Silicon Valley Equity in Education Institute

Silicon Valley Equity in Education Institute Advancing Educational and Economic Equity in Silicon Valley

06/11/2026

A few weeks ago, CBS featured our Oakland data, capturing what our team at the Silicon Valley Equity in Education Institute (SVEEI) has spent months tracing across district, census, and attendance records.

The forces reshaping Oakland Unified School District operate far outside the classroom. Rising rents, climbing home values, and eroding institutional trust drive enrollment decline, chronic absenteeism, and widening achievement gaps.

Four findings from our 2024 to 2025 analysis carry the story:

(1) Black/African American enrollment fell roughly 17 percent, from 10,551 to 8,724 students, as Oakland families with children under 18 held steady near 38,000, a sign of displacement.

(2) Median home values climbed from $627,800 in 2018 to $929,900 in 2024 as median income rose nearly 48 percent, the signature of gentrification rather than broad uplift.

(3) Chronic absenteeism more than doubled and peaked at 52.9 percent district-wide, reaching beyond 70 percent for unhoused students.

(4) By Grade 11, fewer than one in ten Black/African American (6.3 percent) and Latino/a/x (9.0 percent) students met state math standards, the gateway to A through G eligibility and STEM pathways.

Education does not stand alone, and no one can repair it in isolation from the systems around it. A family priced out of Oakland takes its student out of the district, and the classroom inherits conditions set far beyond the schoolhouse door.

Short-term incentives function as band-aids over a structural wound. Real progress demands that we confront the full system across housing, economic development, immigration, and education. Every band-aid applied in place of structural change silos young people like those in Oakland inside conditions they did not create. We close these gaps by working together, with the honesty to name how these problems connect.

Read the report and watch the CBS segment: https://hootbio.com/sveeinstitute

James Lick High School and KIPP sit in the same corner of East San Jose, draw from the same feeder pipelines, and carry ...
06/04/2026

James Lick High School and KIPP sit in the same corner of East San Jose, draw from the same feeder pipelines, and carry socioeconomic profiles within ten percentage points of each other, and the Math proficiency gap between them runs to 56 points, with KIPP at 64% and James Lick at 7.8%. Ten points of demographic difference produce at most ten points of outcome difference, which means the rest of that gap is a district product, and East Side Union High School District has not explained publicly what produced it.

Our new Substack piece works through the data ESUHSD already tracks at every stage, from the 64.5% of James Lick graduates who cross the stage without access to a UC or CSU, to the comparable non-charter campuses with identical SED populations like Yerba Buena and Oak Grove that outperform James Lick under the same board and the same superintendent, to the one number the district has never released, the ninth-grade A-G enrollment rate at James Lick over the last five years. The conditions that close this gap already exist inside the district's own boundary, and the question the data forces is whether ESUHSD has ever applied them to the campus that needs them most.

Read the full breakdown at https://substack.com/.

In San Jose, the East Side Union High School District is asking the public to accept a story that collapses under its ow...
06/02/2026

In San Jose, the East Side Union High School District is asking the public to accept a story that collapses under its own numbers. The district graduates 89.5% of its non-charter students, then uses that figure to project success across East San Jose. The reality is far more serious: only 52.1% of those graduates are eligible for UC or CSU.

That means nearly half of ESUHSD graduates cross the stage with a diploma that does not give them access to California’s public university systems. A district cannot call that readiness. It is a limited credential dressed up as success.

This is regional inequity with district letterhead. At James Lick, only 35.5% of graduates are UC or CSU eligible. At Andrew Hill, the figure is 33%. At Piedmont Hills, it is 72.2%. At Evergreen Valley, it is 77.9%. These students live in the same region, belong to the same district, and face the same Silicon Valley economy. The difference is access: course offerings, counselor placement, master schedules, academic support, and whether the district placed students into the A-G pipeline early enough to make college eligibility possible.

Here at the Silicon Valley Equity in Education Institute (SVEEI), we are building a coalition because East San Jose cannot build for the future if its students are graduating into limited options. Parents, students, educators, counselors, graduates, community organizations, and district leaders should all be at the table. The demand is practical: the system must release A-G enrollment data by school and by student group. East Side leadership owes the community a direct answer: how long have you known these readiness gaps existed, and when were you planning to tell the public? Full piece at https://substack.com/


05/29/2026

ICYMI: SVEEI Is in the News on Oakland Unified’s Attendance Crisis

CBS Bay Area featured SVEEI Deputy Executive Director Dr. Cheryl Ingram in a segment on chronic absenteeism in Oakland Unified, which we exposed last month.

This conversation matters because chronic absenteeism is not simply an attendance problem. We must acknowledge that it reflects the underlying conditions that shape whether students can consistently show up to school: housing instability, economic pressures, transportation barriers, mental health needs, discipline disparities, and broader systemic inequities.

