Last week, many views on the Sankofa/Kaiser merger and the role of race, fiscal updates from OUSD, Salesforce grants to OUSD, ending willful defiance suspensions, all that and much more. Please read share and get involved.
Oakland:
- Dr. Stanley & Dr. Cole Discuss Race in Oakland Education
- Community on edge after rope resembling a noose found near Oakland elementary school for 2nd time
- The Scanner: Oakland schools under siege by tech bandits
- Yes, It’s about Race, Race and the Schools Oakland Students Deserve; A Kaiser Parent’s Story
- The Geography of Opportunity in Oakland; And How Kaiser and Sankofa Became So Different
- Reminder: Oakland NAACP’s Education Agenda Roll-out
- Students, district rally to bring back free supper program
- CRUNCHED: Becoming (More) Data-Informed Around Cohort 2 Schools
- What the New Reading Wars Get Wrong
- Closing of the Books, A fiscal update from our Chief Systems and Services Officer -An OUSD Press Release
- The Way We Grade Students is Biased and Unsound: A Conversation on “Grading For Equity”
- Salesforce Announces $18.2 Million in Grants to San Francisco and Oakland School Districts, Education Nonprofits
- Debunking misconceptions about Oakland SOL
- Raiders Hold Play 60 ‘Stretch and Move’ Activity For Oakland Elementary School Students
- Oakland school board’s vote to close schools draws ire from parents, teachers
- School Board Votes to Close Kaiser Elementary School
- Oakland school board to merge schools after emotional meeting: ‘It’s really hard to watch this happen again’
- The Bleak Truth Behind My ‘Inspiring’ Path From Oakland to Yale
- Questions About Oakland Promise: If It Wasn’t a Nonprofit, What Was It? What Happened to the Money for Scholarships for Kids?
- The Latest from Kaiser; Kaiser Teachers “Will not Participate” in the Merger, Plus the Court Filings Looking for the Root of the Conspiracy
- OUSD Salesforce Grant
- SOBEO Rants: The “Kaiser-Sankofa-Santa Fe Situation” with Dr. Brian Stanley
California:
- We must disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline
- Why the Latest Charter School Compromise Won’t Fix Charter Authorizing, And Actually Makes the Situation Worse
- California Bars Elementary, Middle Schools From Suspending Students For ‘Willful Defiance’
- Gov. Newsom, lawmakers strike deal on $15 billion education construction bond
Other Stories:
- The Upgrade Rule
- Beyond Grit & Resilience: How Black Men Impacted by the Crack Epidemic Succeeded Against the Odds and Obtained Doctoral Degrees
Resources:
- Public Charter School Day at the Oakland Athletics game
- What Parents Need to Know About School Closures
Oakland:
- Dr. Stanley & Dr. Cole Discuss Race in Oakland Education
- In this episode of SoBEO Rants, we discuss Dr. Stanley’s latest article and the issue of integration in Oakland schools.
- Community on edge after rope resembling a noose found near Oakland elementary school for 2nd time
- A rope that some people in the community say looks like a noose, was found near an elementary school in Oakland and this is not the first time this has happened.
- The Scanner: Oakland schools under siege by tech bandits
- One or more burglars struck an Oakland elementary school over Labor Day weekend and stole nearly all of the school’s Google Chromebooks. It was the latest in a string of break-ins resulting in the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment at the Oakland Unified School District, officials said.
- Yes, It’s about Race, Race and the Schools Oakland Students Deserve; A Kaiser Parent’s Story
- The Oakland Unified School District is recommending merging my child’s school, Henry J. Kaiser Elementary and Sankofa Elementary into a single school on the Sankofa campus in North Oakland. Kaiser, nestled in the Oakland hills, has high test scores, wealthier families, and more White students. Sankofa is on its fourth principal in three years, is mostly African American, and 90 percent of its students qualify for free and reduced price lunch.
