CA school information please

[panAmerican]

Friends of mine are relocating to CA for 2 years, and need help selecting a school for their kids. I am from the East Coast and not familiar at all with that part of the world. Much, if not all, of what I have heard about Oakland is bad, so I need some help separating fact from fiction/reputation. How would you rank the following schools in the Oakland Unified School district?

Allendale Elementary School
Crocker Highlands Elementary School
Fruitvale Elementary School
Glenview Elementary School
Laurel Elementary School
Sequoia Elementary School

TIA

[MineralMan]

1. Here's a place they can start

http://www.greatschools.org/california/oakland/schools/?start=25&sortBy=GS_RATING_DESCENDING&gradeLevels=e&st=public&st=charter&st=private

The site has its own rating system, and also has comments from the public on the schools. You can get a pretty good look at schools almost anywhere on this site, and their ratings seem to be in keeping with other sources for the places I've checked. I use this as a research source when building city profiles for real estate websites.

[panAmerican]

3. Thanks, I saw this site before, but...

I didn't know how it compared to other sources, so I'm glad you can vouch for it compared to other sites.

[KamaAina]

2. I have heard that Oakland has turned the corner with respect to elementary school

since the neighborhoods, while ethnically diverse, are relatively homogeneous economically.

The problem comes with the transition to middle school, where the kids from the low-income neighborhoods enter the mix. It is at this point that many of the middle-class families opt for private school.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/12/12/MNUP1GNRHS.DTL

The transition to middle school is a big one for families. In Oakland, students from a wide range of neighborhoods converge at city middle schools, which are larger than elementary schools, have less parental presence and are full of newly minted adolescents.

Students from neighborhoods riddled with violence and poverty sit next to middle- or upper-class kids with soccer moms and children of immigrants with strict codes of conduct.

While students leave Oakland schools at many grades, the greatest percentage of them make the change when it's time to move on to middle school, with rates far exceeding other urban districts. In San Francisco, about 12 percent of fifth-graders leave after elementary school.

P.S. Also try the California forum.

[panAmerican]

4. Only 2 years

They are relocating there only for two years, so it's not a permanent move. I hadn't thought of the CA forum, so I will try them also. Thanks a bunch!