The Oakland Education Week in Review: 7/27-8/3

School is starting and we are no where near ready, kids don’t have devices, and we don’t have long term plans to provide access or short term agreements with staff. There are solutions from Chicago and elsewhere. We need better plans and accountability. On the good side, the Bridges family, raised $250k for some of our most underserved families and the access issues are solvable. Lots to do to start the year, please read, share, and get involved.

Oakland:

• With Millions in Hand From Jack Dorsey, OUSD Scrambles to Get Students Tech Devices Before School Starts
• What the ‘Warriors House’ can teach us about predatory lending in Oakland
• Dear @Jack from Twitter, Oakland Needs your Money, But it Needs Accountability in Spending it Even More
• Oakland Educators Concerned ‘Learning Pods’ Will Widen Education Gap
• Bridges Stimulus Pledge raises $250k for Oakland families
• Schooling in a Pandemic: 3 Ideas for Districts to Meet the Moment
• A Digital Inclusion Expert Shares How Those in Education Can Get Internet Into Families’ Hands
• Oakland Teachers Spar With District Over Back-to-School Plans
• OUSD To Reform Online Makeup Courses After Harsh Jury Report
• Oakland Unified lacks agreements with teachers and other staff as Aug. 10 school start looms
• Teachers and Union Ask: Does OUSD Have a Tech Plan to Open Schools?

California:

• California schools short 1 million laptops, hot spots ahead of online school year
• How Are Families & Teachers Preparing For Another Semester Of Remote Learning?
• California charter schools sue state for not funding additional students this year

Other Stories:

• 7,572 school-age children diagnosed with COVID-19 in Tennessee, new data shows
• Chicago Hopes Broadband Plan Could Help Other Cities Address Digital Divide
• As Schools Reopen, 16.9 Million Children Still Lack Internet Access, With Students of Color Hit the Hardest
• KentuckyWired may not spell the end of students’ connection woes
• Children May Carry Coronavirus at High Levels, Study Finds
• Oakland Co. girl jailed for not doing homework gets released

Resources:

• Charter Schools with Open Seats as of July 27th

Oakland:

• With Millions in Hand From Jack Dorsey, OUSD Scrambles to Get Students Tech Devices Before School Starts
  • Oakland Unified officials pledged to overcome that divide after last spring’s inconsistent and often problematic efforts. Some 3,400 students were found to have little or no digital connection, with many others left trying to do assignments on their smartphones or sometimes forced to break shelter-in place rules in order to find internet access elsewhere.
• What the ‘Warriors House’ can teach us about predatory lending in Oakland
  • Lloyd Canamore is trying to hang onto his family home. Many other people going through a similar crisis don’t even have a shot.
• Dear @Jack from Twitter, Oakland Needs your Money, But it Needs Accountability in Spending it Even More
  • Dear @Jack, you seem like a good guy, you want to help, and giving 10 million dollars to the City to get kids online is a great gesture.  The problem is that it won’t help and it may actually hurt Oakland long term.  I know you are new to Oakland.  But things happen different here.  A recent grand jury report, described Oakland Unified as “a district of exceptions” and not in a good way. A lot of money flows in and out of “the Town,” consultants are hired, orders are made, powerpoints are unveiled (always with some smiling Black or Brown face on the front) and when the money is gone, Black and Brown families are in the same exact place, if not worse.
• Oakland Educators Concerned ‘Learning Pods’ Will Widen Education Gap
  • Parents are trying to create small learning pods for their kids and are shopping around for tutors to lead them. But many principals with the Oakland Unified School District are worried, saying learning pods will only widen the education gap. 
• Bridges Stimulus Pledge raises $250k for Oakland families
  • It began in April as a simple enough plan: Bridges Academy at Melrose principal Anita Iverson-Comelo and her husband would donate their stimulus checks to Bridges families, 80 percent of whom had lost their source of income during the pandemic and majority of whom did not qualify for a stimulus check or unemployment benefits  from the government. 
• Schooling in a Pandemic: 3 Ideas for Districts to Meet the Moment
  • This month, parents with means, disproportionately white, are setting up co-op homeschools with three other families and paying a teacher to lead them. Parents without means—disproportionately Black and brown—are asking their older kid to babysit the younger ones while they make Instacart deliveries to keep a roof over their heads. So while I understand that districts are struggling through a crisis they didn’t create, we still desperately need them to step up with creative, out-of-the-box solutions that work for all kids and families in this unprecedented time. It’s critical we don’t allow this pandemic to worsen the racial disparities already endemic to our education system.
• A Digital Inclusion Expert Shares How Those in Education Can Get Internet Into Families’ Hands
  • Host Dirk Tillotson has on Angela Siefer, Executive Director of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance to chat about how education folks can build on the work of digital inclusion advocates and work together to solve the digital divide.
• Oakland Teachers Spar With District Over Back-to-School Plans
  • Oakland schools are scheduled to open for distance learning in less than two weeks but the district and teachers are at odds with no concrete plan in place.
• OUSD To Reform Online Makeup Courses After Harsh Jury Report
  • Oakland Unified School District recently took steps to reform an online program designed to help failing students following a scathing civil grand jury report released last month.
• Oakland Unified lacks agreements with teachers and other staff as Aug. 10 school start looms
  • With just over one week before school starts Aug. 10 in Oakland Unified, the district is still in negotiations with its labor unions on how it will deliver distance learning and how it will determine when it is safe to bring students and staff back to campuses.
• Teachers and Union Ask: Does OUSD Have a Tech Plan to Open Schools?
  • Some Oakland public school teachers and their union, the Oakland Education Association (OEA), are expressing concern that the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) might not provide adequate technology, technological support, and preparatory time to understand distance learning technology before the school year starts.

