The Good, the Bad, and the ugly in OUSD’s 2015

Hope, change, tragedy, success and rancor marked Oakland Unified’s 2015.   The arc is seeming to bend towards justice, but given the persistence and depth of inequality, nobody can be satisfied with the rate of progress, or that any better outcomes are guaranteed unless we work for them. The Good The Board Hired a Strong, Visionary…


Post’s Op-Ed on charter schools and special education doesn’t serve reality or students

It’s disappointing to continually hear the half-truths and what I will call “misconceptions” around charter schools and special education students in Oakland.  A little fact checking would have helped—but let me do some here. Many of these were raised in a recent op-ed in the Oakland Post in the op-ed, Charter Schools in Oakland do…


Parent’s Voice-Let’s Make Our Voices Heard on Improving School Enrollment in Oakland

Part of what makes Oakland great is how our city celebrates equity and diversity. But there is a major part of public education in our city that does not fit with our values: the way families find and enroll in Oakland’s public schools. The current process is unfair, disproportionately disadvantaging parents who work multiple jobs,…


Model Minority Myths, and Who is Most Left Behind in OUSD

Quick, which ethnic group had the highest dropout rate and lowest A-G course completion in Oakland Unified?  I bet you are wrong…It’s Pacific Islanders according to OUSD’s latest balanced scorecard . Who had the lowest cohort graduation rates of boys of color?  Wrong again, according to an OFCY report it is Native American boys (38%),…


Who is a Public School in Oakland, and Are Charters Discriminating?

Charters are private.  They don’t serve special education students or English language learners.  They aren’t public schools and should not be part of the school options guide given to parents or a common enrollment system.  That is the chatter in Oakland among parts of the school community. There is too much to unpack in one…