Ascend, Oakland CA - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Ascend

ASCEND is a charter school serving kindergarten through eighth grade in Oakland's Fruitvale neighborhood, a predominantly Latino community in East Oakland where the school has deep roots. It is small, enrolling about five hundred students across nine grades, with a student body that is more than nine-tenths Hispanic and includes a substantial share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The school recently expanded to include transitional kindergarten, offering families a public, tuition-free early-learning entry point for four-year-olds.

Academic performance across ASCEND is below the midpoint among Alameda County's public schools. On California's state assessments in math and English language arts, proficiency rates span a wide range by grade. In the early elementary grades (third through fifth), math proficiency sits in the low to mid range; by sixth grade it rises to about half of students meeting standards, then declines in seventh before rebounding in eighth. English language arts shows a steeper pattern: proficiency is very low in third and fourth grades (under one-quarter of students), climbs gradually through fifth and sixth, and reaches about half of students in eighth. Science proficiency, tested in fifth and eighth grades, is also low. No prior-year data was available, so trends cannot be assessed; only the current school year (2024-25) is on record.

The school serves a neighborhood with significant economic need. Housing costs in the Oakland area are high relative to national benchmarks, and rents have ticked up modestly. This is a context in which a free public school, especially one located within a walkable residential neighborhood and accessible by public transit, matters for family stability and housing decisions. East Oakland's International Boulevard corridor, not far from the school's location on East 12th Street, is known for diverse, immigrant-owned food and markets, anchoring neighborhood daily life.

ASCEND is part of the Education for Change network and operates as a charter school authorized by Oakland Unified School District. The school went through charter renewal in the 2024-25 school year, the first renewal cycle in several years and the first to occur under California's strengthened charter accountability framework. Renewal determines whether the school can continue operating, a material question for families enrolling their children.

The school does not serve the high school grades, so no graduation data apply. Special education enrollment figures and English learner counts were not available in the data provided, so parents may want to ask the school directly about how it serves students with documented disabilities and multilingual learners, particularly important given the neighborhood's composition. The school's website lists its address and may provide more detail on programs, staff, and enrollment priorities. A parent weighing ASCEND should understand that academic proficiency is currently low, particularly in the elementary grades, and should ask what literacy and math interventions, professional development, and curriculum changes the school has in place to strengthen outcomes in these foundational years.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 338%

School 38% · district not reported

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▼ 17 pts below county median

Grade 428%

School 28% · district not reported

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▼ 22 pts below county median

Grade 535%

School 35% · district not reported

▲ 5 pts above state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

Grade 651%

School 51% · district not reported

▲ 21 pts above state median · ▲ 19 pts above county median

Grade 735%

School 35% · district not reported

▲ 5 pts above state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

Grade 844%

School 44% · district not reported

▲ 17 pts above state median · ▲ 12 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 319%

School 19% · district not reported

▼ 21 pts below state median · ▼ 30 pts below county median

Grade 426%

School 26% · district not reported

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▼ 28 pts below county median

Grade 539%

School 39% · district not reported

▼ 6 pts below state median · ▼ 18 pts below county median

Grade 647%

School 47% · district not reported

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

Grade 738%

School 38% · district not reported

▼ 8 pts below state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

Grade 851%

School 51% · district not reported

▲ 7 pts above state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

Science

Grade 522%

School 22% · district not reported

▼ 6 pts below state median · ▼ 17 pts below county median

Grade 822%

School 22% · district not reported

▼ 3 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

This schoolDistrict average, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.