California:

• California schools short 1 million laptops, hot spots ahead of online school year
  • When classes resume in California for the fall semester, most if not all schools will be utilizing remote learning, presenting a significant hurdle in a state that needs to procure nearly 700,000 laptops and 300,000 WiFi hot spots to help students learn.
• How Are Families & Teachers Preparing For Another Semester Of Remote Learning?
  • On this edition of Your Call, we’ll find out how families and educators are preparing for another semester of remote learning. Here in California, as cases continue to rise, 90 percent of K-12 schools will operate remotely.
• California charter schools sue state for not funding additional students this year
  • Four growing charter school organizations are suing Gov. Gavin Newsom, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond and the California Department of Education, charging that the state’s formula for funding K-12 schools during the pandemic will illegally deny payments for additional students in their schools.

Other Stories:

• 7,572 school-age children diagnosed with COVID-19 in Tennessee, new data shows
  • Four growing charter school organizations are suing Gov. Gavin Newsom, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond and the California Department of Education, charging that the state’s formula for funding K-12 schools during the pandemic will illegally deny payments for additional students in their schools.
• Chicago Hopes Broadband Plan Could Help Other Cities Address Digital Divide
  • Officials and donors involved in an ambitious plan to provide free broadband access to students in Chicago’s poorest neighborhoods hope that the public-private partnership can be a model for efforts to address digital equity issues elsewhere in the U.S.
• As Schools Reopen, 16.9 Million Children Still Lack Internet Access, With Students of Color Hit the Hardest
  • We’ve been sounding the alarm about how dire students’ internet access problems are in this country throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and we wish we had better news to share with you today on that front. Unfortunately, according to a new report, fully 16.9 million children in the U.S. lack proper internet access to get online for remote schooling during the pandemic.
• KentuckyWired may not spell the end of students’ connection woes
  • KentuckyWired was once considered an answered prayer for families across the Bluegrass, where broadband Internet access is among the worst in the nation. No one told us that prayer would turn out to be a Hail Mary.
• Children May Carry Coronavirus at High Levels, Study Finds
  • The research does not prove that infected children are contagious, but it should influence the debate about reopening schools, some experts said.
• Oakland Co. girl jailed for not doing homework gets released
  • A 15-year-old Oakland County girl whose monthslong detainment drew national condemnation because it was punishment for missed homework amid the pandemic was released Friday evening to the custody of her mother.

Resources:

• Charter Schools with Open Seats as of July 27th
  • There are still many great school choices in both the district and charters, if you are still looking, please apply and find the right spot for your child.  Go to Oakland Enrolls to submit your application.