last week, lots of coverage on the disruption of the OUSD board meeting, a look at Black displacement, how Aurum Prep hired 75% Black male teachers, a look at historical Oakland school communities, the impact of AAMA, a “thriller” on Halloween at OUSD, SBAC scores are out and much more, please read share and get involved
Oakland:
- Oakland School District Defends Police Violence Against Protesters At Board Meeting
- School board meeting protesters to sue Oakland Unified Schools for excessive force by police
- Protests Get Physical at Oakland School Board Meeting
- The End of Black Oakland? The Latest Research on Housing and Displacement and Why it Matters
- How Aurum Prep Hired the “Best Person” for the Job and Ended up with a 75% Black Male Teaching Staff
- Some evidence for the importance of teaching black culture to black students
- Transformation Series: Serving a Diverse Community at Hoover
- Recent protests call for status quo when radical change is needed
- Then & Now – Oakland Schools Part 8
- School District Defends, Community Condemns Arrests of Parents and Teachers at School Board Meeting
- Oakland City Council Approved $1.2 Million in Cultural Funding Grants In 2019-20
- Students and staff with Oakland Unified School District celebrate Halloween
California:
- Could we see dueling tax plans in November 2020?
- Reading scores drop in California, most states in much-watched national test
- Mandating later school start times in California impinges on local control
- Why we should march for education
- Will spending more fix our schools?
Resources:
- The Latest Enrollment Info from the Oakland Enrolls Community Newsletter October 2019
- Navigating School Enrollment in Oakland; An Upcoming Parent Led Forum
Oakland:
- 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.
- School board meeting protesters to sue Oakland Unified Schools for excessive force by police
- Parents and teachers who were arrested and injured by police during a protest at the Oakland Unified School District Board of Education meeting on Wednesday pushed back against the police narrative that the force used by officers was necessary.
- Protests Get Physical at Oakland School Board Meeting
- Protests at a school board meeting in Oakland quickly escalated Wednesday evening, even becoming physical at times as officials discussed possible school closures.
- 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.
- How Aurum Prep Hired the “Best Person” for the Job and Ended up with a 75% Black Male Teaching Staff
- Did you know that only 2 percent of teachers are black men? At many schools, black educators are used to being “the one.” At Aurum Prep in East Oakland, they’re one of many. In America, 80 percent of teachers are white. At Aurum Prep, now in its second school year, 75 percent of the teachers are African American men.
- Some evidence for the importance of teaching black culture to black students
- Since former President Barack Obama launched his My Brother’s Keeper initiative in 2014 to support black and Latino boys and young men, nearly 250 communities across 50 states have launched programs under its umbrella. But although these programs have increased in popularity and spent an estimated $1.6 billion in donations and loans, little is known about how well these support programs accomplish their objectives of raising academic achievement, keeping boys of color in school and helping more go to college.
- Transformation Series: Serving a Diverse Community at Hoover
- The third in our interview series with Oakland school leaders going through our Transformational Schools Fellowship, Hoover’s Lissette Averhoff discusses finding commonalities between families, breaking longstanding practices that aren’t serving students, and Oakland’s long history of inequity in public schools.
- 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.
- Then & Now – Oakland Schools Part 8
- 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.
- School District Defends, Community Condemns Arrests of Parents and Teachers at School Board Meeting
- The Board of Education and administration of the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) are facing a barrage of public criticism after the arrest and injury of six parents and teachers who were protesting at the last school board meeting against the district’s unwillingness to reconsider plans to close or “consolidate” a large number of schools in the coming years.
- Oakland City Council Approved $1.2 Million in Cultural Funding Grants In 2019-20
- On October 16, 2019, the Oakland City Council approved about $1,221,044 in fiscal year 2019-20 grants to Oakland-based nonprofit organizations and individual artists through the City’s Cultural Funding Program. The 91 arts grants range from $4,999 to $33,000 and have been awarded to 83 different recipients.
- Students and staff with Oakland Unified School District celebrate Halloween
- As is the case every Halloween, thousands of OUSD students will be in school on Thursday, October 31 in full costume, celebrating the holiday. In many cases, they will be in classes with teachers in costume. Other staff will assuredly be dressed up, as well.
California:
- Could we see dueling tax plans in November 2020?
- The California School Boards Association and its partners this month took the next step toward putting a $15 billion tax initiative for K-12 schools and community colleges on the ballot, setting up the possibility that two competing tax measures will go before voters in November 2020.
- Reading scores drop in California, most states in much-watched national test
- In 2017, California education leaders heralded the significant increase in the state’s 8th-grade reading scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress as a sign that the state’s investment in education and its adoption of the Common Core standards had taken hold.
- Mandating later school start times in California impinges on local control
- Under California’s system of local control of its schools, when to start the school day seems like a basic decision that should be left to local school boards and superintendents.
- Why we should march for education
- It was Horace Mann who wrote in 1848 that education was the great equalizer of man, that it, more than any other system, had the potential to balance society and create equality. When set up correctly, education can radically change the life of a young student by opening up a world of opportunity and paving the way to a bright future. Unfortunately, since the United States has had schools instituted, there has not been equal access for all students.
- Will spending more fix our schools?
- Former state legislator Ted Lempert is personally and professionally committed to improving the wellbeing of California’s children. Lempert, the president of Children Now, has tirelessly advocated to improve children’s futures and last week released a lengthy report comparing California to other states and concluding that we are woefully underspending on education.
Resources:
- 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.
- Navigating School Enrollment in Oakland; An Upcoming Parent Led Forum
- School selection season is upon us — a time of heightened anxiety and no small amount of scheduling difficulty for Oakland parents. For those of us who can get to tours, not to mention figure out when the hell they are, it’s inevitably both inspiring (wow, teachers jobs look hella hard!) and confusing (what exactly am I supposed to be looking for?). Some school communities are great at marketing themselves–talking a big game about what they offer their students, their pedagogical philosophies, and more. Some school communities don’t value the performance of what they do well as much as, well, just doing it day in and day out. Does that make the latter any less worthy?
What do you think?