† | 11.5% | 3 | — | 3.89 | 4.16 |
| UCLA → Elite | 34 | 3 | —† | 8.8% | 3 | — | 3.90 | 4.07 |
| UC San Diego → Selective | 27 | 7 | —† | 25.9% | 6 | — | 3.97 | 4.20 |
| UC Santa Barbara → Selective | 22 | 6 | —† | 27.3% | 5 | — | 3.81 | 4.09 |
| UC Irvine → Selective | 12 | —† | —† | —† | —† | — | 4.02 | 4.16 |
| UC Davis → | 28 | 11 | —† | 39.3% | 10 | — | 3.88 | 4.14 |
What This Means
For School Admins
The full Reach Report for Oakland School for the Arts
A board- and LCAP-ready intelligence brief: your enrollment retention and college outcomes, benchmarked against your closest competitors, with a 5-year forecast, concrete steps to act on, and the rigor + outcomes story you can share with your families. Built from primary public data — prepared for you, not auto-generated.
- ✓Your UC Reach Score (27) ranked head-to-head against your closest competitor schools
- ✓Your 5-year enrollment forecast (currently 0.9%/yr) with the revenue at stake
- ✓Student-retention benchmarking vs your county median — and the LCAP evidence to back your goals