Oakland School for the Arts
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Oakland School for the Arts is a charter school in Oakland, California.
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[edit] Founding and history
Oakland School for the Arts was founded in 2000 via a charter from the Oakland Unified School District and in October of 2001 it received 501(c)(3) nonprofit status in October of 2001. In September of 2002 OSA opened its doors to its first freshman class, class of 2006. The school was the dreamchild of Mayor Jerry Brown and its first director was Loni Berry.
The school started at a building students have nicknamed "the Alice" but was moved to portables near the Fox Oakland Theatre during the 2004-05 school year. Mr. Loni Berry was director of the school for the first four years but was asked to leave by the school board the summer before the 2006-07 school year. OSA's current director is Mr. Saul Drevitch.
The first graduating senior class, the class of 2006, graduated with 100 percent of the class accepted to four year colleges. Graduates of '06 were accepted to a variety of institutions, both academic and artistic, including: Columbia University, University of Michigan, Stanford University, Middlebury College, Carnegie Mellon University, Wesleyan University, Mount Holyoke College, The Theatre School at Depaul University, Barnard College, Spelman College, Howard University, Berklee College of Music, Pratt Institute, California College of the Arts, Boston Conservatory, Fordham University, Texas A&M, San Francisco State University, UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, UC San Diego and many others.
[edit] Overview
In the morning, Oakland School for the Arts students take academic classes like English, Romance Language, Science and mathematics. Oakland School for the Arts curriculum has met the requirements of all UCs. There have been some problems keeping a steady Physical Education program due to the great amount of focus on the arts classes.
Currently, there are four emphases at Oakland School for the Arts: Dance, Instrumental Music, Theatre and Vocal Music. For the first three years of OSA's existence, there were eight emphases: Acting, Arts Management, Dance, Literary Arts, Instrumental Music, Theatre Design and Production, Visual Arts and Vocal Music. During the 2005-06 school year, Theatre Design and Production was merged into Visual Arts. OSA was faced with budget cuts during summer 2006 and chose to merge Acting, Arts Management, Literary Arts and Visual Arts and Design into one emphasis called Theatre. Oakland School for the Arts has currently implemented a 1 to 1 student to laptop ratio in the high school. The students and faculty are encouraged to utilize the technology throughout the curriculum.
[edit] Location
OSA is located in a former parking lot, a temporary campus next to its future home, the Fox Theatre, which is in the midst of being renovated.
[edit] Middle School
Oakland School for the Arts first opened with a ninth grade class and added another high school grade each year. For the 2005-06 school year, though, a middle school was added. Administration went through great lengths to keep the "middle school" and "high school" separate, giving the middle schoolers a different entrance/exit and shorter school hours. Middle schoolers, however, are only given one show a year (excluding the traditional all-school musical). They are not permitted to use laptops, eat off-campus or even leave the cafeteria/performance area (deemed "the tent") during their lunch period.
[edit] Performances
In the five years of its existence, OSA has produced a variety of different productions including A Midsummer's Night Dream, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. Every year, students from each grade are welcome to audition for the all-school musical. The first of these was written by the school's first director, Loni Berry, and was based on the classic play Our Town. It was named "Your Town" and was later performed four years later by the middle school. The other musicals that have produced are The Wiz, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Wild Party and The Sound of Music.
[edit] Jerry Awards
Oakland School for the Arts presents an annual "awards ceremony" called the Jerry Awards named after the politician Jerry Brown who once was the schools chief fundraiser. The Jerry Awards were created by Oakland School for the Arts former student, David Norwood, who graduated in the first class. The nomination process is simply a group of adminstrators choosing students from each emphasis without input from faculty or other students. There are two categories per emphasis: Best Student In an arts discipline and Best New Student In. The awards ceremony features peformances and award presentations by various students from the Oakland School for the Arts.
[edit] Ranking
OSA continues to excel on standardized tests. In the 2002-2003 school year, OSA received a score of 8 (out of 10) on the STAR test (the highest in OUSD) and in the 2003-2004 year, it received a 9, again the highest score in the district. However, there was a significant drop in test scores during the 2005-06 school year.
[edit] Turnover rates
In prior years the school had been subject to some controversy over a myriad of issues. Thus the student turnover rate rose to about 50 percent, with the faculty and staff turnover rate not far behind. With an administrative, academic, and communicative revamping in September 2006, the school hopes to create a more stable and carefully planned environment for all.
[edit] Resources
See Also: Amaya M. Keller akeller@oakarts.org
