Last week, lots on the return to school and vaccine issues, a promising move by the district on college equity, troubling (though not entirely unexpected) attendance numbers, a look at police free schools, and a look at the small percentage of students who took advantage of the ability to make up grades
Oakland
- Action on Fighting Anti-Blackness; OUSD’s Promising Policy Change that Can Equalize College Access
- OUSD may adopt a new “Drop the D” policy, eliminating the grade which allows students to graduate, yet not be eligible for state colleges and universities. Eliminating this grade would give families a clearer picture of their students educational trajectory, and ensure that all OUSD graduates would be eligible for CSUs and UCs.
- OUSD elementary school absenteeism: a slow-motion train wreck?
- Though OUSD has recently been highly focused on high school absenteeism, parent Brandon Wall worries that the problem of chronic absenteeism is being overlooked in elementary schools, and could have disastrous consequences
- From 12% to 97%, How Oakland is Bridging the Digital Divide and How We Close it Forever
- When the pandemic first hit, only 12% of low income students had sufficient internet access. Now, this figure has grown to 97%. What has made Oakland so successful in bridging this gap, and how can we close that last 3%?
- Commentary: Lessons from Oakland’s move to police free schools
- Oakland has made the huge stride of eliminating police from its campuses, a hugely important move that has illuminated several things about Oakland, California, and the entire nation, and the school systems role in criminalizing young people.
- Oakland schools will require students to be vaccinated against COVID, school board rules
- Oakland has become one of the first school districts in Northern California to require all eligible students to be vaccinated against COVID, along with Hayward Unified and Piedmont Unified school districts. There will, however be a “personal belief” exemption, as long as students show proof that they have received information about the vaccine from a doctor.
- COVID: Some Teachers Want OUSD to Increase Safety Protocols
- A group of Oakland teachers are requesting that safety protocols be increased in the classroom, claiming the district has fallen short on COVID safety.
- Oakland Unified School District approves vaccination mandate for students 12 and up
- OUSD has approved a vaccination mandate for students 12 an up. There are both religious and medical exemption, and no timeline has been set yet.
California
- California Offered High Schoolers a Chance to Change Their Lowest Grades During the Pandemic, But Few Applied. Here’s Why and How Districts Are Reacting.
- California offered a two week window over the summer during which students could apply to have their 2020-2021 letter grades changed to pass/no pass grades, in an effort to soften the effect of the pandemic on GPAs. However, very few students actually applied.
What do you think?