On a sunny September morning, the Oakland Public Education Fund (“the Ed Fund”) team mingled with leaders from the Oakland and San Francisco Unified School Districts on the campus of George Washington High School in San Francisco. aiEDU, a nonprofit specializing in AI literacy, hosted students in the campus gym with a workshop and interactive breakout sessions around the social impacts of AI. All were gathered in celebration of a large, public announcement for the 2023-24 school year: Long-time community partner Salesforce is making another $20M investment in in U.S. school districts, along with education and workforce development nonprofits, with $5.5M specifically for Oakland.
“By supporting our schools in the present, we’re helping our students gain the skills and expertise needed to succeed in the future,” said Ron Smith, VP of Philanthropy at Salesforce. “When we invest in education, we are investing in a brighter future for all.”
The Ed Fund, as the fiscal sponsor of the investment, will continue to collaborate with the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) to steward this partnership as it has done since the partnership’s beginnings in the 2016-17 school year. From the start, Salesforce supported middle school computer science, math, and principal innovation with the goal of transforming the middle school experience for all OUSD students. For seven years, the partnership continued to power additional initiatives around holistic student support, educator professional development, middle school enrollment, and more.
Starting Early with Computer Science
As a tech leader in the Bay Area, Salesforce seeks to ensure that the students in their own backyard have the skills and opportunities to benefit from a career in tech and become literate in the technology of the future.
OUSD has provided high school computer science courses for the past two decades, with multiple high schools offering STEM-focused learning pathways. However, knowing a student’s willingness and interest in building computer science skills can start well before high school, Oakland educators dreamed of creating a middle school computer science pathway that would prepare and inspire students for high school level courses. Salesforce’s investment has allowed OUSD computer science classes to spread from an elective offered to just 88 middle students in 2016-17, to over 10,000 students across every middle school today.
“The increase in the number of middle school students who have had high-quality computer science has allowed high schools to rethink their course sequences,” says Sam Berg, Secondary Computer Science Coordinator at OUSD. “Next year Oakland High School is planning on offering a new AP Computer Science class to ninth graders who took computer science in middle school to build on their skills.”
OUSD has worked to ensure that not only are middle school students achieving at a high level in computer science, but that the students who are enrolled reflect the demographic of students across OUSD’s middle schools. By actively encouraging and supporting girls and students of color to take computer science and consider college and career opportunities in tech, teachers, and counselors are influencing the future diversity of the tech sector. In addition to supporting middle school students, counselors also engage fourth and fifth-grade students and their families to prepare them for computer science when students reach middle school. This work creates a strong throughline of interest and literacy in tech from elementary school to future college and career opportunities.
Thriving Newcomers to Oakland Public Schools
As the partnership with Oakland has evolved, Salesforce’s support has expanded beyond promoting strictly academic achievement. The partnership has played a critical role in supporting students’ unmet, non-academic needs that may hinder their ability to thrive in school.
Oakland’s growing population of refugee, asylee, and unaccompanied immigrant youth (or newcomers) face numerous challenges before they even step foot in a classroom.
The Newcomer Wellness Initiative aims to link OUSD’s newcomers with a Newcomer Social Worker to build relationships and connect them with services including mental health supports, health and wellness services, family engagement, mentorship, legal assistance, and other services.
When newcomer Marisela Noriega was an eighth-grader at Elmhurst United Middle School, she experienced chronic absenteeism and seemed generally disengaged from school. She was referred to a Salesforce-supported Newcomer Social Worker, Ms. Rebeca Cazarez, who built a rapport with Marisela. Through Ms. Cazarez’s work with Marisela, she discovered Marisela no longer had reliable care at home. With Ms. Cazarez’s help, Marisela found a new caregiver and relief funds to support her and her caretaker. She was connected with dental and mental health services as well as free legal representation for her immigration case. Ms. Cazarez continued to support Marisela during her transition into high school at Madison Park Academy where she has perfect attendance and high social engagement.
Marisela’s journey is a prime example of the power of Salesforce’s investment in school-based clinical social workers who advocate for students’ needs, remove barriers to learning, and allow students to truly thrive.
Amplifying Student Voices and Boosting Enrollment
While Salesforce’s investment has continued to bolster academic achievement and whole child support, a new initiative emerged in the 2020-21 school year to address declining student enrollment, a trend Oakland shares with school districts nationwide. The Oakland in the Middle Initiative, tailored to current middle school students, staff, and families, as well as prospective fourth and fifth-grade families, aims to uplift student voices and leverage social media platforms to promote the positive culture, powerful programming, and strong community on OUSD’s middle school campuses. By showcasing slice-of-life content featuring students, educators, and local celebrities, Oakland in the Middle combats harmful stereotypes about Oakland and encourages families to choose the District schools in their own backyard.
“This partnership has been incredibly important to us,” says Kilian Betlach, Executive Director of Enrollment at OUSD. “We have been able to provide a platform to tell stories about the amazing work happening in Oakland’s middle schools, and showcase the great work our kids are doing each and every day.”
The Oakland in the Middle team also works closely with middle school leaders to proactively track enrollment during the annual “options season” and provides tailored guidance on how to continue engaging families and boost enrollment. Additionally, they offer virtual middle school open houses for families and work with OUSD’s education access television station KDOL to make high-quality principal introduction videos for school websites. Due to its success at the middle school level, Oakland in the Middle has scaled to additional school networks – “Town Sprouts” for elementary and “The Link” for high school – to promote enrollment across grade levels.
The program has been successful in reducing the impact of forces that lead to reduced enrollment seen across the country. While projections for the 2023-24 school year showed Alameda County schools’ enrollment declining by 8 percent, OUSD’s middle school enrollment bucked the trend and declined by only 2 percent, due in part to Salesforce’s support of Oakland in the Middle over the past three years. Considering the United States’ declining birth rate and the Bay Area’s high cost of living continuing to push families out of Oakland, this enrollment rate is all the more impressive.
Stand Up for Oakland Students
During her remarks at the grant announcement, Dr. Kyla Johnson-Trammell, Superintendent of OUSD, said that OUSD has worked continuously to achieve its goal of providing high-quality, full-service community schools and educating the whole child.
“So much of the investment of Salesforce has been a part of that. Yes, it has been about technology, workforce development and STEM, but it’s been so, so much more.”
Now in its eighth year, Salesforce has brought to its partnership with Oakland over $51M in financial investment, the full weight of its vast volunteer force, countless student engagement and career development opportunities to students and teachers, and in-kind product contributions, all in service of Oakland’s mission to a build a full-service community district with high-quality instruction and whole student support.
After years of listening deeply to the needs and objectives of District schools and remaining committed to their investment, Salesforce has become a powerful champion of students and school communities in Oakland.
Learn More and Get Involved
More information about the history and successes of OUSD’s partnership with Salesforce is highlighted on our website.
If you work for an organization that is ready to get involved in Oakland schools by providing a grant, adopting a school, or volunteering at an upcoming event like the ninth annual Latine/x Literature Read-In Week, email info@oaklandedfund.org.