Berkeley has a system of enrollment that is based on the zone that you live in. There are three zones that each run from flatlands (typically lower income) to hills (typically higher income) and there is a 'choice / lottery' system that works within the zone. In otherwords, if you live in Zone A, you could potentially go to any school in Zone A but it'd be much harder for you to get into a school in Zone B. The idea as I understand it is to mix up the students to offer an educational experience that is more diverse across many ways of measuring diversity.

I'm not a parent in the Berkeley Unified School District so I can't speak from personal experience about how this has worked, but I looked into the system when I was trying to figure out where to send my kids.

I ended up choosing a private school, because high quality dual immersion Spanish/English was our top priority, so my kids are at Escuela Bilingue Internacional on the border of Berkeley / Oakland.