Oakland’s raucous debate around including all public schools—charters and district-run in a single enrollment system—is literally much ado about nothing. Common enrollment will not happen in the short term in Oakland—the politics are too hot, and the real beneficiaries, Oakland parents stranded without satisfactory neighborhood schools are relegated to the sidelines. The debate dominated by…
Month: May 2016
Proof Points on Reform- Coliseum College Prep Academy
We hear so much about the real and purported failures in Oakland Unified that the successes get lost. And a big exclamation of District success is Coliseum College Prep Academy (CCPA), formerly Havenscourt, a school boasting a 91% cohort graduation rate and serving Flatland kids. It wasn’t always like this. Havenscourt may have had a…
“750 destroyers” or 750 families?
It’s hard to keep your eyes open during the 8 hour OUSD board meetings, but sometimes you hear something so peculiar that you are jarred awake. And when you actually watch the meetings the craziness tends to slap you in the face. So yeah, the families who attend Lighthouse Charter were called “destroyers” of public…
Good News on OUSD Grad Rates and Finances, Equity Still an Issue
Despite the chorus of moaning, groaning, and bemoaning at OUSD Board meetings, things are going relatively well. Graduation rates are up among Black and Latino students, and overall, continuing significant trends. The District is showing a positive fund balance, and approval from the public is at the highest point in decades. Obviously the job isn’t…
When the District Gets it Right- Study Abroad for Flatlands kids
When Thrival Academy’s co founder described their program, a year abroad for 20 Oakland kids, studying and learning about the culture of a faraway land and themselves through academic internships, I thought it was a great idea. But the District would never approve it. There are a million reasons to say no and only one…