Last week, several stories on the digital divide and solving it, my first internet show, a powerful mural goes up to represent solidarity, BLM in Oakland on the street and horseback, a look at the re-opening plans and budget shortfalls, a high tech summer camp using equitable pricing, the academic effects of COVID and more, please read, share and get involved
Oakland:
- Oakland students team with 3D printers to build hundreds of hospital face shields
- Lodestar mural celebrates the beauty and imagination of Oakland Black and Brown students
- The Oakland REACH is taking on the digital divide
- Evictions in Oakland and the pandemic: everything you wanted to know
- Settling into our new reality. Updates on reopening and our budget-Connecting with Kyla
- Oakland Voices: Youth activists leading the Black Lives Matter Movement
- “Black Lives Matter” Horse Ride on Oakland’s Skyline Trail
- Access Denied; Surveying the Digital Divide and Solutions From Oakland to Philly
California:
- California parents weigh risks, benefits of sending kids back to school
- Pandemic’s impact on California children highlights need for comprehensive data system
- Camp EDMO goes virtual, with equitable pricing
Other Stories:
- The Problem with Officer Friendly in Schools
- How Much Are Children Falling Behind In School Because Of COVID-19 Pandemic?
- Homework in a McDonald’s parking lot: Inside one mother’s fight to help her kids get an education during coronavirus
- Thousands of Indianapolis students don’t have internet. An ambitious plan could help.
Oakland:
- Oakland students team with 3D printers to build hundreds of hospital face shields
- High school students in Tawana Guillaume’s engineering pathway have created hundreds of face shields on 3D printers as part of a group called 3D Printing Friends. The group donated the printed face shields to numerous hospitals including Alta Bates in Berkeley, St. Mary’s Medical Center in San Francisco, Mt. Sinai in New York City and Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, DC, among others.
- Lodestar mural celebrates the beauty and imagination of Oakland Black and Brown students
- Walk around Downtown Oakland these days and you will witness an open-air art museum. Block by block, up and down Broadway and Telegraph and their cross streets, there are more than 1,000 beautiful and powerful murals that cover storefronts that reflect the values of our Oakland community.
- The Oakland REACH is taking on the digital divide
- 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.
- Evictions in Oakland and the pandemic: everything you wanted to know
- We asked residents what questions they have about Oakland’s eviction moratorium, then asked experts to provide answers.
- Settling into our new reality. Updates on reopening and our budget-Connecting with Kyla
- It is summer time, so closed campuses do not seem as odd now, but thinking about how these campuses will look this fall, and beyond, consumes me. During my daily walks with my husband, our conversations often turn to the future. As we settle into our new reality of evolving shelter in place orders, it is sobering to realize that we are 12-18 months away from a vaccine and that might be optimistic. I look forward to the day when this has become a part of our shared memory, but we are not there yet. We have to meet our immediate needs, but also know that the educational, health, and budgetary impacts of this pandemic are going to be with us for years not months.
- Oakland Voices: Youth activists leading the Black Lives Matter Movement
- A month has passed since the first day of protests erupted in Oakland following the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd. For the past weeks, youth have driven the Black Lives Matter movement forward.
- “Black Lives Matter” Horse Ride on Oakland’s Skyline Trail
- On June 20, hundreds of horse riders raised their fists, observed a moment of silence, and rode along the iconic Skyline Trail in Oakland in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.
- Access Denied; Surveying the Digital Divide and Solutions From Oakland to Philly
- Talking with Zach Wright, a renowned educator from Philly, about the digital divide, the price gauging broadband providers, the costs to families and how we (meaning you) can support real access for every family that needs it.
California:
- California parents weigh risks, benefits of sending kids back to school
- As schools plan to reopen, California parents are asking themselves if it is better to send their children back to school and risk them getting the coronavirus or keeping them at home to do distance learning.
- Pandemic’s impact on California children highlights need for comprehensive data system
- California needs an educational data system that follows students from preschool through college and puts the highest priority on equity of student opportunity.
- Camp EDMO goes virtual, with equitable pricing
- Summer camp, like seemingly every other activity available for children in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, has gone virtual. By moving online, leaders at Camp EDMO found they could also provide the camp experience to more young people, while doing so more equitably.
Other Stories:
- The Problem with Officer Friendly in Schools
- It is well past time to re-assess what the police really do, and to get police who understand, represent and serve the community. And as schools we need to assess the context that Officer Friendly is presented. It should not be one that rubs against the experiences of many if not most of the youth in the room.
- How Much Are Children Falling Behind In School Because Of COVID-19 Pandemic?
- Here & Now’s Peter O’Dowd speaks with Robin Lake, director of the Center for Reinventing Public Education. Lake says over the past few months of online learning, one in five school districts expected real-time teaching, and when school starts in the fall the average student may be one full year behind in math.
- Homework in a McDonald’s parking lot: Inside one mother’s fight to help her kids get an education during coronavirus
- In the rural Deep South, Black residents born into poverty have long struggled to escape it. Schools here are among the most ill-resourced in the nation, well-paying jobs are few and necessities like Wi-Fi, public transportation and medical insurance are often out of reach. In Washington County, where Johnson lives, 34 percent of families live below the poverty line. More than half of children in the county between the ages of 5 to 17 live in poverty. As the economic and health crisis caused by the coronavirus spreads across the region, advocates and scholars fear it will plunge families deeper into poverty and inflame existing racial and geographic inequities, with dire consequences for a generation of children.
- Thousands of Indianapolis students don’t have internet. An ambitious plan could help.
- During the coronavirus outbreak, U.S. schools are using online instruction more than ever before. Affluent suburban districts quickly shifted to virtual teaching, sometimes hosting regular classes by video each day. But lots of students simply don’t have the reliable, high-speed internet access they need to participate. The problem is a particular concern in Indiana, where about 150,000 children lack access to the internet, according to the 2018 American Community Survey.
What do you think?