The Oakland Education Week in Review: 5/11-5/17

Last week–AIMS’s example of keeping high standards and support during COVID, some awesome stories about a pathbreaking student at Skyline and an Emerson teacher who moved a nation, how OUSD could easily increase enrollment, some progress on facilities, the new digital divide plan and why it fails, all that and much more please read, share ans stay safe.

Oakland:

California:

Other Stories:

Resources:

How You Can Help:

Oakland:

  • Holding the line and upping support how, AIMS maintains high standards with distance learning
    • Every public school and district has had to grapple with distance learning these past few months, and its many issues and imperfect solutions.There’s equity: The Oakland Mayor’s office and partners recently announced they need 25,000 computers, 10,000 hotspots and 13,000 internet service contracts to ensure every student can participate in distance learning. Across the Bay Area, many parents are unhappy with the amount of teaching their students are receiving. Some school districts are handling the grading dilemma by proposing giving every student an “A.” Many schools have already cancelled graduation.
  • Connecting with Kyla- COVID and the Budget
    • Eight weeks ago, we closed schools for in person instruction. Since then our world has been turned upside down as we deal with the effects of this health crisis. Our focus has been on meeting immediate needs – providing food, diapers and other necessities, raising money for direct aid, getting Chromebooks into kids’ hands, and pivoting to distance learning. That work is ongoing because our families continue to face intense need. We also must begin to look up from the immediate challenges and plan for what the next phases of this crisis will mean for us.
  • BayTech to Host a Virtual College Planning Session for the Class of 2021
    • “At some point we are going to get back to ‘normal’ and our juniors will want to attend college after they graduate from BayTech” said Dr. Seth Feldman, Executive Director at BayTech Charter. This year, the BayTech class of 2021 will have to add virtual college counseling to the list of oddities that their class will encounter as a group. The Class of 2021 will navigate unchartered territory as they try to figure out how to work through the ‘new normal’ of college search where all the former rules no longer apply
  • Skyline High Senior Eleanor Wikstrom Makes History, Becoming First Ever CIF Scholar-Athlete of the Year from Oakland
    • Eleanor Wikstrom from Skyline High School has a unique set of skills. She studies as hard as anyone, pulling a 4.0 GPA that has her heading to Harvard University in the fall. She is such an effective orator that she has taken first place in OUSD’s Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Oratorical Fest four times, and she is the current Vice Youth Poet Laureate for the City of Oakland. And as record-setting captain of Skyline’s Track and Field and Cross Country teams, she leaves just about everyone in her dust. That set of skills enabled Wikstrom to make history in 2020, becoming the first ever California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Scholar-Athlete of the Year from the Oakland Section. She and a football player from the Central Valley won the CIF’s top honors on Monday, out of 830,000 student athletes across the state.
  • An Easy Fix for OUSD, Make Applying Easier
    • “Andres” is a newcomer.  He needs a great school, that supports his language and other needs.  Thankfully, we have just such a school in our neighborhood, Melrose Leadership Academy.  Unfortunately, he never applied, and it was OUSD’s unnecessarily intrusive and complex process that was the hurdle.  This is totally fixable, would lead to hundreds of more OUSD students, and the charters have already solved this problem.  Let me explain.
  • A long-term lease for Aspire Berkley Maynard
    • It took a winding journey to get there, but the Aspire Berkley Maynard Academy (BMA) community ended up in the right place: with a long-term lease from the Oakland Unified School District at the aging facility it has occupied for 15 years, and with the power now to use grant money it already secured to make safety upgrades.
  • Why do I and other black families support charter schools?
    • It’s not because we’ve been duped, or that we’re “privatizers.” It’s because many of us have looked at our neighborhood schools and realized we need better options for our kids.
  • The Long and Winding Road to a Better Building For Oakland Children Ends Well at Berkley Maynard
    • It took a winding journey to get there, but the Aspire Berkley Maynard Academy (BMA) community ended up in the right place: with a long-term lease from the Oakland Unified School District at the aging facility it has occupied for 15 years, and with the power now to use grant money it already secured to make safety upgrades.
  • Anonymous Donors Wipe Out College Debt For 400 Bay Area Students Who Rose Above
    • A group of anonymous donors, moved by stories of students overcoming the direst of circumstances to succeed in their college and work careers, has given hundreds of them an eye-popping gift which could move them to even higher levels.
  • Press Conference Scheduled: OUSD and City of Oakland Announce Plan to CLOSE the Digital Divide; Bold $12.5 Million Plan Launches on Thursday!
    • “It’s time to close the digital divide once and for all,” is the rallying cry of the leaders of a new effort to support students and families in Oakland. The digital divide has been in the news recently as something that keeps the field of education uneven and unfair. Students with plenty of resources at home, such as a computer and WiFi, can access their education in ways that students with few resources can. Oakland is a prime example of a place where this disparity exists, as thousands of OUSD students can’t afford a computer or WiFi. Today, half of Oakland’s 50,000 public school students don’t have their own computer, internet access, or are underconnected.
  • How Virtual Learning Exposed Inequities In Education
    • Around 1.2 million California students lack adequate access to the internet right now, despite the fact that public schools have moved classes online. That’s created a tough scenario for teachers who have a harder time keeping tabs on students, and some educators are worried about what this means to education inequities that existed long before COVID-19.
  • Oakland School Board Candidate Debate
    • Tuesday May 19 at 7 PM / With 4 Oakland school board seats vacant and no incumbents running, the 2020 election has the potential to remake Oakland’s schools. So what are the candidates’ vision for Oakland education, particularly amidst the uncertainties of Covid?
  • A Catalyst for quality school options in San Leandro
    • San Leandro families living in the Bay Fair area near East Oakland have a great need for quality public schools that prepare students to succeed in college and beyond. Only 14 percent of African American public school students are on grade level for math, and just 29 percent are reading on grade level. For Latino/a students, the numbers aren’t much better: 20 percent are proficient in math and 35 percent are reading on grade level.
  • First Grade Teacher Moved to Tears by Gift for School
    • Ellen surprised first grade teacher Peter Limata of Oakland, California, who talked about how he has stayed connected with students during quarantine, and how his virtual reading sessions have become popular. Peter himself pays for a lot of things he needs for school, so Ellen and her friends at Box Tops for Education helped him by not only giving him $25,000, they gave an additional $25,000 to his school! 
  • Why Oakland’s Current Plan WON’T CLOSE the Digital Divide and How We Can
    • I would guess more than half of Oakland’s Flatland families are worrying about food.  They also are worrying about rent.  And when that will be due.  Some are getting pressure to pay right now.  They can’t.  How much money do you think they have to pay for internet? You know the answer. So, when I see a press release claiming OUSD and City of Oakland Announce Plan to CLOSE the Digital Divide; Bold $12.5 Million Plan Launches on Thursday! I have to question the use of “CLOSE” when there is no guarantee of free high quality internet.  Sure, you can get devices into hands, but if kids can’t get online, it really doesn’t matter.  
  • Emerson Elementary First Grade Teacher Who Hosts Special Virtual Story Time for Students to Appear on The Ellen Degeneres Show This Afternoon
    • An OUSD first grade teacher who has made a name for himself by reading to his students virtually in an effort that’s gone viral around the world, will appear this afternoon on The Ellen Degeneres Show on NBC Bay Area. Peter Limata from Emerson Elementary School has been hosting what he dubs “story time” for children during the shelter in place, and his efforts attracted so much attention online that he got some local news coverage, including this story by NBC Bay Area.
  • OUSD, Oakland announce $12.5 million campaign to make computers, internet available to all students
    • Coronavirus pandemic, school closures have only worsened the situation, officials say.
  • Twitter’s Jack Dorsey Sends Huge Donation to OUSD and City of Oakland to Help Close Digital Divide
    • Less than 24 hours after OUSD, the City of Oakland, and partner organizations held a news conference to announce an ambitious plan to close the digital divide by raising $12.5m to pay for technology and internet access for all Oakland students to have at home, Twitter CEO and Co-Founder, Jack Dorsey, announced he is supporting the effort with a $10 million donation. In one fell swoop, he gave the campaign most of the funds it was originally aiming to raise.
  • Jobs, Laptops, Food: How Rudsdale High Teachers Are Helping Newcomer Students During COVID-19
    • Nearly one in five high school students in Oakland Unified School District is new to the country. Like other schools in the district, Rudsdale High has become an essential service provider for these newcomers during the coronavirus pandemic, providing students with food and laptops and advising them on how to navigate social services and other support.
  • Prescott First Fruits Project launches in West Oakland
    • The Parents and Educators of Prescott School, an Oakland Unified School District public elementary, announce the launch of the Prescott First Fruits Project (PFFP). The PFFP is the first of its kind in OUSD, bringing together the district’s successful Living Schoolyard Initiative and its commitment to strong community schools with the educational focus of the new Foster Center Central Kitchen project. PFFP will develop a self-sustaining “seed to table” program with a working farm, a hands-on outdoor classroom and a cooperative kitchen to bring the culinary arts and healthy meals to Prescott students and a commissary kitchen and community resource to the West Oakland community. For more information contact [email protected]

