The Oakland Education Week in Review: 9/6-9/13

Last week, the reopening process is starting, a look at literacy and families, some tragedies in OUSD to start the year, a new local fund for community literacy efforts, changes near the top in OUSD, COVID and the Native community, that and much more, please read, share and get involved

Oakland:

California:

Other Stories:

Resources:

Oakland:

  • Alameda County Begins Elementary School Reopening Waiver Process
    • The Alameda County Public Health Department (ACPHD) announced Wednesday that it will begin the process of accepting waivers to bring students in transitional kindergarten to 6th grade on campus for in-person learning at schools in Alameda County.
  • How Families are Pushing Schools to Teach Reading Skills More Effectively
    • Activists in Oakland, California have been pushing schools to focus on how students are being taught to read as a way to improve literacy. Members of the NAACP and an advocacy organization called Oakland REACH, started by Oakland parents whose kids attend the district’s lowest performing schools, have coalesced around a campaign for better reading instruction they’re calling Literacy for All.
  • OUSD Mourns for Students and Former Students Lost to a Fatal Car Crash and Gun Violence
    • Four weeks into the new year, and several schools across Oakland Unified School District are in mourning because they have recently lost valued members of their communities. The District has lost a total of five young people who were getting ready to graduate or had recently graduated. Some had come back to the schools to support the students of today.
  • Oakland Nonprofits Launch The People’s Literacy Fund To Address The City’s Literacy Crisis
    • Today, Educate78 and Energy Convertors, two Oakland-based nonprofits that are dedicated to improving the Town’s public education system, launched The People’s Literacy Fund. The new pilot program will award grants between $500 and $5,000 to members of the community who are helping Oakland students learn during distance learning. Educate78 and Energy Convertors are both committed to finding and funding solutions that serve children who live in poverty and were not reading at grade level even before the pandemic.
  • OUSD Announces Several Major Changes in Academic Leadership
    • The Oakland Unified School District is announcing three major changes in the leadership team of academics across the District. Oakland High School Principal, Matin Abdel-Qawi has been chosen to become Superintendent of the High School Network. Former Roosevelt Middle School Principal, Cliff Hong is now the Superintendent for the Middle School Network. And Lucia Moritz, current High School Network Superintendent, will be taking over as the Executive Director of College and Career Readiness.
  • Supporting Literacy Before, During and After COVID
    • A guest post from Dr. Clif Thompson, 5th Grade teacher at King Elementary School in Richmond and Candidate for Oakland School Board, District 7.

California:

Other Stories:

  • Remote Schooling Makes Taking Attendance a Challenge
    • Taking daily attendance in school was once a perfunctory task, but with remote learning it has become harder to do, threatening students’ well-being and school funding, educators say.
  • As Districts Seek Revenue Due to Pandemic, Black Homeowners May Feel the Biggest Hit
    • New research bolsters the case that Black homeowners bear a disproportionate tax burden for underfunded public schools. Now those same homeowners are likely to see their property tax rates climb even higher due to the coronavirus pandemic’s economic devastation.
  • Access Denied Ep. 9: Parents Around the Country Demand #InternetForAll (ft. Maurice Cook and Khulia Pringle)
    • As we are building momentum, we see Great School Voice’s call for #InternetForAll is not alone. This week, we are joined by Maurice Cook of Serve Your City DC, and Khulia Pringle, an activist who is dedicated to organizing parents through the Minnesota Parent Union. Maurice has been dedicated to his hometown of Washington D.C. and through his growing frustration witnessing systemic racism again and again, he founded and created Serve Your City. Serve Your City is a grassroots, community-led effort with multiple community partner organizations to help District residents. They provide food supplies, hygiene products, cleaning materials and most recently digital devices to help students gain access to the internet and attend school virtually. Khulia has tirelessly been advocating for an improved school system in Minnesota and more recently has been focused on the needs of internet access. She has seen over and over again how students across Minnesota are being underserved and locked out of schools because they do not have computer devices, lack adequate and reliable access to the internet, and require culturally competent support in schooling. 

Resources:

  • Offering Fellowships
    • Applications for the 2021 Fellowship are now open! Apply here. We will host a webinar to review the process on Tuesday, September 15, at 1 p.m. MDT. Register for the webinar here.
  • COVID-19 & Remote Learning: How to Make It Work
    • Few schools in the United States will get through the 2020-21 academic year without some form of remote learning, for some portion of the student body, for some period of time.
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