How Cisco Meraki Helps Schools Get Online Wirelessly

Oakland Unity Charter High School Case Study

Oakland Unity High School’s (Unity) aims to promote high academic success along with positive social and cultural development. Unity strives to prepare each and every student for admission to college and successful completion of academic degree requirements.

Unity’s rigorous curriculum meets the University of California A-G requirements, with its emphasis on development of basic skills and mastering of core subject matter in English language arts, mathematics, social studies, and science. Its safe, friendly campus environment fosters a comprehensive support program that promotes healthy youth development and allows all students to apply their knowledge and skills to the very best of their abilities.

Founded in 2003, by Executive Director Dr. Sau-Lim (Lance) Tsang, Unity is an independent charter high school open to all students residing in Oakland. Some of the challenges that Unity students face are poverty and unsafe neighborhoods as well as lack of familiarity with the American public school system and college entrance requirements.

The 2014-15 program currently serves 310 9th-12th graders: 85% Latinos, 13% African Americans, and 2% other. Over 80% of Unity students qualify for free or reduced price lunch based on family income level. More than 75% are from homes where English is not the primary language spoken.

Using Cisco Meraki to Keep Students Online to Learn More

Unity faculty and staff work continuously and diligently to maintain a positive learning environment that is geared towards the individual needs of each student. A number of state of the art online learning tools are used to meet the goals of college admission and successful academic completion of requirements. These include YouTube for Schools Program and Kahn Academy.

To allow students to access and interact with this wealth of content in a secure manner, a new, intelligent wireless network along with notebook computers was needed. Unity also wanted a system that would allow the staff to select and filter Internet content without use of on-site IT professionals.

The cloud-managed Cisco Meraki system provided by Team One Solutions met virtually every requirement for Unity’s online system. “After meeting with Team One and comparing its proposal with another vendor, we selected Team One based on pricing and our needs,” said Tsang. Equipped with an intuitive and easy to use dashboard, the system provides high availability coverage on all areas of the campus and permits the Unity staff to effortlessly manage their network and make changes when necessary.

This cloud-managed, sophisticated network is easily configured, easily maintained, and is fully supported by the Cisco Meraki and Team One Solutions organizations. It runs efficiently, with little need for attention and maintenance. This ease of use frees the Unity teachers and staff to do what they do best: prepare their students for success in college and in their chosen careers. 

“Before Cisco, we had a home grown networking system. As our usage of Wi-Fi grew, the homegrown system was giving us many problems. We now have over 200 devices logging into our Wi-Fi at any time. After learning and setting the different features on the Meraki dashboard, we are now problem free,” commented Tsang.

And the best part for Tsang after installing the Cisco Meraki system for the school, “no more complaints from teachers!”

Free Cisco Meraki Demo and AP

If you work at a school or our the school’s IT professional you can receive a free Meraki wireless access point (AP) after attending a free online Cisco Meraki webinar. Sign up for your free wireless AP now.

* To be eligible for a free wireless access point, webinar participants must be an IT professional. Existing Meraki customers are not eligible. Limit of one free wireless AP per company. For more details, click here.