Top students fleeing Oakland public schools

"We're just grappling with it in this country," she said. "There's fear, fear because people are different and their kids are getting older, and they are afraid of what the differences bring."

San Francisco is a model for parents coming together to promote the public schools and convince other families to attend, improving the schools and their communities, Foster said.

"You almost have to have parents whose children are on the receiving end of the product and tell the success stories," she said. "That's what Oakland has to have: families who will fight for those schools."

District officials say they hope to convince more families to stay by sharing data and information to combat stereotypes or preconceived ideas about test scores.

"I think Oakland suffers from a chronic inferiority complex," said school board member Jody London, who sends her two children to Chabot Elementary and Claremont Middle. "I am disappointed more people don't choose to stay in the system, because I think our schools have a lot to offer.

"But I don't want to leave it at 'I'm disappointed,' " she said. "I think it's incumbent on us to earn the students back."

Brain drain

Oakland elementary schools with the highest leaving rate of students in the fifth grade during the 2009-10 school year:

Lincoln Elementary -

77 percent

Crocker Highlands Elementary - 52 percent

Thornhill Elementary -

49 percent

Chabot Elementary -

47 percent

Think College Now -

44 percent

Peralta Elementary -

44 percent

Source: Oakland Unified School District