- The Geography of Opportunity in Oakland; And How Kaiser and Sankofa Became So Different
- The disparities in our schools are by design, not accident. When we have schools like Kaiser and Sankofa, geographically not far apart, but in other ways demonstrating chasms of difference. A Kaiser parent did a great job of pulling some of these issues out. But let’s dig in some on now we got here and why it matters.
- Reminder: Oakland NAACP’s Education Agenda Roll-out
- The responses to the question (“Why aren’t the kids reading and what can be done about it?”) have been eye-opening. Dr Shanahan advised that, “You have to help them really understand that we have a problem, it impacts all of us, it is solvable, and it’s within our control.”
- Students, district rally to bring back free supper program
- After the Oakland Unified Schools District (OUSD) eliminated the district’s free supper program in 2018, student organizers from Oakland Kids First, a city organization that supports youth organizing and campaign work, and the OUSD Superintendent’s Office teamed up to recover and revamp the program. They secured $3.6 million, derived from a city tax on sodas and other sweet drinks, to provide a free dinner for any Oakland public school student during the week, and to support kitchen services to make the supper better and more widely available.
- CRUNCHED: Becoming (More) Data-Informed Around Cohort 2 Schools
- Recently OUSD staff submitted a recommendation to the Board around potential schools for the second cohort of the Blueprint planning process, looking at district-run schools they think would be a good fit for mergers, expansions, and redesign.
- What the New Reading Wars Get Wrong
- Over the past three decades, the so-called “reading wars” have raged on among educators, scholars, and policymakers. In one camp are those who advocate for reading instruction centered around phonics instruction, the explicit teaching of sound-letter relationships. In the other camp are proponents of whole language, an approach that prioritizes immersing young children in authentic literature.
- Closing of the Books, A fiscal update from our Chief Systems and Services Officer -An OUSD Press Release
- Dear OUSD Staff and Community:As we prepare for tonight’s Budget presentation to the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) Board of Education, I want to share some information with you beforehand. Over the course of the year, I will provide quarterly updates to inform the community on our progress toward fiscal vitality and examine challenges we face along the way.
- The Way We Grade Students is Biased and Unsound: A Conversation on “Grading For Equity”
- Joe Feldman‘s new book, Grading for Equity disembowels the way we grade students, hanging the entrails to show how inequitable and really illogical our present grading practices are, and how we can improve them– which he has been doing in real life for years with schools, it’s a must read for educators and those who want to improve how schools function. After his book launch in Oakland, we discussed the book and his work.
- Salesforce Announces $18.2 Million in Grants to San Francisco and Oakland School Districts, Education Nonprofits
- $17.2 million to support computer science, math programs, teacher training and newcomer support for San Francisco Unified School District and Oakland Unified School District
- Debunking misconceptions about Oakland SOL
- There’s been so much attention on the proposal to consolidate North Oakland schools, but not much on the East Oakland schools. As it happens, I have a long relationship to one of those schools, Oakland’s School of Language (SOL).
- Raiders Hold Play 60 ‘Stretch and Move’ Activity For Oakland Elementary School Students
- Less than 24 hours after the Raiders concluded their regular season opener with a win over Denver, five players participated in a Play 60 “Stretch & Move” activity for Oakland Elementary school students, according to a press release.
- Oakland school board’s vote to close schools draws ire from parents, teachers
- The Oakland school board on Wednesday voted to close two schools and merge them with two others amid opposition voiced by parents and teachers during nearly five hours of pleading, tears and chanting in a packed meeting.
- School Board Votes to Close Kaiser Elementary School
- The Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) Oakland Board of Education voted this week to close Kaiser Elementary School and move as many of the school’s staff and families as the district can to Sankofa Academy
- Oakland school board to merge schools after emotional meeting: ‘It’s really hard to watch this happen again’
- The Oakland School Board voted to approve two school mergers at a meeting Wednesday night, an unpopular decision that sparked outrage from many parents, teachers and students
- The Bleak Truth Behind My ‘Inspiring’ Path From Oakland to Yale
- When I decided to attend Yale five years ago, people held me up as an example of a black student who “beat the odds.” I wish they were more curious about why my brother wound up in prison instead.
