The Oakland Education Week in Review: 6/15-6/21

Last week, how you help Mack get the facility the community deserves, more budget cuts are coming, COVID and ELLs, The Oakland REACH launches “the hub,” dyslexia and Black children, a grandma’s story, lots on COVID learning loss and getting back to school and more, please read, share, and get involved.

Oakland:

California:

Other Stories:

How You Can Help:

Oakland:

  • The Debt Oakland Owes McClymonds and How We Can Start Paying it Off Where we put out money is a statement of our priorities.  And no community in the East Bay has paid a higher cost of progress than West Oakland.  While the region and State’s commerce flows over and through it, from the Port, to BART, to the highways that connect the suburbs with jobs.  West Oakland has been left largely with the by-products of progress and not the benefits, 38 Hazmat sites near Mack, air that smells funny from all the industry and trucks going to the port, asthma rates to match, and all the other historical markers of racism and redlining.  Please demand that OUSD prioritize fixing Mack, and pay part of the debt West Oakland is owed.
  • Oakland schools face $35 million or more in budget cuts
    • As the state continues to grapple with the side effects of the coronavirus pandemic, the Oakland Unified School District could face budget cuts much worse than any during the Great Recession, the superintendent announced Friday.
  • FASTalk connects teachers and non-English speaking OUSD families during COVID-19
    • When it comes to communicating with their child’s teacher, most parents want the same thing: to understand what their child is learning in school and how they can support their education when they’re at home. Most parents would say they want that information directly from their child’s teacher. 
  • Online Q&A: “We Are the Dream” with Executive Producer Julie Anderson and Special Guests
    • Every year, hundreds of children from pre-K through 12th grade take the stage at the Oakland MLK Oratorical Fest, a public speaking competition where they perform poetry and speeches inspired by the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The HBO documentary We Are the Dream: The Kids of the Oakland MLK Oratorical Fest covers the months leading up to the 40th annual festival, as schools across the city send their top-placing students to compete. It is a portrait of young people raising their voices about issues they care about and of the unique community that celebrates and supports them.
  • We Are Responsible
    • “We may not be guilty but we are responsible.”
    • Rabbinical intern Leo Fuchs delivers a sermon to Congregation Emanu-El; June 5, 2020 at the One Shabbat Service via Zoom.
  • The Oakland REACH is taking on the digital divide #REACHforMore
    • The Oakland REACH came together – in partnership with a block of black-owned businesses on MacArthur Boulevard – to distribute 200 computers to our families to make sure they have what they need to be successful with summer learning. 
  • Public Schools Are Failing Black Students With Dyslexia: One Grandmother’s Story

California:

  • School police should stop pepper spraying students, L.A. Unified superintendent says
    • Los Angeles school police should be banned from using pepper spray and carotid holds, L.A. Unified Supt. Austin Beutner said Monday in the wake of calls to disband the district’s 470-member campus police force.
  • Reopening California schools: Expect smaller class sizes, changes to schedules, and more
    • Guidelines have been released by the California Department of Education for school districts across the state to follow as they make plans for reopening this fall. In the 62-page guidebook “Stronger Together: A Guidebook For The Safe Reopening of California’s Public School,” everything from face mask requirements to class schedules and updated lunch times are outlined.
  • CA School Districts Lag on Dyslexia, Hurting Low-Income Kids of Color Most
    • Over the past few decades, big scientific advances have helped us identify and understand dyslexia. But overall, public schools around the country are still failing students with the learning disorder — particularly low-income kids of color.
  • Editorial: Of course race matters. Put affirmative action back on California’s ballot
    • Twenty-four years ago California voters made a mistake whose consequences continue to ripple through the state. They passed Proposition 209, a citizen initiative that barred state and local agencies from considering race, ethnicity or gender in hiring and public university admission. In so doing, voters bought into a false premise sold by misguided proponents: that giving women and people of color a small boost in a wildly unfair system was a worse kind of discrimination.
    • Dear April from Hayward Please Stop Exploiting Black Kids for Your Political AgendaI have worked with Black families in Oakland for roughly 30 years.  I am a co-founder for the State of Black Education in Oakland, and have hosted and attended dozens of events focusing on Black children, many in partnership with the NAACP.  I have never seen April from Hayward.  I have never even heard of April from Hayward until she sent an email, playing on Black Lives matter, but exploiting it for a narrow political gain, on some anti charter nonsense.  This is the worst form of opportunism, so please stop.I have worked with Black families in Oakland for roughly 30 years.  I am a co-founder for the State of Black Education in Oakland, and have hosted and attended dozens of events focusing on Black children, many in partnership with the NAACP.  I have never seen April from Hayward.  I have never even heard of April from Hayward until she sent an email, playing on Black Lives matter, but exploiting it for a narrow political gain, on some anti charter nonsense.  This is the worst form of opportunism, so please stop.

Other Stories:

  • Beyond Grit & Resilience: How Black Men Impacted by the Crack Epidemic Succeeded Against the Odds and Obtained Doctoral Degrees
    • This comparative case study utilized oral histories to illuminate the life stories of three Black men who navigated their way through trauma. The goal of the study was to better understand how they navigated education and life experiences to eventually earn doctoral degrees. The findings affirm and illuminate that despite their academic success, they suffer from residual unresolved emotional scars due to unhealed trauma. The key findings are that these men navigated trauma by (a) seeking out quality education, (b) developing strong self-agency, and (c) utilizing close proximity to success. The study concludes that the key to increasing the rate of academic success among Black males is reducing the effects of trauma and provides recommendations for how communities and schools can achieve this. The lives of the men in this study illustrate that with the right support to promote healing from the effects of trauma Black males can overcome the most traumatic experiences and achieve academically at the highest level. However, when healing does not accompany the journey to academic success it comes at a cost.
  • COVID-19 Has Widened the ‘Homework Gap’ Into a Full-Fledged Learning Gap
    • It’s a problem that many educators have been grappling with for years, but one that has been exacerbated—and made more public—by COVID-19: Many students lack sufficient internet connections at home to be able to complete their schoolwork.
  • Supreme Court blocks Trump from ending DACA in big win for Dreamers
    • The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the Trump administration cannot carry out its plan to shut down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which has allowed nearly 800,000 young people, known as Dreamers, to avoid deportation and remain in the U.S.
  • Analysis: Just 1 in 3 Districts Required Teachers to Deliver Instruction This Spring. They Mustn’t Be Left on Their Own Again in the Fall
    • Researchers at the Center on Reinventing Public Education spent this spring analyzing 82 school districts’ responses to COVID-19 closures. Our analysis focused on large, high-profile school systems. While the districts served more than 9 million students combined, we wondered if it represented school systems across the country. 

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. 
What do you think?

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