The Oakland Ed Week in Review: 4/6-4/12

Many COVID updates, including some great work by community orgs like The Oakland REACH and Tech Exchange, some inspiring stories of schools making the transition, updates on the OUSD political drama, and the security challenges of distance learning, teachers supporting undocumented families in powerful ways, lots of equity questions coming up, and lots of ways you can help

Oakland:

Please sign and share our petition to guarantee free internet to low income families

California:

Other Stories:

How You Can Help:

Oakland:

  • OUSD & Oakland Public Education Fund Create Covid-19 Rapid Relief Fund; Ed Fund Secures $400,000 Donation
    • The Oakland Public Education Fund (Ed Fund) and Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) have launched a Covid-19 Rapid Relief Fund to support vulnerable Oakland students and families. Serving almost 37,000 students, the Ed Fund and OUSD are committed to doing all they can to provide continuity of education and provision of basic needs and services during this challenging and uncertain time. 
  • How OUSD Hijacked, Neutered, and Destroyed the Opportunity Ticket and Betrayed Oakland Families, Pt. 1
    • I helped write, partnered in the passage, and sat on the working group that developed the final Opportunity Ticket (OT) language. Now I am against the watered-down piece of trash that OUSD will present.  It is a betrayal of the hundreds of families that fought for the policy, the non-profits that wrote it, and the families now and in the future, that the policy was supposed to help. I will explain.
  • Episode 36: Getting Free Internet to Families Who Need It Most (ft. Dirk Tillotson)
    • In this episode, we speak with activist Dirk Tillotson about how, due to a lack of internet access, low income students are being denied an education during COVID-19. You’ll hear how Comcast’s free internet service is not actually free, why a lack of internet access is an extreme barrier to academic success, and how activists and business leaders are stepping up to solve the problem.
  • Student needs above all else at LPS Oakland R&D
    • For the co-principals, Lisa Pitters and Amy McGeorge, and educators of Leadership Public School (LPS) Oakland R&D in East Oakland, it was really hard to let their students go during the week leading up to the day school shut down on March 12.
  • CWK: Oakland Stands United Against Racism-Connecting with Kyla
    • In recent weeks, I’ve been sharing with you all the importance of us coming together to care for and support each other during this public health crisis. Oakland’s strength is in our diversity, and we take pride in being an inclusive city where we want everyone to feel a deep sense of belonging. Unfortunately, as a country we do not always live up to these values.
  • Coronavirus impact: With schools closed, Oakland Unified has no date for students to begin digital learning
    • Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) is one of several Bay Area counties which will remain closed for the remainder of the school year. Now, Oakland schools have to figure out when they will begin schooling at home, and administrators will tell you -The digital learning process has been a huge challenge.
  • Cybersecurity breaches leave Oakland and Berkeley students exposed during coronavirus crisis’ online learning
    • At least two Bay Area school districts have suffered recent cybersecurity breaches in the wake of the sudden switch to digital learning during coronavirus-related school closures.
  • Surge Fellowship: Developing Leaders of Color in Oakland
    • Roxanne Rose is an assistant principal at Achieve Academy in East Oakland. One of her career goals is to become a principal. She saw an opportunity to develop her leadership skills in a way that felt authentic to her identity as a woman of color, engage in critical conversations about education with other leaders of color while also learning and growing alongside them. She found what she was looking for in the Surge Fellowship.
  • Coronavirus: Free computers from Oakland group helps students sheltering in place
    • As COVID-19 shut down school districts across the country, schools have had to adapt to online learning in a matter of days and weeks. In California, this has highlighted the digital divide that many cities in the Bay Area face.
  • Oakland Teachers Pledge Stimulus Checks to Undocumented Families Left Out of Coronavirus Aid
    • As the coronavirus pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the state’s economy, a group of teachers and principals in Oakland are pledging their federal stimulus checks to undocumented families at their schools who are excluded from such aid.
  • As Bay Area schools kick off distance learning, attendance raises equity questions
    • During the first week of distance learning at Summit Rainier in East San Jose, 10 of Gwindale Person’s 24 special education students didn’t log on to Zoom. She peppered the kids and their families with calls, texts and emails, along with the help of administrators. Two weeks later, that number has slowly dwindled to two students who have proved hard to reach. For Person and other educators around the Bay Area, student absences in online classes have highlighted existing disparities in the school system — and prompted worries that low-income and homeless students may fall even further behind.

California:

Other Stories:

  • We Did It, Comcast Closed it’s Hole in “Free Internet” Access, Every Other Company Needs to as Well
    • Students need to be online to access school.  There can be no barriers to access during this crisis.  There can be no poll taxes on the information superhighway. When families complained that they couldn’t actually get the free internet promised by Comcast, you responded. We got thousands of signatures.  And Comcast listened. They changed their Oakland policy AND their national policy, which affects millions of families. Now we need the Federal Communications Commission to require the same thing of every internet service provider
  • As School Moves Online, Many Students Stay Logged Out
    • Teachers at some schools across the country report that fewer than half of their students are participating in online learning.
  • A caravan protests outside the Tacoma immigrant detention center
    • Immigration activists are pushing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to release detainees at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, arguing the coronavirus outbreak is a threat to the detainees’ health.
  • Coronavirus Precautions For Foster Youth
    • NPR’s Michel Martin speaks with Congresswoman Karen Bass, co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on Foster Youth, about how universities are considering foster youth in their coronavirus precautions.
  • Academically Speaking, the ‘COVID Slide’ Could Be a Lot Worse Than You Think
    • Education leaders are already bracing for a worse “summer slide” this year for students whose schools were shut down to curb the spread of coronavirus. But new research suggests the so-called coronavirus or “COVID slide” is going to be significantly worse.
  • This Is What Education Activism Looks Like During COVID-19
    • When you go back in history and look at who was leading the charge in the fight for liberation, it was always a person—or a group of seemingly crazy but brave people—unafraid of the consequences because they saw light at the end of the tunnel. People who had hopes and dreams beyond their—and our—current circumstances, and who would do anything to make their dreams a reality.

How You Can Help:

  • Support the families of East Oakland’s Acorn Woodland’s Elementary School 
    • COVID19 has affected us all. As businesses and schools close, many people are left without work, without an income, and without a guarantee that their basic needs can be met. The livelihood of our community is at stake, and the families of Acorn Woodland Elementary School really need us right now.
  • We Demand Free Internet for ALL Low-Income Families During COVID-19
    • Children are being forced to learn from home due to school closures, and as many as 12 million do not have access to internet. Internet providers have signed the FCC’s Keep Americans Connected Pledge, promising to provide internet to families in need. However, the children who face the most challenges are actually left out of this pledge. 
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