SVEEI’s new report with Thee Institute, Vanishing Students, Widening Gaps, places Oakland’s attendance crisis in its full structural context. The data is clear: students are not vanishing by accident. Systems are failing to meet the scale of their needs.

Local media is paying attention. Education leaders need to answer. SVEEI is making noise because the data speaks volumes, and once these inequities are brought into public view, people want to know more. We urge every school district reflected in our work to take action now, before public accountability arrives through the press.

San Jose: Fewer than 1 in 10. That is what the East Side Union High School District thinks James Lick High School studen...
05/28/2026

San Jose: Fewer than 1 in 10. That is what the East Side Union High School District thinks James Lick High School students deserve.

There are two students in East San Jose right now. Both are enrolled in the East Side Union High School District. Both are sitting in a math classroom today. The student at James Lick has a 7.8% chance of meeting math standards. The student at Evergreen Valley has a 69% chance.

Those two numbers tell the story of a district that has decided, through its choices about resources, staffing, course access, and attention, that one set of students matters more than the other.

We know that math is the direct pathway into STEM careers, college readiness, and the Silicon Valley economy that sits miles from both campuses. The student at Evergreen Valley is being prepared to walk into that economy. The student at James Lick is being sent out without the tools to compete in it.

East Side Union High School District has a ready list of explanations for this inequity. Federal policy is changing. The state is not sending enough resources. Special interests are interfering. Declining enrollment. The political environment is difficult.

The district can blame every external force available. It can cite every policy headwind, every funding formula, every demographic challenge. At the end of that list, fewer than 1 in 10 students at James Lick are meeting math standards. The superintendent still runs this district. The board of trustees still governs it. The buck stops with them, not with Sacramento, not with Washington, and not with anyone else in the room.

A district can announce programs. It can hold community forums. It can publish strategic plans. None of that changes what the data already says. Fewer than 1 in 10 students at one of its own campuses is achieving math proficiency. That number is the verdict on every promise the district has made to that community.

The district fails the James Lick student. It does so predictably. It does so consistently. It does so without any public accountability for the outcome, all while the student on the other side of their governance at Evergreen Valley is excelling like never before.

The James Lick community deserves a public answer from the adults who took an oath to serve them. That student is being left behind in the same zip code, in the same county, inside the same Silicon Valley district that is preparing a different set of students for the economy next door. We’ve seen this trajectory compounding for years, with the possibility for improvement gradually fading as academic years pass. Yet, the same governance and strategies permeate, as if the status quo is working.

The superintendent and board of trustees owe the community one specific answer: what is the school-by-school math intervention plan, who is accountable for it, and when does it start? Until then, the Silicon Valley Equity in Education Institute will continue publishing this data. School by school. Number by number. Name by name. Until the district responds with something more than silence.

The East Side Union High School District wants the public to believe charters are the problem. Look in the mirror. The D...
05/27/2026

The East Side Union High School District wants the public to believe charters are the problem. Look in the mirror. The Data Blames ESUHSD.

Charter schools serve 84.3% socioeconomically disadvantaged students. Non-charter schools serve 50.9%. Charter schools serve 10.3% homeless students. Non-charter schools serve 3.9%. The charters carry the heavier load. ESUHSD carries the lighter one.

So answer the question the district keeps dodging. Why did those students leave? What did ESUHSD fail to provide that pushed families out the door? The district lost them. Now the district complains about losing them.

If schools with deeper concentrations of poverty and homelessness are producing results, then ESUHSD has nowhere to hide. The non-charter side has less concentrated need, more stable enrollment, a larger central office, and greater per-pupil resourcing. The district is playing the easier hand and still losing it.

The deflection ends here. ESUHSD must answer for the buildings it operates. Show the counseling hours. Show the math intervention rosters. Show the attendance recovery numbers. Show the academic plans for the 50.9% of SED students already sitting in ESUHSD classrooms and still being underserved.

A district that cannot retain its own students has no standing to blame the schools that took them in. The charters did not take anyone. ESUHSD lost them. Equity is not naming the problem. Equity is proving the district answered it.

Where is the measurable district response?

We are hiring! The Silicon Valley Equity in Education Institute (SVEEI), in partnership with San Francisco Bay Universit...
05/22/2026

We are hiring! The Silicon Valley Equity in Education Institute (SVEEI), in partnership with San Francisco Bay University, is opening two roles for the next phase of our Institute's work.

Why join SVEEI: Our Institute does not flinch from naming the districts, campuses, and patterns that other organizations soften into press releases. Our research publishes school-level data and identifies the campuses in crisis by name. The team we are hiring now will define the next generation of accountability research and convening power in education in Silicon Valley.

