The Oakland Education Week in Review: 5/26-6/3

All the news from last week, more on budget cuts, graduations are starting, a great feature on the Opportunity Ticket, looking at graduation rates, updates on the charter legislation, rats at Mack, the Supe breaks down space sharing and the law, the importance of Black teachers, tax hikes on the horizon for education? all that and much more with links

Oakland:

California:

Other Stories:

Resources:

Oakland:

  • Oakland school budget cuts threaten program credited with reducing suspensions
    • Across classrooms in Oakland, restorative justice circles are helping students learn to build relationships through conversations about values, self-awareness and accountability.
  • Final Week of 2018-19 School Year Includes 13 Graduations, Plus Celebration of Outstanding OUSD Student-Athletes
    • Three OUSD high schools have already graduated, and now it’s time for the 13 remaining schools to hold their commencements. This final week of the school year is packed with graduations, as well as promotion ceremonies at elementary and middle schools. The ceremonies begin on Tuesday afternoon, May 28 and continue through Friday evening, May 31. Full schedule is below.
  • Oakland’s New Opportunity Ticket Gives Students in Failing Schools a Shot at Attending Its Most Sought-After Ones
    • For prominent voices in the debate over our schools — it’s an “outlook” that offers the privilege of patience. For parents without that kind of money, patience is yet another luxury we’ve never been able to afford. But now, the picture has gotten a little bit fairer. Now, some parents in some of the city’s most troubled schools have something better than an out. It’s called the Opportunity Ticket.
  • How mentoring kids changed my life
    • It was my first week at my summer mentorship program, “Brothers on the Rise.” We had a training the week before and it was more than I expected.
  • CRUNCHED: Are Oakland Graduates Prepared for College and Career?
    • In the last CRUNCHED! blog post, I looked at citywide graduation rates (takeaway: steadily improving year-over-year in Oakland, but gaps persist). As our recent grads start thinking about post-grad life, I wondered from a data perspective how to dig deeper into the question around whether students are prepared for life after high school. (Being “ready” can mean different things to different people; I’m not sure I felt fully prepared, or maybe no one ever really does.) But using what limited data is available, I asked the question: Are Oakland public high school grads getting the coursework that, according to the State of California, means they’re really academically ready for college and future careers?
  • Oakland Promise college scholarship program moves to nonprofit
    • After three years, Oakland Promise — Mayor Libby Schaaf’s multifaceted initiative to significantly increase the number of college graduates from the city — is moving out of her office, merging with the East Bay College Fund and becoming a nonprofit.
  • Opinion: Share Space with Charter Schools: Mandates and Responsibilities
    • The Board of Education’s Community of Schools Policy calls on us to reimagine our school system to ensure a quality school for all Oakland students. We know that all students deserve a clean and safe school in their neighborhood with ample space for academics, recreation, and vital programs that support social emotional learning.
  • State Says School District Must Remedy Rodent Problem at McClymonds High
    • The State Division of Occupational Safety and Health, commonly known as Cal/OSHA, has sent a letter requiring the Oakland Unified School District to deal with an allegation of rodent infestation at McClymonds High School, the Oakland Post has learned.
  • Friday Five: Weekly news for Oakland charters
    • We have some news and other great content to share with you this week: updates from Sacramento on a senate bill that would impose a two-year moratorium on new charter schools and an assembly bill that would make local school districts the sole authority to approve new charter schools; a look at why support for charters is decreasing across the country; an update on the Oakland Promise; and much more.
  • School Boardmember Roseann Torres to Co-Chair State Equity Initiative
    • State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond has appointed Oakland School Boardmember Roseann Torres as co-chair of his statewide Closing the Achievement Gap Initiative.

California:

Other Stories:

  • When Black Voters Exited Left: What African Americans lost by aligning with the Democratic Party
    • This is a problem for black voters, because the Democratic Party’s vision of racial justice is also extremely limited. Northern liberals pioneered what scholars now call “colorblind racism.” That’s when racially neutral language makes extreme racial inequalities appear to be the natural outcome of innocent private choices or free-market forces rather than intentional public policies like housing covenants, federal mortgage redlining, public housing segregation, and school zoning.
  • Don’t use the SAT or ACT to undermine education accountability
    • Providing all students with the chance to take college admissions tests sounds like a logical way to pull disadvantaged students into the college pipeline. Unfortunately, the way state lawmakers are moving to do this is a huge mistake that will undermine accountability for excellence and equity. For several years, a number of school districts and others have been pressuring the state to administer the SAT or ACT in lieu of the Smarter Balanced tests in English Language Arts and math that all 11th graders are expected to take each spring.
  • To Get To College, It Helps Black Students To Have A Black Teacher Early On
    • Researchers have studied disparities in areas such as test scores and discipline rates to identify ways to close the gap. But what if matching the race of a student and their teacher could contribute to a solution?
  • Teacher charged in California sex assault fired in Wisconsin
    • A California high school teacher charged with sexually assaulting a girl starting when she was 16 was previously deemed “dangerous for the children in his custody” by a Wisconsin school district, a news report said Thursday.
  • ‘No Excuses’ Only Works When It Applies to the Adults in the School, Too
    • The problem with many “no excuses” schools is that the motto is often imposed on children but not adults. The adults make all kinds of excuses about the kids who don’t want to learn, whose parents won’t support the school, or whatever justification they have for pushing out kids who don’t fit the mold.
  • I’m a New York City high school junior, and I’m glad more of my teachers are getting anti-bias training
    • Today, as a 16-year-old Filipina and Puerto Rican student at a predominantly white high school, I am intimately familiar with the fact that New York has some of the most segregated schools in America.
  • Colorado teacher adopting sick student to help him get a new kidney and a home
    • They started the school year as strangers and they are ending the year as family.
  • Black teachers matter. How do we get more in the classroom? | Opinion
    • Districts and schools search incessantly for meaningful, sustainable, and effective school-based interventions — and those efforts often fail. Tons of money has been spent on countless reform concepts: “whole language,” “small schools,” “schools within schools,” “small classrooms.” The list goes on.
  • Opinion: Nation’s school systems remain separate and unequal
    • This month marks the 65th anniversary of Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka, the landmark Supreme Court ruling that ordered states to end school segregation “with all deliberate speed.” The Court made clear that separate was not and could not be equal.
  • Restorative Justice in Schools: SEL in Action
    • I was bullied in high school. The bullying took the form of humiliation, physical assault, and mental torment. At the time, it was simply thought of as “kids being kids.” Not a single administrator or teacher did anything to check in, help me, or stop the bullying. Many of my teachers laughed it off when they witnessed it.

Resources:

  • Three Ways School Leaders Can Undo Grading Inequities
    • Public education has charted an exciting trajectory over the last 20 years. 1996 saw the publication of “Breaking Ranks: Changing an American Institution,” which laid out a model for school transformation based on collaborative leadership, personalizing the school environment, and curriculum, instruction, and assessment practices to enhance student engagement and learning.

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