Last week was the launch of State of Black Education – Oakland’s “Keep Oakland Schools Segregated Series” that spoke to racial equity within OUSD, the history of redlining, integration and where we from there. Great School Voices also covered OUSH enrollment pilots and an SF Chronicle opinion piece on Bay Area school segregation.
- How ‘Mama Brown’ changed students’ lives by paying for college and so much more: ‘It’s not about the money’
- OUSD’s Dirty Little Secret on High School Graduation Rates, and How We Fix it
- OUSD’s Enrollment Pilots Seem to Be Working, Now We Need Fundamental Changes
- Bay Area school districts desperate to hire teachers amid shortage made worse by COVID 19 pandemic
- No stopping this year’s Oakland Tech valedictorian as he holds free summer science camp.
- Where Bay Area K-12 Students can get free tutoring this school year.
- Oakland made gains in closing the digital divide during COVID. Classroom tech could be here to stay.
- Oakland high schoolers repaired more than 3000 Chromebooks this summer.
- OUSD’s Enrollment Pilots Seem to Be Working, Now We Need Fundamental Changes
- 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee Finals Winning Moment
- Desegregate Oakland Now? History and Data you need to know – Questions we need to answer
- Bay Area Schools are more segregated than ever. White parents need to do better.
- The Academy Award winning Documentary “Homeroom” on Hulu.
1. How ‘Mama Brown’ changed students’ lives by paying for college and so much more: ‘It’s not about the money’ It’s not about the money.” Oral Lee Brown, an Oakland real estate agent now in her 70s, has been promoting that idea since 1987, when she “adopted” a class of first graders from Brookfield Elementary School in East Oakland, promising to pay their college costs if they stayed in school. Since the 1990s, Brown has helped more than 120 low-income Black and Latino students through school, with 80-90% graduating from college debt-free. Read more about the beginnings of The Oral Lee Brown Foundation.
2. OUSD’s Dirty Little Secret on High School Graduation Rates, and How We Fix it -OUSD is reporting increased graduation rates but are Black and Brown students actually excelling? 4 years ago, 683 Black students entered OUSD’s 9th grade, 4 years later only 206 of those students met the UC/CSU requirements. So less than a third of entering students were even eligible to apply to 4-year colleges. This is a problem with A-G completion. Sign our petition here
3. OUSD’s Enrollment Pilots Seem to Be Working, Now We Need Fundamental Changes– Over the past few years, graduation rates have been increasing, particularly for Black and Brown students. 4 years ago, 683 Black students entered OUSD’s 9th grade, 4 years later only 206 of those students met the UC/CSU requirements. Despite the school boasting a 73% graduation rate, only a third of Black students are eligible to apply. We have public schools where every Black or Brown Graduate is college eligible, and schools where not a single one is. And some of Oakland’s marquee schools are actually the ones with the highest disparities.
4. Bay Area school districts desperate to hire teachers amid shortage made worse by COVID 19 pandemic– The Bay Area had a teacher shortage prior to COVID-19, but the pandemic has made the problem worse. School districts are desperately trying to hire new teachers and staff. The San Francisco Unified School District had a virtual hiring fair on Wednesday. This is one of two virtual hiring fairs put on by San Francisco Unified.
5. No stopping this year’s Oakland Tech valedictorian as he holds free summer science camp.– This year Oakland Technical High School year’s valedictorian, Ahmed Muhammad is working on something special –Kits Cubed Summer Camp 2021. Thus far, 100 children, have taken part, learning about science, getting their curiosity juices flowing, and working with experiments as part of Muhammad’s hope and passion to fill young inner city kids with the wonders of science.
6. Where Bay Area K-12 Students can get free tutoring this school year. – . A recent survey from the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California found that 83% of public school parents in the state say children are falling behind academically during the pandemic. This article details where and how your child can access free tutoring this year.
7. Oakland made gains in closing the digital divide during COVID. Classroom tech could be here to stay– During the pandemic, the city of Oakland, Oakland Unified School District and a group of nonprofit partners launched the Oakland Undivided campaign with an ambitious goal: to close the digital divide by raising enough money to purchase laptops and internet hotspots for every student in Oakland who needed them during the pandemic. As plans for schools to re-open in the fall get solidified, almost 97% of students in Oakland Unified School District have a computer and working internet at home, including 98% of students who are low-income, according to district data. Despite this gains, the work must continue.
8. Oakland high schoolers repaired more than 3000 Chromebooks this summer. A new internship program that launched this year, aims to accomplish two goals: to offer students experience and exposure to computer repair and engineering, as well as lighten the load on the school district’s overburdened technology team.
9. OUSD’s Enrollment Pilots Seem to Be Working, Now We Need Fundamental Changes– At the State of Black Education in Oakland (SoBEO) we have heard for years that Black families, often have the least access to quality schools, and even when we get into them we are sometimes treated as second class citizens. Where can we start with enrollment reform like that prioritizes spaces to underserved families and works to eliminate hyper segregation district wide, so we don’t have schools with extremely high needs and others with none.
10. 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee Finals Winning Moment – See 14 year old Zaila Avant- Garde’s winning moment in the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee. She is the first Black American to win in the competition’s history.
11. Desegregate Oakland Now? History and Data you need to know – Questions we need to answer– Our recent podcast “Desegregate Oakland Schools Now?” took on this question and more. It was a walkthrough of history, from Dr. Gary Yee and Dr. Brian Stanley as they described their experiences in OUSD and the changing demographics, and actually worsening segregation in the district. Dr. Yee stated, “any system where there is residential segregation and neighborhood preference will lead to segregated schools.” You can see the presentation is here.
12. Bay Area Schools are more segregated than ever. White parents need to do better.–Courtney Martin writes – How can this be? How can we be a nation reckoning with its own racial history and contemporary inequity like never before — and be standing still, if not moving backward, when it comes to achieving educational equity? The answer largely lies with white parents. Even more specifically, white progressive parents.
13. The Academy Award winning Documentary “Homeroom” on Hulu. – Homeroom is a documentary film directed and produced by Peter Nicks in 2020, it follows Oakland’s homerooms throughout all four years of high school. The Academy Award-winning Homeroom Documentary explores public education through an intimate lens: one that peers into America’s public homerooms and classrooms through the eyes of its students, teachers, parents, administrators, and community.