Last week, a lawsuit alleging that distance learning is so bad its illegal, good story on some young authors at Westlake, updates on re-opening for OUSD and the challenges, some good news on OUSD using empty property for housing, the effects of closures on students, the increasing numbers of homeless families, its time to enroll your kid for next year in a district or charter school, all that and more please read share and get involved
Oakland:
- How Low Will Standards Go for Underserved Parents? Families Want to Know, and Now So Do the Lawyers
- Westlake Middle School Students Set to Officially Become Published Authors at Thursday Evening Book Release Celebration with Help of Chapter 510 & the Dept. of Make Believe
- Oakland Unified releases target date to resume in-person learning despite COVID-19 spike
- Oakland Unified submits reopening plan to Alameda County; union says ‘unrealistic’
- Currys help Oakland elementary school get playground makeover
- Oakland Unified schools have a reopening plan. Here’s what it means
- Better Late than Never, OUSD Commits to Housing on Unused Properties
- Two Oakland 6th graders become published authors
California:
- School closures may be killing our kids
- California Voice: Crisis of rising student homelessness worthy of immediate action
- California families sue state over distance learning inequities
- Parents, advocacy groups sue California, say remote learning leaves some children behind
- California unveiled a blueprint for the future of early education. Critics say it’s built on shaky ground
Other Stories:
Resources:
Oakland:
- How Low Will Standards Go for Underserved Parents? Families Want to Know, and Now So Do the Lawyers
- COVID has been hard on everyone, but it has been hardest on our historically underserved parents. This is leading to righteous anger from families who are often left holding the bag. It is also leading to basic questions about whether any of this is even legal, whether under the Constitution you can even call this “education.”
- Westlake Middle School Students Set to Officially Become Published Authors at Thursday Evening Book Release Celebration with Help of Chapter 510 & the Dept. of Make Believe
- Westlake Middle School Students Set to Officially Become Published Authors at Thursday Evening Book Release Celebration with Help of Chapter 510 and the Dept. of Make Believe
- Oakland Unified releases target date to resume in-person learning despite COVID-19 spike
- Tuesday night the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) submitted a reopening plan to Alameda County amid the coronavirus pandemic.
- Oakland Unified submits reopening plan to Alameda County; union says ‘unrealistic’
- Oakland Unified submitted its reopening plan this week to Alameda County in the hopes of allowing some students back to class beginning on Jan. 25, but the proposal is also contingent on bargaining with the teachers union as well as the number of coronavirus cases now surging through the country.
- Currys help Oakland elementary school get playground makeover
- When students at one elementary school in Oakland return from distance learning, they will be greeted by a new playground.
- Oakland Unified schools have a reopening plan. Here’s what it means
- OUSD schools could open as early as January. But the district still has to negotiate with the teachers’ union and COVID case rates have to improve, which means a lot can still change.
- Better Late than Never, OUSD Commits to Housing on Unused Properties
- Stop the presses, the OUSD board has finally committed itself to addressing what most underserved families in Oakland would say is their biggest long-term concern; housing. At the Board’s regular November meeting, they voted unanimously to approve Director Hinton’s “Housing for All” policy, Board Policy 7351, which directs the district to look at its property inventory, consider using it for housing, and to prioritize unsheltered youth.
- Two Oakland 6th graders become published authors
- Two East Bay middle school students became published authors during the course of the coronavirus pandemic. They’re part of a novel writing class at Westlake Middle School in Oakland.
California:
- School closures may be killing our kids
- Throughout California, academic grades for children forced into makeshift learn-at-home arrangements rather than receiving classroom instruction have plummeted — and that’s among kids who are actually signing on via computer.
- California Voice: Crisis of rising student homelessness worthy of immediate action
- During the COVID-19 pandemic, little attention has been paid to the plight of students without any homes or unstable housing.
- California families sue state over distance learning inequities
- Seven families took California to court Monday, accusing the state of failing to ensure “basic educational equality” during a prolonged period of remote learning brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic.
- Parents, advocacy groups sue California, say remote learning leaves some children behind
- Parents and advocacy groups filed a lawsuit Monday against the State of California stating that it failed to meet a “constitutional obligation” to ensure equality in remote education during the coronavirus pandemic.
- California unveiled a blueprint for the future of early education. Critics say it’s built on shaky ground
- After months of delays and pandemic upheaval, California officials on Tuesday released the long-awaited Master Plan for Early Learning and Care, a 113-page blueprint to remodel the state’s Byzantine child-care system and dramatically expand public preschool.
Other Stories:
- How We’re Helping More Black Teachers Make It to the Classroom
- Education was a second career for me—but it wasn’t for lack of trying to make it the first. In college, I pursued a major in education for one semester, but became discouraged by the striking absence of Black men and women in the program. I also heard so much about looming obstacles like certification tests that had tripped up people I was certain would make great teachers. I just couldn’t see a path to a career in the classroom, so I changed course. I went on to become a social worker, but eventually found my way back to education when I founded an alternative school for boys, and later Delaware’s first single-gender charter school for boys.
Resources:
- Explore your options and enroll
- The biggest thing right now is to explore your options. There are lots of them — over 120 different schools in Oakland, both charter and district. That’s a lot to consider, and we’re here to help. But the biggest thing is getting your applications in by February 5. That is the deadline for the on-time application period, which means that if you get your applications in by February 5, you will be a part of school lotteries, which is your best shot at getting into the school of your choice. So that’s the number one thing, that date: February 5. We want it to be in everybody’s minds, we want everybody to know it, and to take action.
What do you think?