The Oakland Education Week in Review: 10/21-10/27

Last week, the test results are in and we have analysis, historical looks at Oakland schools, enrollment information, Black displacement in Oakland, and a former council member (who happens to be Black) is forcibly arrested after “he raised his voice,” a laundromat that is educating, housing solutions for vulnerable students, a look at a school with 75% Black male teachers, all that and much more, please read, share and get involved

Oakland:

California:

Other Stories:

Resources:

Oakland:

  • Ex-Oakland Councilmember says he was forcibly arrested while complaining to planning dept.
    • A former Oakland City Councilmember says he was forcibly arrested in the city’s Planning and Zoning department on Thursday after an argument with staff stemming from a long dispute over having a sweat lodge on his property for his Native American spiritual practices.
  • CRUNCHED: State test results are in – finally! How did Oakland do?
    • Usually, my analysis and blog post on how Oakland students did on the standardized tests from the previous year (SBAC) comes a bit earlier, traditionally in August or September, but the California Department of Education (CDE) delayed their release this year until October. (Which is ridiculous given how they’re digital tests now and scored instantly. It’s unknown why it took so long this year; if anyone knows why, please let me know!)
  • Then & Now – Oakland Schools Part 4
    • This is the fourth in a series of posts on Oakland Schools. I intend to show Then and Now pictures of the schools, along with a bit of history of each school. Some of the pictures are in the form of drawings, postcards or from pages in historical books.
  • Opinion: Oakland Should Turn Cranes into Affordable Housing
    • The city must track, budget and commit developer impact fees to homes for people without six-figure income
  • Creating Pathways to Science for Students of Color
    • Bryan Brown, an Oakland native and former high school science teacher, maintains that young black and Latino students understand scientific concepts, but not in the way their teachers describe those ideas. He told KQED’s Brian Watt that can lead to frustration all around. Here are excerpts from their conversation, edited for length and clarity: 
  • Who Builds Blight in West Oakland?
    • This is a short section of a work-in-progress: a feature length documentary called (re)Development. Directed & edited by Ms. Smitty B (aka CB Smith-Dahl).
  • The Latest Enrollment Info from the Oakland Enrolls Community Newsletter October 2019
    • This October, we at Oakland Enrolls are gearing up for the November 4th public school application launch for the 2020-2021 school year! As partners, collaborators, and supporters of helping Oakland families, we want to share an update on what’s to come this school enrollment season.
  • Oakland laundromat promotes love of reading, offering story-time for children
    • An East Bay laundromat is providing members of its community more than just a place to wash clothes: It’s promoting literacy for kids and helping its non-English speaking neighbors learn the language.
  • Housing Solutions for Our Most Vulnerable Students; What Schools and Districts Can Do
    • Oakland’s homeless epidemic is largely a Black problem. According to an Alameda County Survey, “almost 70 percent of the people living on Oakland’s streets are black. Yet black people were 28 percent of Oakland’s 2010 census population.”   It is even more bleak if you are in the foster system, in Alameda County more than half, 915 of 1698 foster children, are Black. And according to research “About half of those exiting foster care and juvenile justice systems will be homeless within six months.”
  • The End of Black Oakland? The Latest Research on Housing and Displacement and Why it Matters
    • The latest study on gentrification and displacement from Berkeley, confirmed what many of us feel daily.  Oakland has changed and with housing prices skyrocketing, it is increasingly a place where Black folks are either being pushed or locked out of.  This research further confirms the need for us to act, and not accept this fate as inevitable. One opportunity is re-purposing OUSD’s vacant and underutilized buildings and also developing the 50 some acres of wholly undeveloped land it owns.
  • Stop Letting Someone Dictate what Will Happen to Your Kids; Parents Need to Take Control
    • “It’s more than waking up and living, you gotta take control of your life, and take control for your kid’s sake. There is a jail cell being built for your kid every day. Stop letting someone dictate what will happen to your kid.”
  • Superintendent’s Update on the Disruptions at the OUSD Board Meetings
    • What happened at last night’s Board of Education meeting is troubling and not reflective of who we are as a community. I am writing to provide some background on recent events. It is important for us to begin to address this situation from a place of compassion for all of our community members. Even in times of conflict, we must uphold our values and respect everyone’s freedom of speech as well as the democratic process.
  • Chaos, arrests at Oakland school board meeting
    • Around 6:30 p.m., shortly after the meeting was underway in an auditorium at La Escuelita education center, 1050 Second Ave., several people rushed a police-installed barricade that had been set up between the board and a large crowd of audience members, Oakland Unified schools spokesman John Sasaki said.
  • Soil Samples Reveal Lead Contamination at Oakland High Schools
    • Two Oakland high schools sit atop land that is contaminated with lead, according to Oakland Unified School District officials.
  • Oakland Unified School District Arts Incentive Grant Awarded To Luna Dance Institute
    • The Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) announced that Luna Dance Institute (LDI) in partnership with three public school sites is a recipient of the Arts Incentive Grant (AIG) to fund standards-based dance programming through LDI’s School & Community Alliances program. The AIG funds support OUSD public schools in developing comprehensive art and maker education programs that address critical issues of access and equity in partnership with a community-based organization.
  • Oakland School District Defends Police Violence Against Protesters At Board Meeting
    • The Oakland Unified School District defended itself against accusations that police officers behaved violently toward protesters at a Board of Education meeting on Wednesday evening, when six people were arrested, including one who was taken to a hospital and left using crutches.
  • Excerpt: Going Beyond the Theory That Black Males Owe Their Academic Success to Grit and Resilience
    • Research on Black males over the past decade has created a pervasive set of ideas that Black men are a difficult group to educate. The growing body of research fails to illuminate the pro-social attributes and strengths of Black men who succeed academically. This dissertation aims to identify the strengths that doctoral Black males have along their educational journey explored via oral histories while also illuminating the resulting residual impact of that journey.
  • How Aurum Prep Hired the “Best Person” for the Job and Ended up with a 75% Black Male Teaching Staff
    • As he moves around his 7th grade math classroom, Aurum Preparatory Academy (“Aurum Prep”) teacher, Salif Doubare, is crackling with energy. He’s tall, thin, wearing horn-rimmed glasses and a big smile, as he walks around a large table in the center of the classroom, encouraging students. When it comes to his class, he wants to meet students where they’re at.
  • Recent protests call for status quo when radical change is needed
    • This week’s education news coverage has been dominated by the protests by a small group of Kaiser Elementary parents and OEA organizers against the board’s decision to merge Kaiser Elementary with Sankofa Elementary next school year without sufficient community engagement. Meanwhile, the state has released the 2018-2019 student scores in math and reading revealing the real crisis in Oakland education: a systemwide failure to provide quality school options for black and Latino families. Click here for printable list of the data. 
  • Access to black male achievement program lowered student dropout rates, Stanford-led study finds
    • Nearly 10 years ago, school leaders in Oakland, California, launched the first district-level initiative of its kind in the nation: a program targeted exclusively to black male high schoolers that was a part of their regular classes during the school day.

