Last week, congrats to Oakland’s 3 distinguished schools, a look at how LIFE Academy is fighting absenteeism, parents talk reopening, a look at API chronic absence, the Spring tests, an opportunity for teachers interested in jazz and democracy, high schools with high college eligibility rates for Black students, charter schools with open seats, and more, please choose your school if you haven’t yet, and read, share and get involved
Oakland:
- Nearly 30 Bay Area Schools Added To List Of California Distinguished Schools
- Where are our students? Life Academy intervention team combats chronic absenteeism
- “I would love to just see them back in school doing kids stuff” — one parent’s view on reopening
- Hoda gets emotional interviewing teacher on mission to become ’21st century Mister Rogers’
- As Pacific Islander absenteeism soars in OUSD, Oakland organization IKUNA finds ways to create belonging
- OUSD Rooted in Reading Newsletter
California:
- Hundreds of thousands of California students won’t take statewide standardized tests this spring
- Over half of California public school students remain in distance learning
Other Stories:
- What’s so Special about “Special” Education?
- No, You Should Not Be Teaching Black Children if You Reject Anti-Racism
Resources:
- High Schools that Showed Progress with African American Children
- Belonging In Oakland: A Just City Cultural Fund
- The Jazz and Democracy Project is Enrolling Teachers Apply by May 17th for priority Discount
- Charter schools with open seats for next year
Oakland:
- Nearly 30 Bay Area Schools Added To List Of California Distinguished Schools
- State schools Superintendent Tony Thurmond named an additional 121 schools – including 28 in the greater Bay Area – as 2021 California Distinguished Schools.
- Where are our students? Life Academy intervention team combats chronic absenteeism
- The staff at Life Academy in the Fruitvale know how important consistent student attendance is to ensure kids stay on track. So as the pandemic complicated teaching and learning, and students began to disengage, a team of teachers took responsibility for closely monitoring student absences all year.
- “I would love to just see them back in school doing kids stuff” — one parent’s view on reopening
- Across Oakland, charter schools are reopening to in-person instruction and welcoming in students. How do Oakland charter public school families feel about physically sending their kids back to school? How do they feel about distance learning? We are asking parents to share their thoughts. Interested in sharing your thoughts, or know of another parent who should?
- Hoda gets emotional interviewing teacher on mission to become ’21st century Mister Rogers’
- Oakland middle school teacher Donovan Taylor Hall has become an inspirational presence on TikTok after sharing the uplifting message he delivers to his students.
- As Pacific Islander absenteeism soars in OUSD, Oakland organization IKUNA finds ways to create belonging
- “We wish we had more people who looked like us at our schools,” Pacific Islander families tell Taimani Lauti, an Oakland native, co-founder of IKUNA, education advocate, and first generation Polynesian.
- OUSD Rooted in Reading Newsletter
- Madness Reading Challenge culminated with a celebration at the April 22 Literacy Summit and Family Workshop. We celebrated students, teachers, and schools with recognition and prizes!A special guest, Steph Curry, sent all of our scholars an inspiring message to continue their reading efforts. Watch the video message below! All Reading Challenge awardees are featured in the full Literacy Summit Presentation. Read on for highlights.
California:
- Hundreds of thousands of California students won’t take statewide standardized tests this spring
- Hundreds of thousands of California students this spring will not be taking the state’s annual Smarter Balanced standardized tests, an EdSource survey of the state’s largest districts shows.
- Over half of California public school students remain in distance learning
- Although 87% of California’s traditional public schools have reopened for some form of in-person instruction, fewer than half of students have returned either full time or part time in a hybrid model. A total of 55% of all public school students, including those in charter schools, were at home, in distance learning, as of April 30, according to an EdSource analysis of new data released by the state.
Other Stories:
- What’s so Special about “Special” Education?
- “Special” education shouldn’t be that special. Our current system artificially divides students, provides excuses for failure, and tends to hurt rather than help the intended beneficiaries, all the while walling out a whole range of students who should benefit from additional resources but don’t technically qualify.
- No, You Should Not Be Teaching Black Children if You Reject Anti-Racism
- We need anti-racist white teachers, co-strategists and laborers in this work who are open to being deeply self-reflective about how to be the most effective at teaching Black and brown children who have been systemically oppressed and marginalized. So in the interest of helping them, here are my answers to Pondiscio’s questions.
Resources:
- High Schools that Showed Progress with African American Children
- Where you send your child to school is one of the most important decisions you can make. We haven’t had new school quality data from the state due to distance learning, so the data is from the 2018-19 school year and I wanted to highlight some of the schools making progress with Oakland children, and encourage families to visit. Every child is different, and I will break it down into subgroups (schools showing progress with Black, Brown and low income students) in the next few weeks and highlight these schools that have open seats for next school year. You can also take a look at the schoolfinder tool to find local schools.
- Belonging In Oakland: A Just City Cultural Fund
- Moments of profound crisis can turn the world we think we know upside-down, challenge our deepest beliefs, and make us question what we thought was tolerable. Such moments can also spark new visions of how our lives, our city, our country could, and should, be better. Belonging in Oakland: A Just City Cultural Fund (JCCF) is a funding and support program that recognizes that this moment is an ideal one for asking: HOW MIGHT WE IMAGINE A TRULY RACIALLY JUST AND EQUITABLE OAKLAND WHERE EVERYONE BELONGS?
- The Jazz and Democracy Project is Enrolling Teachers Apply by May 17th for priority Discount
- The Jazz & Democracy Project® (J&D) is enrolling elementary, middle and high school teachers in the Oakland/East Bay region for the second Curriculum Think Tank cohort, convening in June. Seeking experienced teachers only who have classroom management skills, command of their content standards, tech savvy, and who would like to integrate jazz into their teaching.
- Charter schools with open seats for next year
- If you are looking for school for the next school year (2021-2022), 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.
What do you think?