All the education news fit to link, this week–more on the OUSD budget, test scores are out, upcoming candidate forums, the need to address the challenges facing Black families and the final SoBEO event of the year, the deep financial challenges of CA education, the governor’s latest ed moves, the importance of sex education and listening to student voice, a parent’s guide to understanding the IEP process, and opportunities for you to help, please read, share and get involved
Oakland:
- Yo-Yo Ma plays with local pop band at Oakland block party
- Budget Matters OUSD Relief Bill
- Clarifying the Closing of the Books
- State Releases Test Results, Alameda County Students Continue to Show Progress
- Featuring Locally Grown Public Schools: Ethnic Studies at Unity High
- These Schools Are Taking Action to Keep ICE Out of the Classroom
- The Black Paper | State of Black Education – Oakland
- Oakland NAACP School Board Candidate Forum
- OUSD School Board Candidates Forum on Special Education
- Oakland Tech Teacher Wins Alameda County Teacher of the Year
California:
- Walters: Massive study shows California schools face bleak financial future
- Only 8 states, including California require sex education classes to mention consent
- Gov. Brown vetoes bill to let districts give SAT or ACT as 11th grade test
- Gov. Brown vetoes expansion of California’s school suspension ban
- California’s test scores are so stagnant, it could take a generation to close the achievement gap
- The Battle to Decide California’s Education Future
Best of the Rest:
Resources:
How You Can Help:
- My New Red Shoes Delivers New Shoes to 900 Students in Oakland Unified School District
- Arturo Cervantes’ Fundraising Page for Big City Mountaineers
Oakland:
- Yo-Yo Ma plays with local pop band at Oakland block party
- [Yo-Yo Ma] lived up to the billing of the Oakland block party he co-sponsored Saturday afternoon, celebrating the city’s rich cultural heritage by playing with a local pop band made up of four sisters and brothers, ages 13 to 18.
- Budget Matters OUSD Relief Bill
- GO’s Director of Educator Leadership Nima Tahai breaks down AB 1840 (the OUSD Budget Relief Bill), which was recently signed by Governor Brown.
- Clarifying the Closing of the Books
- “Closing of the books” refers to a time after the school year has ended when a district such as OUSD is able to finally account for all of its revenue and expenses and see its actual financial balance(s).
- State Releases Test Results, Alameda County Students Continue to Show Progress
- The California Department of Education released the results Tuesday morning from the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) administered during the 2017-18 school year.
- Featuring Locally Grown Public Schools: Ethnic Studies at Unity High
- The Unity High teachers’ approach to ethnic studies is a great roadmap for other schools to follow as California adopts the course as a high school graduation requirement.
- These Schools Are Taking Action to Keep ICE Out of the Classroom
- “We’re trying to get beyond a fear-based response and to do the deeper work of what does it mean to have a new generation of youth who feel empowered and engaged and see themselves as resources and allies to each other,” said Nicole Knight, executive director of English Language Learner and Multilingual Achievement at the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD). “That’s really what we’re working to build.”
- The Black Paper | State of Black Education – Oakland
- Our State of Black Education in Oakland (SoBEO) series has engaged hundreds of community members around the needs of families, children and educators, and how we move the needle on equity. This event will review our research and produce findings, bring our partners back together to reflect on our learnings, and build momentum towards a set of community developed policy proposals for decision makers, our Black Paper.
- Oakland NAACP School Board Candidate Forum
- The Oakland NAACP Education Committee is sponsoring a candidate forum for Oakland School Board candidates. Join us to question your candidate and learn their positions on important issues! This is Democracy in action!
- OUSD School Board Candidates Forum on Special Education
- Engage School Board candidates as we ask them about their vision for the future of students with disabilities and Special Education in Oakland.
- Oakland Tech Teacher Wins Alameda County Teacher of the Year
- At the 29th Annual Alameda County Teacher of the Year Awards Ceremony on Thursday, October 4, one of OUSD’s 2018 Teachers of the Year took home the top honors.
California:
- Walters: Massive study shows California schools face bleak financial future
- A team of researchers managed by Stanford University and Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) recently released a massive study of California schools’ successes and shortcomings
- Only 8 states, including California require sex education classes to mention consent
- This moment in politics has spurred many different conversations. One of them: how schools teach students about consent and sexual assault. A study conducted by the Center for American Progress, a nonpartisan policy institute, found that the majority of America’s public school students don’t know how to identify healthy and unhealthy relationship behaviors.
- Gov. Brown vetoes bill to let districts give SAT or ACT as 11th grade test
- With the advice of his longtime education adviser, Michael Kirst, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed legislation Friday that would give school districts the option of replacing the state’s 11th-grade standardized test with the college admissions tests, the SAT or the ACT.
- Gov. Brown vetoes expansion of California’s school suspension ban
- Gov. Jerry Brown dealt a blow Sunday to school discipline reform efforts in California with his veto of a bill that would have expanded the state’s ban on suspensions for “disruption and defiance” to include grades K-8.
- California’s test scores are so stagnant, it could take a generation to close the achievement gap
- For the second year in a row, California students’ test scores have inched up so slowly that, by some estimates, it could take a generation for disadvantaged students to close the achievement gap with their peers.
- The Battle to Decide California’s Education Future
- Whoever is elected California’s next governor and state superintendent of public instruction in November will be tasked with improving the state’s education system.
Best of the Rest:
- When Students Get it Right: How Listening to the End Users in Education is the Right Move
- New York just became the first state in the United States to make mental health education mandatory for public school students starting at age 3. The policy aims to help destigmatize mental health to ensure a healthier population as youth anxiety and depression are on the rise. This is a huge step for public education as it is historically slow to grow and evolve.Meanwhile, a world away from the skyscrapers of New York in Oakland, CA, there was a small group of students that made similar recommendations.
Resources:
- Understanding the Annual IEP Process
- As a parent or youth over 18, your participation in creating an IEP is central to exercising your rights guaranteed by the IDEA.
How You Can Help:
- My New Red Shoes Delivers New Shoes to 900 Students in Oakland Unified School District
- Countering Childhood Poverty Is Every Community’s Responsibility. My New Red Shoes Makes It Possible For Communities To Come Together To Address the Clothing Gap And Toxic Stress of Poverty On Children’s Health, Development and Education.
- Arturo Cervantes’ Fundraising Page for Big City Mountaineers
- Please join me in raising funds to help give under-resourced youth transformative wilderness experiences with Big City Mountaineers!
What do you think?