Academy structure has changed ever since Measure-N passed in 2014. Academies went from being competitive and only having 49% of 10th-12th graders enrolled, to having a 95% enrollment rate. Despite Mr. Price’s enforcement of the academies, much of the student population at Tech have complained that the academies are academically restrictive, but the reason for the academy structure is state funding requirements.
Each of the Health, Fashion, Computer Science, and RPL academies receive around 81k annually from Measure-H (formerly known as Measure-N). Measure-N uses state tax dollars to help fund college readiness programs across OUSD, also known as academies. Academies were implemented to help improve graduation rates and help students visualize a career after graduation.
One funding requirement states that each academy should foster a cohort of students by having at least three cohorted classes. One class should be the academy or CTE (Career and Technical Education) class, and then the other two should be English and history classes. But, Tech can’t meet that requirement because students in the Paideia program are taking advanced English and history classes in addition to their academy classes.
In an interview with Principal Price, he said, “We are kind of violating the spirit of academies and jeopardizing our funding because we’re letting kids out of the cohorted experience.”
Last year, Mr. Price created two more cohorted classes to meet funding requirements. The first are the math classes, for Geometry and Algebra 2 students, and along with those are science classes.
Additionally, last year FADA was at risk of losing funding because there were two cohorts under one academy: an arts, media, and entertainment cohort and a fashion cohort. Figuring out which cohort to get rid of was a tough decision, so Mr. Price sent out a survey to the FADA students and the results showed that 70% of the FADA students were enrolled for fashion. Therefore, FADA (Fashion, Arts, Design Academy) became OTFA (Oakland Tech Fashion Academy).
Another requirement requires academies to reach a certain graduation rate. If a student transfers academies after 11th grade, no academy will receive credit for the student when they graduate because the student didn’t go through the required 2-3 year-long course sequence, which jeopardizes the academies’ funding from Measure-H.
However, Engineering seeks funding from other sources because Engineering is technically a pathway, as it doesn’t meet the academy requirements for California because it neglects to be made up of at least 50% of at-promise students.
Measure-H is an essential funding source for Tech. The measure allocates $850 per Oakland resident enrolled, and in the 2024-2025 fiscal year, over $1.4 million was allocated to Tech. Recently, Tech changed how they’re using the funding, now a majority of Measure-H funding is being used to fund teachers instead of the academies. However, academies, Engineering, and 9th grade still receive some money from the leftover funds, and academies/ pathways are still allowed to seek other funding sources.
Mr. Price acknowledges that students are upset with the academy they are enrolled in and the academy structure, but the structure is essential to funding. So, he encourages students to sign up for dual enrollments that align with subjects they are passionate about and hopes that juniors and seniors will utilize their free periods for internships.