Research Fellowship: A competitive applied research fellowship for emerging scholars producing high-impact qualitative and quantitative research on the educational and economic inequities shaping socioeconomically disadvantaged communities. Fellows contribute to equity dashboards, longitudinal data projects, white papers, and systems-level policy work. $25,000 annual award, 20 hours per week, 9 to 12 month appointment.

Seasonal Conference Director (Part-Time ): A strategic, project-based role leading the planning and ex*****on of the inaugural SVEEI Disruption Conference 2027. The Director will help convene leaders across education, workforce development, AI, research, policy, philanthropy, and community advocacy to confront the educational and economic inequities shaping Silicon Valley. Flat project fee of $20,000 to $25,000. Hybrid, Bay Area preferred. Contract term through May / June 2027/

If you want to rebuild the educational institutions that Silicon Valley's students deserve, review the postings at hootbio.com/sveeinstitute. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Tag a researcher, organizer, or convener who belongs in this work.

San Jose: East Side Union High School District's Political ShieldSilicon Valley Equity in Education Institute (SVEEI) is...
05/22/2026

San Jose: East Side Union High School District's Political Shield

Silicon Valley Equity in Education Institute (SVEEI) is releasing the second post in our ESUHSD accountability series. The finding is straightforward. The East Side Union High School District reports a district-level math proficiency average that conceals a 60-plus point performance gap between its lowest-need and highest-need campuses. The students furthest from opportunity are absorbing the cost of a reporting practice the district treats as neutral.

The district average is a governance choice. It allows board members, administrators, and the public to discuss ESUHSD as a single institution serving a single population, when the data show two districts operating under one name. ESUHSD has schools preparing students for advanced coursework. It also has schools posting single-digit math proficiency. The district average refuses to tell you which is which.

SVEEI’s position is direct. School-level reporting is the minimum standard for public accountability in a district with this level of internal inequity. Aggregate numbers without disaggregation are an abdication of the district’s duty to its highest-need students. We will continue publishing school-level analysis until ESUHSD does so itself, and claims accountability to failing to serve it’s students of highest need.

San Jose: The East Side Union High School District Is Running Two School Systems. The inaugural data release from the Si...
05/18/2026

San Jose: The East Side Union High School District Is Running Two School Systems. The inaugural data release from the Silicon Valley Equity in Education Institute showcases how East San Jose's largest district serves two student populations on two different academic trajectories.

The East Side Union High School District serves over 22,000 students across eleven comprehensive high schools in East San Jose. They cannot keep speaking about equity as if every campus is starting from the same place.

Their own data separates non-charter schools into two different worlds. James Lick, Andrew P. Hill, Mt. Pleasant, Oak Grove, William C. Overfelt, and Yerba Buena serve student populations between 64% and 77% socioeconomically disadvantaged. Evergreen Valley, Independence, Piedmont Hills, Santa Teresa, and Silver Creek have below 60% socioeconomically disadvantaged students.

The outcomes follow the divide.

Evergreen Valley reaches 81% ELA proficiency and 69% Math proficiency. James Lick reaches 38.5% ELA and 7.8% Math. That is a 42.5 point ELA gap and a 61.2 point Math gap inside the same district.

ESUHSD does not have one achievement story. Instead, the school district should be attributed to a stratified school system where poverty level and campus assignment are tied to dramatically different academic outcomes. No more districtwide fog. Show the school by school truth.

Today marks the first data release on East San Jose from the Silicon Valley Equity in Education Institute (SVEEI). Stay tuned at sveeinstitute.org

For the past six weeks, the Silicon Valley Equity in Education Institute has been inside Oakland Unified. We documented ...
05/15/2026

For the past six weeks, the Silicon Valley Equity in Education Institute has been inside Oakland Unified. We documented what the achievement gap looks like when a region stops pretending it is paying attention.

We are now turning to East San Jose.

The Catastrophe in East San Jose is SVEEI’s second journal investigation. Seventeen schools inside the East Side Union High School District. Charter and traditional public systems operating side by side. Outcomes that diverge so sharply along lines of race, income, and design that no one who reads this report will be able to claim they did not know. The findings will stop you; they stopped us.

This region built the wealthiest economy in human history. It also built the schools documented in this report. Both are deliberate. We are not interested in polite framing, in charter-versus-public theater, or in the language districts use to bury what their own data already proves. The Silicon Valley Equity in Education Institute (SVEEI) is confronting this crisis directly. We are naming the institutions accountable for it. We are calling on every leader who has stayed silent, every board that has rubber-stamped the status quo, every official who has invested in everything except the children attending these schools, to examine our findings and answer for what it reveals.

The architecture of inequality is documentable. Next week, we will document it. And we expect a response.

Read at substack.com/

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