Oakland International High School
Oakland International High School opened in August 2007 with the support of the Internationals Network of Public Schools, Oakland Unified School District, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The school targets a population of students, newly arrived immigrants, who have historically been underserved nationally, in California, and in Oakland.
At Oakland International, no student is anonymous. Each grade level has only 100 students. Our small size and our team structure allow personalization, growth, and success for our students. In their first two years at Oakland International, students remain with the same team of 5 teachers. In their junior and senior years, seniors will have opportunities for internships and community service in different settings, from businesses to government offices to community organizations. All students participate in our multi-media California Partnership Academy that gives students the technology skills required for college and careers in the 21st century.
All our teachers are trained in the Internationals Approach to teach students to improve their speaking, writing, and reading skills in English. We believe that English language acquisition is best fostered in an academic environment in which students participate in 1) Heterogeneous groups 2) Project based curriculum 3) English development is integrated into all content areas. Working in small groups, students learn academic content, art, music and technology through exciting, rigorous, hands-on projects as they learn their new language.
OIHS is a member of the Internationals Network for Public Schools a non-profit organization that grew out of the work of a group of International high schools in New York City. It now supports 18 schools based in New York City, Virginia, and the Ca Bay Area. Our first school opened in 1985; two more followed in the 1990’s. Since 2001, the network has opened and supported 15 additional high schools with the help of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The network’s mission is to provide quality education to recently arrived immigrants by developing and networking small high schools based on the Internationals approach. For more information, please visit their website at: http://www.internationalsnps.org.
