Last week, a school showing success with Black students, a longtime educator speaks, the literacy crisis in Oakland and how you can help, Bloomie in the Bay, how are schools doing with Black and Brown students, Newsom’s budget, and much more, please read share and get involved.
Oakland:
- Black Student Support and Success at Envision Academy
- Oakland launches city, community effort to combat illegal dumping
- State of Black Education in Oakland Celebration: Herman Brown
- Letter: Put kids’ needs over greed in Oakland housing case
- San Francisco Bay Area parents declare state of emergency over district’s failure to educate black children
- Oakland’s Literacy Crisis, the New Literacy for All Coalition, and How You can Help
- Authorities identify mom hit and killed by car while waiting to pick up child from Oakland school
- A Day of the Oakland Community School with Ericka Huggins
- California high school students who lobbied for state MLK holiday honored in Oakland Tech play
- Mike Bloomberg swings through Bay Area, talking gun control, education and his old nemesis: nicotine
California:
- California governor’s homelessness plan leaves out schools
- Years of reform efforts contribute to declining African-American suspension rates in California
- Newsom Budget Calls for New Early Childhood Department, Boosts Funds for Housing, Mental Health and Foster Care Reform
- California bill would require full compensation for teachers on extended sick leave
- California Voices: Education leaders speak out on Gov. Newsom’s budget proposals
Other Stories:
- We Have to Get Education Right for Black Students and Families in 2020
- ‘Let’s Give Them Money’: Could Guaranteed Income Be a Solution to Wealth Inequality?
- ‘Teacher of the Year’ kneels during anthem at college football championship attended by Trump
- More pizza, fewer vegetables: Trump administration further undercuts Obama school-lunch rules
- Bloomberg pledges $70 billion to bolster black America in new plan
Resources:
How You Can Help:
- Park It: MLK Day of service cleanup planned at Oakland shoreline
- Literacy for All: It is time to ensure every child becomes a powerful, lifelong reader.
Oakland:
- Black Student Support and Success at Envision Academy
- African American students are thriving at this school, with the highest A-G completion rate in the city and where students founded a Black Student Union
- Oakland launches city, community effort to combat illegal dumping
- City and community officials have started Oaktown PROUD — a campaign aimed at reducing illegal dumping through new enforcement and educational programs.
- State of Black Education in Oakland Celebration: Herman Brown
- Letter: Put kids’ needs over greed in Oakland housing case
- California law states that all school-age children must attend school. If they are truant, their parents can be arrested. When families are evicted, it is extremely difficult to keep their children in a neighborhood school, and their lives are negatively impacted and destabilized.
- San Francisco Bay Area parents declare state of emergency over district’s failure to educate black children
- Fed up with a growing achievement gap between African American students and all others in a San Francisco Bay Area school district, a group of parents is declaring an “educational state of emergency” and demanding improvement.
- Oakland’s Literacy Crisis, the New Literacy for All Coalition, and How You can Help
- Oakland has a literacy crisis and it is most acute in the in the Black and Brown communities. Only 18.6% of Black students in OUSD are reading on grade level, and 23.8% of Latinx students are, overall less than half of all Oakland students are proficient readers. In the same district where less than 1 in 5 Black children can read, almost 3 in 4, 72.5%, of White children are meeting or exceeding standards. And that gap has only grown over the last 5 years.
- Authorities identify mom hit and killed by car while waiting to pick up child from Oakland school
- A woman is dead after police say she was hit by a car in East Oakland as she was picking up her child from school.
- A Day of the Oakland Community School with Ericka Huggins
- Join us and the Museum of African Diaspora (MoAD) as we celebrate the legend Ericka Huggins and innovative models of education and nutrition that she developed.
- California high school students who lobbied for state MLK holiday honored in Oakland Tech play
- As California celebrates the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday, some may not know that it was a tenacious group of Oakland high schoolers that led to his birthday becoming a state holiday.
