The Oakland Ed Week in Review: 7/22-7/29

All the education news from last week including a tragic rise in homelessness, Oakland parents telling their stories, SFUSD creates housing for vulnerable youth (ahem Oakland), the latest college going data from Oakland high schools, time for Prop 13 reform, listening to principals, and a call to action for Black and Brown youth, all that and so much more, please read share and get involved

Oakland:

California:

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Oakland:

  • Oakland stunned by 47% rise in homeless count
    • Oakland’s per-capita homeless rate now surpasses the same figure in San Francisco and Berkeley, according to a one-night street count released Monday by city and county officials.
  • Daisy Padilla: Oakland public school alum and fierce advocate for her community
    • While every Oakland public school student has some shared experiences, they each have a unique education story to tell. Daisy Padilla is a fierce community advocate for Oakland’s kids and a product of the school system she works to transform. As a leader of the 1Oakland campaign, Daisy is a champion for Oakland’s public school kids. 
  • The Problem with Seeking the Best for Your Kids; The Ethical Crossroads in School Choice
    • Everyone wants the best for their kids. It’s an idea that almost no one — black, brown, or white, rich, poor, or something in between — would take issue with. In fact, most people think this is the bedrock of good parenting: pursuing the best for your own children at all costs…And yet, how often do we actually reckon with the real nature of those costs? When it’s all said and done, who pays the bill? Is the price right?
  • Elena Njemanze | Wellness Champion and KG Teacher at Piedmont Avenue Elementary
    • “Instantly, what I loved about teaching is that every day is chaos, and the task is to try and make it monotonous, if possible. And that flip is really engaging for me. To have monotony forced on me and to try and make that a little chaotic – don’t like it. But to have chaos and to try to bring consistency? That engages me.”
  • Coffee Break: Oakland’s Lakisha Young Is Done Waiting for Superman and Ready for Parents to Take the Lead
    • Lakisha Young is executive director of The Oakland REACH. She has dedicated her career to promoting access to quality schools because she knows firsthand that a good education changes lives. Lakisha’s grandmother had a ninth-grade education and her mother only completed high school, but they knew they wanted more for her. Their unwavering commitment to Lakisha’s education paid off and she was able to attend great schools and graduate from college.
  • The “Privatization” Debate we Need
    • There’s a “public” school in Oakland that is 5% free and reduced lunch, 2% English language learners, 8% Latino and 8% Black.  In Oakland… The average housing price in that neighborhood is $1.6 million. It’s also one of the highest achieving schools. That’s the” public” school, you buy your way into an exclusive enclave and you get an exclusive school.  That’s the “public” school.
  • School to become home for some students in need
    • Abisai, who goes by Abi, will be one of the first students to move into the new public school dorm on Treasure Island, built to house many of the students attending Life Learning Academy on the same site. The charter school opened in 1998 to serve the region’s most at-risk high school students — those who have failed in traditional schools and, in many cases, run afoul of the law.
  • My memorable year teaching as Berkeley integrated its schools
    • Who would have thought that my one year teaching in Berkeley more than a half century ago would make me feel like a participant in events that are now the subject of political debates and front page stories?
  • In brief: Eligible students can transfer into Piedmont schools
    • Interested families may apply for interdistrict transfers into the Piedmont Unified School District for the 2019-20 school year. There are openings at the kindergarten level for about 15 students. A lottery will be held if there are more applications than spaces. The Board of Education’s revised policy will permit children of grandparents who reside in Piedmont to apply for the interdistrict transfer.
  • I Am a District School Parent and a Charter School Parent, All I Want Is Quality; Underserved Families Need Options
    • Oakland public schools failed me and now, as the father of four, I’ll be damned if they are going to fail my children, too. I don’t care about the name or type of school my children attend—I do care about quality.
  • Are Oakland High School Graduates Going to College?
    • Up until recently this was not an easy question to answer for a city in California (several other states make this data publicly available). The data has been available to individual schools and districts who seek it out, but the state has not prioritized releasing college-going data. Fortunately, for the the first time, California has publicly released college-going data. This is a great first step toward a statewide data system that can track student outcomes from pre-k through college.
  • Oakland Launches One of the Nation’s First District-Wide Outdoor Nature Programs
    • Today, a new program, Oakland Goes Outdoors, was launched at the Children & Nature Network International Conference in Oakland. The program is one of the nation’s first school district-wide programs in the US dedicated to providing all middle school students with regular outdoor learning experiences throughout the school year, and throughout their middle school years. 

California:

Other Stories:

  • Principal Turnover: Insights From Current Principals
    • This study draws on evidence from focus groups to better understand the challenges principals face and highlight strategies that can support principals and increase their retention. 
  • In This War to Educate Black and Brown Kids, Are You in or Are You Out?
    • Recently, Nick Hanauer wrote an article for the Atlantic titled Better Schools Won’t Fix America, where his main argument was that education is not the answer to economic inequality…I got an article from a billionaire telling me something that anyone that grew up poor in this country already knew. However, I am grateful to Mr. Hanauer for his insight because it helped me better understand the way many of our allies think. So let’s dive into his arguments and start a conversation. 
  • Emails Show DeVos Aides Pulled Strings for Failing For-Profit Colleges
    • Dream Center Education Holdings, a subsidiary of a Los Angeles-based megachurch, had no experience in higher education when it petitioned the federal Education Department to let it take over a troubled chain of for-profit trade schools.
  • Violence, deaths of hundreds of blacks in 1919 remembered
    • America in the summer of 1919 ran red with blood from racial violence, and yet today, 100 years later, not many people know it even happened.
  • Do charters further segregate America’s schools? Yes, new study says, but most blame lies elsewhere
    • What is to blame for America’s segregated schools? Housing patterns and school attendance boundaries play big roles, certainly. But some have also pointed the finger at another culprit: charter schools.
  • Why America lost so many of its black teachers
    • JULY MARKS the 55th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, which outlawed discrimination on the basis of race, colour, religion, sex, or national origin. It also enforced desegregation of the government-run school system nationwide, largely ending the practice of educational apartheid. But while desegregation transformed America’s education system, the way it was implemented by discriminatory school boards in the South was harmful to black teachers. 
  • PHOTOS: America’s Separate And Unequal Schools
    • Decades after Brown v Board, these boundaries show a country where schools remain segregated, and unequal.
  • Pete Buttigieg’s High School Wouldn’t Hire Him Today — Because He’s Gay.
    • The 2020 presidential candidate’s Catholic alma mater in Indiana won’t employ teachers in same-sex marriages.
  • You Have a Moral Obligation to Claim Your $125 From Equifax
    • Go claim your $125 from Equifax. Right now. Even if $125 isn’t a sum of money that matters to you, even if you don’t feel you were really directly affected by the breach. Even if the prospect of filling out a relatively brief online form fills you with more dread than the theft of all your personal data.
  • Emmett Till Sign Photo Leads Ole Miss Fraternity to Suspend Members
    • The three students were brandishing guns. Bullet holes were visible on the memorial plaque, which marks the spot where the body of the murdered 14-year-old  was found in 1955.
  • Coordinating services for students pays huge dividend
    • THE BOSTON TEACHERS UNION recently joined the chorus of educational and civic leaders calling for better ways of addressing students’ comprehensive needs so that they are ready to learn and engage in school. From Oakland, California’s investment in community schools that bring services like health care and afterschool programs on site, to New York City’s investment of $773 million in school renewal, including community partnerships with mental health clinics, communities everywhere are struggling to meet the more complex and more intensive needs that students bring to the schoolhouse door.

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