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1 State of Education in Oakland Unified School District Presented to
The Education Partnership Committee
Oakland City Council Chambers
September 22, 2025
Superintendent Dr. Denise Saddler
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Our Vision
All OUSD students will find joy in their
academic experience while graduating
with the skills to ensure they are
caring, competent, fully-informed,
critical thinkers who are prepared for
college, career, and community
success.
Our Mission
Oakland Unified School District (OUSD)
will build a Full Service Community
District focused on high academic
achievement while serving the whole
child, eliminating inequity, and
providing each child with excellent
teachers, every day.
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Strong Readers ● Improved K-5 Literacy by 2%
over 2 years
● Improved 6-8 Literacy by 3%
over 2 years
● Began administering High
School Reading i-Ready
assessments last year
● Adopted updated curriculum so
teachers have adequate tools
● Invested in Literacy Tutors and
Teachers
● Improved - yet still much room
for growth, especially at
Secondary level
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Joyful Schools: Attendance Improvements
● We increased our attendance
rate by .8% from 2023-24 to
2024-25
● We are not yet at the same
attendance rate as before the
pandemic
● School sites have Attendance
Teams to lead attendance
interventions
● Identified schools have an
added layer of case managers
for student support
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Attendance Rate: 2018-2025
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Increased A-G Rates ● Increased A-G Rate by 6.5%
over 2 years
● Improved course
descriptions so that more
OUSD courses qualified as an
A-G Class
● Provided additional staffing
to accommodate student
course needs
● Increased our credit
recovery options so students
could access courses they
had difficulty passing
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Rising Graduation Rates
● Increased Graduation Rate by
5.4% over 2 years
● Goal is to reach above 80%
Graduation Rate; in 2023-24,
reached 79.5%
● Early calculations reveal we
surpassed our target of 80%
for last year, 2024-25! (Soon to
be released by CDE.)
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College Readiness and Success
For the second year in a row, OUSD has seven
graduates who are now first-year students at
Northeastern University Oakland on full-ride
scholarships. They each won what’s called the
Oakland Opportunity Scholarship which nets
each of them $340,000 to cover tuition and
room and board for their four year college
careers. And each of them will get to study at
other Northeastern campuses including in
Boston and London.
The students are (L-R) Idayat Okuboyejo from
Oakland High, Daniel Alfaro, Macie Chao, and
Richard Purev from Oakland Tech, and Lei'ani
Donaldson from CCPA. Not pictured are Keona
Hennings and Quy Nguyen from Skyline High.
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Critical Community Partnerships
Community partnerships are critical to all that
we do for our students. They fund computer
science, staff wellness, and our literacy
initiatives. They bring thousands of volunteers
into our schools, and they create dozens of
vibrant new school yards our young people
will get to enjoy for a generation.
The Oakland Public Education Fund,
Salesforce, Kaiser Permanente, Kenneth
Rainin Foundation, Golden State Community
Foundation, Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation,
and so many others have collectively
contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to
support our schools and students.
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Working for a Balanced Budget
OUSD Recently Exited
Receivership After 22 Years
● Keeping district on solid
financial ground is
paramount
● Decreasing revenues are
caused by lower attendance
and enrollment, some of
which can be attributed to
lower birth rates, and
families leaving the city
● Will need to make significant
changes to 2026-27 budget
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OUSD Vision for 2025-26 & Beyond
Maintain Focus on District Strategic
Plan and Local Control and
Accountability Plan (LCAP)
Continuous School Improvement
Framework:
★ Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) -
Attendance and Suspension
★ English Language Learning: Designated
and Integrated English Language
Development, Newcomer Drop-out rate
★ Special Education IEP Quality &
Completion
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APPENDIX
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Targets for Success: iReady % Mid/Above Grade
Focus Area 2022- 2023 2023- 2024 2024-25 Actual
iReady Reading (K-5) 27.9% 29.7% 29.6%
iReady Reading
(6-8)
16.0%
17.0% 20.3%
iReady Reading
(9-12)
N/A N/A 7.8%
iReady Math (K-5) 21.6%
24.7%
25.8%
2025-2026 Target
iReady: A minimum 5-10% increase in % on grade level in iReady ELA and Math.
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Targets for Success: Graduation Rate
Focus Area 2022-2023 2023-2024 2024-2025 Target
A-G Rate 42.2% 48.7% Target for A-G completion is 60%.
Increase the number of students
passing an A-G course by 5% at each
school.
Graduation Rate 74.1% 79.5% Target Graduation rate is 80% districtwide.
Increase Graduation
Rate by 5%
NA NA All schools increase their graduation
rate by 5%.
Community Schools, Thriving Students
www.ousd.org @OUSDnews
1011 Union Street, Oakland, CA 94607
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