“Special” education shouldn’t be that special. Our current system artificially divides students, provides excuses for failure, and tends to hurt rather than help the intended beneficiaries, all the while walling out a whole range of students who should benefit from additional resources but don’t technically qualify. Fixing “special” education means making it unspecial, eliminating the…
Month: June 2016
Charter Schools are Public Schools—and They Need to Act Like It
Charter schools are public schools. State law defines them that way, they are non-sectarian and tuition-free, have open enrollment with lotteries (though there may be auditions for an arts school etc.), and the State funds them. But some charters don’t act like public schools. Charters have to follow state law around testing and transparency and…
Is Oakland Achieving? Comparing Charters and District Run Schools in Oakland
A new report compares students at charter public schools and district run ones in Oakland, and surprise, they are very demographically similar, though there are some big differences in outcomes especially in high school for Black and Brown students. I am sure lots of folks will pronounce the story over, either pro or anti charter based…
The Charter Illuminaughty, And The Oakland CONspiracy
I love conspiracies. I love being part of them. And I love to try to get to the bottom of them. So when I read about the billionaire power play to take over OUSD I had two thoughts. First, are the 1% that inbred that they think they can actually herd the charter cats to…
Why Cant we Get Authentic Family Organizations
The most affected stakeholders in the public education wars are largely silent. Underserved families are more often used as props than propped up. Not since Oakland Community Organization’s push for reform in the late 90’s early 2000’s have I seen the progressive mobilization and empowerment of families, researching models, organizing for change, and making a…