The Oakland Education Week in Review: 10/4-10/11

last week, looking at a robust community response to COVID and the Literacy Liberation Center, lots on voting and the upcoming elections, the continuing digital divide issues, some great student posters around voting, a look at a secretive attempt to dismantle the Reach Institute, all that and more please read share and get involved

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Oakland:

  • Grab and Go Food Boxes Contained Unexpected Trump Letter
    • Under the CARES act, we have been distributing produce and dairy boxes to our community through our grab and go meal service. Last Thursday, those boxes contained a letter from President Donald Trump, which was distributed nationwide. It has been criticized because it arrived just weeks before the presidential election.
  • Access Denied Ep. 12: Real Community Solutions to the Broadband Crisis (ft. Mark Hurty, Guy Robinson, and Ericka Njumanze)
    • This week, we are pleased to host a number of guests, all focused on bringing positive change to families through closing the #digitaldivide. Mark Hurty is a Product Manager at EducationSuperHighway, a nonprofit dedicated towards upgrading the internet access in every public school classroom in America. He is also running for a seat on the Oakland Schoolboard, and is a former public school teacher. We are also joined by three incredible members from The Oakland REACH: Michael De Sousa, Ericka Njumanze, and Pastor Guy Robinson.  The Oakland REACH is a parent-run, parent-led group committed to serving families in the most underserved communities to demand high-quality schools for children. Ericka Njumanze is a Oakland REACH Family Liaison, and a parent of 6 Oakland public school students. Pastor Guy Robinson is a pastor and is also an Oakland REACH Literacy Liberation Center participant, and is a grandparent to 3 Oakland public school students. Michael De Sousa is a Managing Director at the Oakland REACH. 
  • ADVISORY: Voting Event for Charter School Families in Oakland
    • Families in Action for Quality Education is collaborating with 39 Oakland charter schools who serve over 16,000 students to co-host a virtual citywide elections kick off to stress the importance of voting in the Oakland school board election.
  • Editorial: Four Oakland school board candidates serious about change
    • The candidates for four open seats on the Oakland school board generally fall into two camps — those ready to address the district’s serious problems, and those in denial about them. The district of 49,000 students must confront poor academic performance, an excess of schools that drain money, projected budget deficits and inadequate online teaching time during the pandemic. With a majority of the seven school board seats on the Nov. 3 ballot, and no incumbents seeking reelection, this is a critical election. Voters who care about the future of education in Oakland should look for candidates serious about change.
  • Oakland school officials address ‘surprising letter’ from Donald Trump inside free meal boxes
    • Oakland Unified School District officials on Monday addressed what they called a “surprising letter” from President Trump which was included in boxes of food distributed to families as part of the district’s “Grab and Go” free meals program.
  • OUSD and Youth Beat Students are in the Spotlight Again!
    • OUSD students will be in the spotlight again today at 4:00 p.m. Pacific time. Students from Youth Beat will be on PBS for Face the Facts: Election 2020 Youth Town Hall, a one-hour virtual event put on by the PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs. Our students will share their views on the 2020 presidential election along with student reporters from across the country.
  • It’s National Digital Inclusion Week, Do you Know Where your Students Are?
    • During distance learning, if you can’t get online, you can’t get to school.  Last we knew, roughly half of Oakland’s students were unconnected or underconnected, with our most historically underserved students being the most disconnected.  
  • FIA + OSA Voting Poster Contest
    • Oakland School for the Arts (OSA) visual arts students and educators partnered with FIA on a voting poster contest. There are many ways to show leadership and make an impact in the 2020 election, even if you’re not eligible to vote! These talented young activists are making their voices heard through their art.
  • The Dismantling of the Reach Institute and How Community is Fighting Back
    • The Reach Institute has trained many of Oakland’s and the region’s most impactful educational leaders.  These were leaders who learned the nuts and bolts of leadership, alongside a legitimate and robust equity focus.  In an area needing more leadership talent, the Reach Institute was a huge resource for Oakland and the Community.
  • OUSD makes progress providing students computers
    • Although there are some technical issues, one parent tells KRON4 she is in no rush to return her child to the classroom. It has been two months of distance learning for students in the Oakland Unified School District. There has been major progress in getting computers in the hands of students. “We are in a position where the overwhelming majority of our students have either a loaner computer from one of our schools or they have received an Oakland Undivided computer. Vast majority online, engaged in distance learning,” district spokesperson John Sasaki said. 
  • Teachers and School District Dispute Union Rights
    • Members of the teachers’ union, Oakland Education Association (OEA), are reacting angrily to letters from the school district top attorney they believe are intensifying antagonisms between the district and the union and attempt to undermine OEA President Keith Brown.
  • Oakland Measure QQ: Youth Voting in School Board Elections
    • Right now in Oakland, you have to be 18 years old to vote in a school board election. Measure QQ would give the City Council the power to allow 16 and 17 year-olds to vote in them. To be clear, they don’t have to allow it, but they could. Student leaders in Oakland have been lobbying for this right for a long time. And they were validated when the City Council voted unanimously, in May, to place Measure QQ on the ballot. Their vote was supported by the Mayor, the teachers’ union, and several School Board members.
  • Glenview Elementary makes a gleaming comeback
    • From being almost entirely torn down in 2016, Glenview Elementary School is back after a major rebuild and will be ready to open its doors when students and teachers are allowed to return from distance learning, according to the Oakland Unified School District, which unveiled the gleaming buildings on Friday. The new school features larger classrooms, a redesigned library and a multi-use room with a stage and a basketball court that has roll-up doors to allow for indoor-outdoor events.
  • Elite Lowell High School admissions would become a lottery under new S.F. district proposal
    • San Francisco school officials dropped a bombshell proposal Friday, recommending that admissions to the academically exclusive Lowell High School be subject to random lottery for the fall, meaning all entering freshmen would have equal odds of getting in regardless of grades or test scores.

California:

  • Proposition 16: A new fight over affirmative action
    • Fundamentally, Proposition 16 is the latest skirmish in a decades-long conflict over the meaning of two words — affirmative action. If passed — very doubtful, according to two recent polls — the measure would repeal 1996’s Proposition 209, which banned discrimination or preferences “on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting.”
  • Many Californians Hesitant to End State’s Affirmative Action Ban, Poll Shows
    • The killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police this past spring sparked protests across the country, including throughout the Bay Area. Amidst the marches and emotion of an ongoing national reckoning over systemic racial injustice in the United States, California lawmakers saw an opportunity to harness public opinion in hopes of overturning the state’s ban on affirmative action in public education, hiring and contracting.
  • Dr. Mark Ghaly: No Link So Far Between California School Openings, COVID-19 Cases
    • California has not seen a link between the reopening of K-12 schools for in-person learning and increased coronavirus transmission, the state’s top public health official said Tuesday.

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