California:

Other Stories:

  • NON-WHITE SCHOOL DISTRICTS GET $23 BILLION LESS FUNDING THAN WHITE ONES
    • In the United States today approximately 12.8 million students—or 27 percent of all those in school—attend school in a district in which over 75 percent of students are non-white. In a new report, researchers at EdBuild, a non-profit that analyzes school-funding issues, calculate that these students are getting dramatically shortchanged on the school-funding front.
  • A Framework For Integration Rooted In Racial Justice
    • “I’ve come upon something that disturbs me deeply…We have fought hard and long for integration, as I believe we should have, and I know that we will win. But I’ve come to believe we’re integrating into a burning house.” – Dr. Martin Luther King
  • Breaking the School-to-Prison Pipeline Through Literacy
    • Two years ago this month, the Nashville Literacy Collaborative, a large group of Nashville’s socio-political elite assembled to announce a blueprint to double the number of 3rd graders reading on grade level by 2025. Currently, 28.8 percent of 3rd graders are reading “on track” or “mastered,” Black students 19.2 percent, and Economically Disadvantaged 15.2 percent. The Collaborative’s stated goal is to double these percentages in the next six years. Unimpressed by the low expectations, I’ve written many blogs in the last two years and met with dozens of folks to amplify this injustice. And that was before my granddaughter was born!
  • All college students should take a mandatory course on black history and white privilege
    • White students in my race and ethnicity class often learn the most, but few sign up to take it. All colleges should require a course like this to graduate.
  • Dramatic Footage Shows Coach Disarming and Then Hugging Student
    • Moments later, a frantic evacuation was underway after a report of an “active shooter” — a sequence of events all too familiar, from Newtown, Conn., to Parkland, Fla. But then something unique happened because of a quick-thinking high school football coach: He grabbed the gun from the suicidal student — and hugged him.
  • Medicaid Covers a Million Fewer Children. Baby Elijah Was One of Them.
    • Officials point to rising employment, but the uninsured rate is climbing as families run afoul of new paperwork and as fear rises among immigrants.
  • Homeless Mom Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison for Using Friend’s Address to Enroll Son in School
    • Felicity Huffman‘s 14-day sentencing has spotlighted school-related cases of parents who received longer jail time in comparison to the actress’ role in the college admissions scandal.
  • High school athlete disqualified at cross-country meet for wearing hijab
    • On Saturday, a member of a high school cross-country team in Ohio was disqualified from a district meet for wearing a hijab by an Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) official, a representative of the school district confirms to Yahoo Lifestyle.

Resources:

  • Rules for Educators, Rule 1; Don’t Call the Cops
    • In 3rd grade my godson was handcuffed and put in a police car in full view of his school.  He tried to push past a staff member because they had his ball, and he thought he was entitled to it during recess. He was having a bad day.  He had too many bad days for a kid his age, but he ended up in a police car.   
What do you think?

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