The Oakland Education Week in Review 10/28-11/4

All the Oakland Ed news fit to link, this week a great look from KQED at Black families in Oakland taking action, more on the budget and state takeover possibility, an editorial calls for bold change, a look at a Waldorf public school, youth voice, the need for a deeper equity lens from the state, looking at the state superintendents race, all that and more, please read, share, and get involved

• Black Parents Say It’s Up to Them to Fix Unequal Oakland Schools
• Oakland risks state takeover if it fails to make budget cuts, state and county officials warn
• Opinion: New Oakland school financial crisis requires bold changes
• Featuring Locally Grown Public Schools: Ready for Rigor at Community School for Creative Education
• 2019 Black Joy Parade + CBE Week Info session
• 1Oakland Presents: #Wegotyourbackoakedu
• Oakland Military Institute #SRLYouthVote
• Editorial: No there there for Oakland Children’s Initiative

California:

• New California leadership must take up educational justice
• California needs a new master plan to close the education equity gap
• Data exclusive: With California school bonds, the rich get richer and the poor, not so much
• After court loss, California unions still have big money for politics. It might not be enough
• Differences between Marshall Tuck and Tony Thurmond are real, as are areas of agreement

Best of the Rest:

• Turning Out: The Youth Vote
• What Kids Need to Succeed: CZI’s Latest Moves to Advance a “Whole Child” Approach to Education

Oakland:

• Black Parents Say It’s Up to Them to Fix Unequal Oakland Schools
  • Fewer than one in eight black students in Oakland Unified School District meet state math standards. Fewer than one in five meet reading standards. Black students are far more likely to be chronically absent or get suspended than white students in OUSD schools. Nearly 70 percent of Oakland’s homeless population is black. But these data points were meant as a rallying cry, not a sign of defeat.Those who milled about reading them had come to an event billed as the State of Black Education.
• Oakland risks state takeover if it fails to make budget cuts, state and county officials warn
  • If Oakland Unified doesn’t make millions of dollars in budget cuts over the next four years, it could risk another state takeover, state and county officials said.
• Opinion: New Oakland school financial crisis requires bold changes
  • Fixing problems in Oakland schools will be hard, but failing to fix them will be harder. I’m hopeful we can do it this time. Oakland’s public schools need to be changed in major ways. Many of our public schools, both district-run and charter, are not serving students well. Bold changes are required, and some of them will be difficult. But failing to act will be even harder, especially for our most historically underserved students
• Featuring Locally Grown Public Schools: Ready for Rigor at Community School for Creative Education
  • It is almost 8:30 am in the Community School for Creative Education (CSCE) courtyard when the drumming starts. First, it’s Kevin Veillette, a TK/Kindergarten teacher. All of the 250 students from the school present that day are here, from TK-8th grade, and they begin to circle up and recite a mantra, which begins: This our school. Let peace live here. Let the rooms be filled with contentment. Let love abide here: Love for one another …
• 2019 Black Joy Parade + CBE Week Info session
  • Come learn more about the organizations and how to participate, including how to become a participant, vendor or volunteer. Representatives from a few of our biggest sponsors will be on hand to answer any questions about their involvement. Hope to see you there!
• 1Oakland Presents: #Wegotyourbackoakedu
  • What is going on in the redesign of our school system by OUSD? Watch this 2-minute video to learn more and get involved.
• Oakland Military Institute #SRLYouthVote
  • Voting is an easy streamlined way for you to influence government
• Editorial: No there there for Oakland Children’s Initiative
  • Providing early childhood education is an excellent way to bolster children’s chances for success in school and in life. And providing mentoring and financial assistance would help balance the inequities in access to a college education.

California:

• New California leadership must take up educational justice
  • Families and students know that resources matter, so we urge state leaders to adequately fund our system – which means raising revenue, solving our pension crisis, and making college affordable. Parents want to know how their students are progressing on the path to and through college, so we urge state leaders to track student growth over time, invest in rigorous STEM and college readiness opportunities for all students, and build better data systems.
• California needs a new master plan to close the education equity gap
  • California’s next governor will have a historic opportunity to address the massive educational equity gap threatening the state’s future prosperity. What’s needed to unlock the full potential of all our children is a new, broadly supported “Master Plan” for investing the riches of the world’s fifth largest economy at every level of public education.
• Data exclusive: With California school bonds, the rich get richer and the poor, not so much
  • Wealthier school districts received more than twice as many local bond dollars per students over the past 20 years compared to districts with the highest concentrations of poor students.
• After court loss, California unions still have big money for politics. It might not be enough
  • Fresh off a Supreme Court loss that stripped them of millions of dollars in an annual revenue, California public employee unions are finding that they still have the big money they need to run statewide political campaigns…It just might not be enough cash to keep up with their opponents.
• Differences between Marshall Tuck and Tony Thurmond are real, as are areas of agreement
  • Thurmond has the solid support of the state’s unionized teachers. Tuck has the charter schools behind him. The challenge for voters is to choose the candidate they like based on issues where the state superintendent can make a difference.

Best of the Rest:

• Turning Out: The Youth Vote
  • Teen reporters from the PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs across the country captured how teens feel about voting and the upcoming midterm elections. From Miami, Florida to Bozeman, Montana, student journalists in 28 states conducted over 300 interviews, including some with elected officials and young political leaders. These stories tackle topics like lowering the voting age to 16 and how first-time voters are being mobilized in battleground states like Florida.
• What Kids Need to Succeed: CZI’s Latest Moves to Advance a “Whole Child” Approach to Education
  • The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative recently disbursed $3.3 million in grants to four organizations working to gather evidence around how best to implement strategies that help kids learn life skills—like how to make decisions, develop an independent sense of agency and follow their own interests and passions. CZI defines an education that accounts for the “whole child” as one that addresses a child’s academic needs along with her social and emotional, cognitive, identity, physical and mental needs.