Unity students score towards top compared to schools with similar students. Schools in California enroll students from many backgrounds and with many needs. The similar schools ranking allows comparisons among schools with some of the same opportunities and challenges. In order to compute the similar schools ranking, the state has devised a complex formula to first create a measure called the Schools Characteristics Index (SCI) score. The SCI score is based on a number of school characteristics including:
· Student ethnicity
· Average parent education level
· Percentage of Students eligible for free or reduced price lunch
· Percentage of English learners
· Percentage of students with disabilities
Once the 100 similar schools have been identified, they are associated with their API scores. The schools are then ranked ordered according to their API scores. To create the Similar Schools Rank, the schools are then divided into groups of ten with the lowest group of ten schools given a Rank of 1, and the highest group a rank of 10. The focus school (Oakland Unity) is ranked based on which group of 10 they fall into. In the case of Oakland Unity, our school’s Similar Schools Rank was 9, which means that we scored just one level down from the top 10 schools in our group (out of 100 similar schools).