- Questions About Oakland Promise: If It Wasn’t a Nonprofit, What Was It? What Happened to the Money for Scholarships for Kids?
- Questions continue to surface about the organization and accountability of “The Oakland Promise,” Mayor Libby Schaaf’s signature initiative that has raised millions of dollars since 2015 to help low-income families “to triple the number of high school graduates who …complete college by the year 2024.”
- The Latest from Kaiser; Kaiser Teachers “Will not Participate” in the Merger, Plus the Court Filings Looking for the Root of the Conspiracy
- The Kaiser-Sankofa merger is a done deal after the board’s vote on Wednesday for a merger, but the controversy is not over. The Kaiser teachers penned a blistering letter to the board, rejecting any cooperation with the merger.
- OUSD Salesforce Grant
- On Thursday, there was a major announcement at San Francisco’s Presidio Middle School. Along with Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, San Francisco Mayor London Breed, SFUSD Superintendent Vincent Matthews, Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell touted a huge grant for schools in both cities from Marc Benioff and Salesforce.
- SOBEO Rants: The “Kaiser-Sankofa-Santa Fe Situation” with Dr. Brian Stanley
- One of the best sit downs I’ve ever been part of. Get ready for Dr. Brian Stanley. Go download the SoBEO Rants podcast now on all platforms. His episode is coming. — with Dirk Tillotson, SoBE Oakland, Jumoke Hinton Hodge, Kimi Kean, Kareem Jabbar Weaver, Chris Stewart, Sharif El-Mekki, Nikki Thomas and Raymond Ankrum.
California:
- We must disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline
- Despite recent efforts to reduce California’s prison incarceration rates, severe racial disparities persist in our criminal justice system. According to a report last month by the Public Policy Institute of California, African-American males account for 28.5 percent of the state’s male prison population, despite the fact that black men make up just 5.6 percent of the state’s adult males.
- Why the Latest Charter School Compromise Won’t Fix Charter Authorizing, And Actually Makes the Situation Worse
- News broke last week that one of Sacramento’s most vexing legislative issues had reached a compromise. The teachers’ union and charter association had agreed on a compromise bill on revising the charter law. I’m not clapping for a broken process, that was all about what choices California’s most underserved families will have—and had none of those actual parents at the table.
- California Bars Elementary, Middle Schools From Suspending Students For ‘Willful Defiance’
- California’s elementary and middle school students won’t be suspended for things like falling asleep in class or talking back to the teacher under a bill signed by the state’s governor.
- Gov. Newsom, lawmakers strike deal on $15 billion education construction bond
- After intensive down-to-the-wire negotiations, legislative leaders and staff from the governor’s office have agreed on legislation to place a $15 billion preschool, K-12 and higher education construction bond before voters in March 2020.
Other Stories:
- The Upgrade Rule
- “No one was telling us the school was failing.”
- Tyra Wilson was concerned about the teacher and school leader turnover at her daughter’s school in New Orleans. Ty’Viana had three teachers in her first grade year at Medard Nelson Elementary, and it seemed like there was a new principal practically every year.
- Beyond Grit & Resilience: How Black Men Impacted by the Crack Epidemic Succeeded Against the Odds and Obtained Doctoral Degrees
- This comparative case study utilized oral histories to illuminate the life stories of three Black men who navigated their way through trauma. The goal of the study was to better understand how they navigated education and life experiences to eventually earn doctoral degrees.
Resources:
- Public Charter School Day at the Oakland Athletics game
- You are invited to a celebration of the amazing students, families and staff of public charter schools!
- What Parents Need to Know About School Closures
- School closures don’t happen often. But still, every year, some school systems will announce that they’re considering closures, and when they do happen, they’re hard on families. There’s no way around it: Seeing your school shut down is painful, and not knowing where your child will go to school in the fall is stressful, to say the least. That pain is compounded by the fact that school closures disproportionately affect communities of color and those that are economically disadvantaged.
What do you think?