More school choice, by itself will not lead to more equitable outcomes. Indeed “choice” for underserved families is often one of those platitudes, like “justice” whose airy description bears little resemblance to the ground level realities. So as Oakland potentially moves to a common enrollment system that will ideally increase the numbers of families making…
Month: December 2015
Helping Families Choose the Best Schools- We Need an App for That
My friend’s grandson was struggling in his elementary school, a very smart kid, he had regressed over the last couple of years. He can be a tough kid, he has seen more than he should have, and holds a reservoir of anger and sadness. But he has been labeled at his school as “the bad…
Copy successful programs and plant them in struggling schools
Note- this is an updated version of the Paideia piece, the Tribune wanted to publish it but I needed to add 100 plus words, you can find it in the Trib at http://www.contracostatimes.com/opinion/ci_29195210/guest-commentary-copy-successful-programs-and-plant-them A weird thing happened recently at the Oakland Unified school board meeting. A real, substantive, solution-oriented question was asked by the Oakland Education…
In common enrollment who is “the other guy’s” kid?
Our current enrollment system is one of the most inequitable ways to assign schools. Families with financial resources move to neighborhoods with good local schools and/or send their kids to private schools at middle or high. Families with greater cultural capital and time can review and apply to the range of charters or look for…
Fixing School Accountability to Drive Equity
The systems we have created to judge schools are now one of the prime drivers of increasing inequality. Anyone who has worked in schools can see this. Right now we judge schools mostly by the percentage of students who reach a pretty high proficiency bar. We don’t really measure or value growth. And we particularly…