California:

Other Stories:

Resources:

  • Literacy for All: Covid 19 Edition
    • The Oakland NAACP has continued the initiative to improve literacy. We’ve educated stakeholders  (see #s 9,18 below), sent teachers to CORE’s reading class (9), provided school systems with access to nationwide curricular experts (8c,9), provided information to state stakeholders on matters of local importance (4,21), helped Oakland reclaim its institutional memory and learn from the past (13), found local and international opportunities to overcome lack of access to teachers during shelter-in-place (20), promoted healthy culture by opening difficult conversations (10,11,14,17), promoted transparency around curriculum selection and implementation (6,16), and illuminated examples of advocacy and partnership (1,3). We will continue to work with The Oakland Reach, Literacy for All Campaign, and any stakeholders who want to help.
  • Open Charter School Seats as of 5/12, You Can Still Apply
    • Here are charters schools that still had open seats and the grades that had spots, I asked the district for something similar but haven’t gotten anything. Thanks Oakland Enrolls for this, and check out their site to apply to district and charter schools.
  • California Disaster Relief Assistance for Immigrants
    • Qualifying families may apply for state disaster relief beginning Monday, 5/18 at 9:00. There is a limited amount of funding to be distributed  so please help us spread the word to our families. 

How You Can Help:

  • 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. 
  • Oakland Public Schools Equitable Enrollment Community Survey
    • The Oakland Unified School Board has been planning to look at our enrollment policy to see how Oakland can increase equitable access to high-quality schools. As part of this work, Oakland Unified convened an Equitable Enrollment Working Group made up of parents, school staff, and community members to bring recommendations to the Board. Recommendations might be related to enrollment priorities, attendance boundaries, or other aspects of how enrollment works.
  • Equity Fund, Board Election Event, and OUSD Enrollment Policies
    • Due to the unprecedented need caused by COVID-19, we have decided to disburse the funds raised to more schools this year. The twenty highest-need schools, as determined by our equity index, will receive $5,000 each in unrestricted funds to be as their community sees fit.  
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