- Mike Bloomberg swings through Bay Area, talking gun control, education and his old nemesis: nicotine
- With his inescapable ads saturating local television, Mike Bloomberg took his presidential campaign through the Bay Area Friday and also unveiled his plans for confronting climate change and wildfires.
California:
- California governor’s homelessness plan leaves out schools
- The letter follows an op-ed from Beutner that ran before Christmas in which he estimated the true count of homeless students in the district is likely closer to 25,000 “if one were to include families who are afraid to let anyone know because of the stigma their status might bring.” He called for more interagency collaboration and wrote, “We share information with the city and county to serve foster students and need to do the same for students experiencing homelessness.”
- Years of reform efforts contribute to declining African-American suspension rates in California
- After nearly a decade of school discipline reform in California, the suspension rate for African-American students continued to decline last year, according to recently released state data.
- Newsom Budget Calls for New Early Childhood Department, Boosts Funds for Housing, Mental Health and Foster Care Reform
- In his second annual budget proposal on Friday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) pledged to create a new Department of Early Childhood Development, vowed to pursue substantive behavioral health reforms in California and continued to support major child welfare initiatives from his predecessor, former California Governor Jerry Brown.
- California bill would require full compensation for teachers on extended sick leave
- According to California state law, full-time public school teachers earn 10 paid sick leave days each year. After using paid leave, they may be placed on extended sick leave for up to five months during which time their pay is reduced.
- California Voices: Education leaders speak out on Gov. Newsom’s budget proposals
- EdSource asked more than 40 education leaders — from John Affeldt to Edgar Zazueta — representing all segments of California’s education system to comment on Gov. Newsom’s sweeping budget proposals, which will set the direction for the state’s education priorities. Scroll down and click on the photos to read their thought-provoking responses on the governor’s plans for early education, K-12 and postsecondary education.
Other Stories:
- We Have to Get Education Right for Black Students and Families in 2020
- In the context of our public education system, the practice of consistency has worked—but only to intentionally obstruct our kids’ academic success. This broken system has lied to, cheated, belittled and abused Black students and families. The blatant belief that Black skin makes people inferior—and therefore, less deserving—is what’s contributed to the consistency of failure and overall indifference in supporting our academic success.
- ‘Let’s Give Them Money’: Could Guaranteed Income Be a Solution to Wealth Inequality?
- The first episode of our new podcast about guaranteed income, deservedness, and the country America can and should be.
- ‘Teacher of the Year’ kneels during anthem at college football championship attended by Trump
- More pizza, fewer vegetables: Trump administration further undercuts Obama school-lunch rules
- Trump administration’s USDA proposes changing school menus to allow more fries and pizza and fewer vegetables and fruits, reversing a Michelle Obama effort on her birthday
- Bloomberg pledges $70 billion to bolster black America in new plan
- Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will announce on Sunday his presidential campaign’s plan aimed at bolstering economic opportunity for black Americans, promising to triple their income over the next decade, but stopping short of promising reparations.
Resources:
- NEW REPORT: Which Oakland schools best serve low-income Black and Latina/o students?
- Because my husband and I are also educators, we have spent many nights this season, when the kids are finally asleep, sitting in the dark creating our own spreadsheets to answer these questions. This research is privileged information that ALL families, especially those most failed by our system, should have as they not only explore their wish list, but also as they join advocacy efforts to make all family’s wish lists a reality.
How You Can Help:
- Park It: MLK Day of service cleanup planned at Oakland shoreline
- The East Bay Regional Park District will celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Jan. 20 with a day of service at the Oakland park named in honor of the civil rights icon.
- Literacy for All: It is time to ensure every child becomes a powerful, lifelong reader.
- There is a reading crisis in Oakland – fewer than thirty percent of black and brown kids are reading on grade level, and less than half of all students are at grade level for reading. The wait is over. The time is now for a citywide movement.
What do you think?