Hillcrest, Oakland CA - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Hillcrest

Hillcrest is a kindergarten through eighth grade public school in Oakland, sitting in the zip code that covers the Rockridge and upper Piedmont Avenue area, one of Oakland's hillside residential neighborhoods where Craftsman homes and tree-lined streets give way fairly quickly to open space. The school is part of Oakland Unified.

The enrollment is moderate for a K-8 school. The student body is racially mixed: white students make up the largest share, followed by students identifying as two or more races, with Hispanic, Asian, and Black students each representing meaningful portions of the school. About a quarter of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which is a relatively low economic need rate by Oakland Unified standards. IEP and English learner data were not available in what we received.

On the most recent California state assessments, Hillcrest's ELA results are genuinely strong across most of the grade band. Proficiency rates in reading and writing run well above the state midpoint in the early and middle elementary grades, hold solidly in sixth grade, and reach their highest point in seventh grade, before settling back to a respectable level in eighth. Overall, ELA proficiency across all tested grades is well above the midpoint among the districts in Alameda County used for comparison here.

Math tells a more mixed story. Third and fourth grade math proficiency is high, placing Hillcrest in solid standing within that comparison set. Fifth grade drops to a more moderate level, sixth grade falls below half of students proficient, seventh grade recovers meaningfully, and eighth grade sits in roughly the middle range. The school-wide math average across all tested grades lands above the midpoint among Alameda County's districts, but the grade-to-grade variation is real and worth asking the school about, particularly for families with children approaching the upper elementary and middle grades. Science results follow a similar pattern: strong in fifth grade, lower in eighth.

Across ELA and math combined, Hillcrest's overall proficiency index places it above the median among the school districts in Alameda County, which is a meaningful position given how many well-resourced communities sit in that county.

A note on trends: only a single year of recent data was available, so there is no multi-year trajectory to read. A parent who wants to know whether performance has been climbing, holding, or softening since the pandemic years would need to ask the school directly.

For the district context, we searched for recent Oakland Unified actions with lasting parent impact, such as closures, curriculum shifts, or major policy changes, but search results consistently surfaced city tax measures rather than OUSD-specific decisions, so we left that section out rather than guess.

Housing near Hillcrest reflects Oakland's hillside premium. Home values in the zip code are dramatically above the California state median and several times the national median. Monthly mortgage costs at current rates would be well above what most national income benchmarks would call affordable, and rents in the area, while lower than ownership costs, still represent a substantial share of income for most households. Publicly reported data shows home values in this zip code have been essentially flat year over year, while rents have edged slightly upward.

Oakland itself adds practical texture. The city is genuinely walkable in many of its commercial corridors, especially Rockridge's College Avenue, which is close to this school's neighborhood, and transit access via BART is a real asset for families. The city carries a strong arts identity and cultural diversity, and daily life in the hillside neighborhoods tends to be quieter than the flatlands, though more car-dependent than the dense strips further down.

Hillcrest fits families who want a neighborhood public school with consistently strong ELA results, a racially and economically mixed but not high-poverty student body, and a K-8 span that keeps children in one building through middle school. The variability in upper-grade math is the area a parent would want to probe further with the school.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 380%

School 80% · District 36% · ▲ 44 pts above district

▲ 37 pts above state median · ▲ 24 pts above county median

Grade 481%

School 81% · District 33% · ▲ 48 pts above district

▲ 44 pts above state median · ▲ 31 pts above county median

Grade 559%

School 59% · District 28% · ▲ 31 pts above district

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

Grade 639%

School 39% · District 21% · ▲ 18 pts above district

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

Grade 769%

School 69% · District 25% · ▲ 44 pts above district

▲ 39 pts above state median · ▲ 37 pts above county median

Grade 847%

School 47% · District 21% · ▲ 26 pts above district

▲ 19 pts above state median · ▲ 14 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 377%

School 77% · District 31% · ▲ 46 pts above district

▲ 37 pts above state median · ▲ 28 pts above county median

Grade 474%

School 74% · District 34% · ▲ 40 pts above district

▲ 32 pts above state median · ▲ 20 pts above county median

Grade 570%

School 70% · District 36% · ▲ 33 pts above district

▲ 24 pts above state median · ▲ 13 pts above county median

Grade 672%

School 72% · District 30% · ▲ 42 pts above district

▲ 28 pts above state median · ▲ 28 pts above county median

Grade 785%

School 85% · District 35% · ▲ 50 pts above district

▲ 39 pts above state median · ▲ 35 pts above county median

Grade 870%

School 70% · District 34% · ▲ 37 pts above district

▲ 26 pts above state median · ▲ 22 pts above county median

Science

Grade 565%

School 65% · District 25% · ▲ 40 pts above district

▲ 37 pts above state median · ▲ 26 pts above county median

Grade 841%

School 41% · District 21% · ▲ 21 pts above district

▲ 16 pts above state median · ▲ 11 pts above county median

Social studies

Grade 883%

School 83% · District 30% · ▲ 53 pts above district

▲ 34 pts above state median · ▲ 33 pts above county median

This schoolOakland Unified, 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.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 3Lower-income54%Higher-income87%33 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income58%Higher-income80%22 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income53%Higher-income77%24 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income60%Higher-income84%24 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income69%Higher-income96%27 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income46%Higher-income84%39 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income69%Higher-income84%15 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income75%Higher-income83%8 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income33%Higher-income71%38 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income20%Higher-income58%38 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income50%Higher-income83%33 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income27%Higher-income58%31 pp gap