I was really heartened to see an article today about 34 black Oakland Unified kids who got perfect scores on their STAR tests.
Here's a link to the article. It looks like they're mostly on the younger side, but old enough for the tests to be meaningful.
The article also doesn't say which schools all the kids attend, but I'm sure it's safe to assume not all go to the nicer hills schools.
Everything I've read on the topic indicates that a big change tends to happen around middle school, when the problems of Oakland take their toll on kids, making it impossible for them to progress further in school.
Why won't the district put in place a magnet school? For the sake of these 34 kids, along with the countless kids of other races who do well at OUSD, you'd think it would be worth it. Here we have crystal clear evidence that such a school wouldn't just be for the privileged white hills dwellers.
And, when these kids continue to excel, they'd serve as role models to other young kids. A magnet school would maximize the probability of each kid succeeding.
The truth is, OUSD is run for the teachers' unions and for the sake of political expediency. If not, they'd be setting up a magnet school right now.