The Oakland Education Week in Review 10/14-10/21

All the news that’s fit to link, looking at segregation in West Oakland and the effects, recommendation that came out of the State of Black Education in Oakland meetings, public school wars in WCC, a look at school disparities from Pro Publica, a young teacher tells their story, great events from AAMA and a SpEd candidate forum, the outrageous homeless numbers in NYC, the choices Black families make and more, please read share and get involved

Oakland:

• The Black Paper | State of Black Education – Oakland
• The Geography of Opportunity in West Oakland- A New Video Explains How We Got Here and Where We Can Go
• A Conversation on Segregation, Opportunity, and the Color of Law in West Oakland
• America to Me: Oakland
• Bay Area district faces challenges in attempt to shut down a charter school
• SoBEO Narrative Series: Charles Cole III
• OUSD School Board Candidates’ Forum on Special Education
• Miseducation: Oakland Technical High
• Man Up! XVIII
• Housing Solutions for Our Most Vulnerable Students; What Schools and Districts Can Do
• Racism in Class; Learning a Damaging Behavior–A Young Teacher’s Story

Best of the Rest:

• Homelessness in New York Public Schools Is at a Record High: 114,659 Students
• We’re a middle-class black family. Here’s why we’ve skipped our local schools for now.

Oakland:

• The Black Paper | State of Black Education – Oakland
  • Our State of Black Education in Oakland (SoBEO) series has engaged hundreds of community members around the needs of families, children and educators, and how we move the needle on equity. This event will review our research and produce findings, bring our partners back together to reflect on our learnings, and build momentum towards a set of community developed policy proposals for decision makers, our Black Paper.
• The Geography of Opportunity in West Oakland- A New Video Explains How We Got Here and Where We Can Go
  • “Your life chances in Oakland and elsewhere depend largely on where you were born. And where are born is not an accident of fate: it is usually based on past or present segregation that arose under the color of law.”
• America to Me: Oakland
  • America to Me, a powerful documentary on race and integration in our schools, is coming to Oakland.
• Bay Area district faces challenges in attempt to shut down a charter school
  • A California school district’s threat to shut down a charter school for allegedly inadequately training teachers on their legal responsibilities to report suspected child abuse is highlighting the challenges districts have in overseeing charter schools.
• SoBEO Narrative Series: Charles Cole III
  • A conversation with Charles Cole III, the founder of Energy Convertors, and his work surrounding Black education in Oakland
• OUSD School Board Candidates’ Forum on Special Education
  • “We have to prioritize the budget so we are centering families, we are centering youth, and the values.”
• Miseducation: Oakland Technical High
  • ProPublica has found that in schools across the country, Black and Hispanic students are, on average, less likely to be selected for gifted programs and take AP courses than their white peers. They are also more likely, on average, to be suspended and expelled. Explore if disparities exist at this school across all racial groups. The first scores shown below are for racial groups with the highest disparities.
• Man Up! XVIII
  • African American boys grades 3-5 are invited to participate in morning workshops and grades 6-12 are invited to attend  afternoon workshops featuring professional etiquette, community building, financial and media literacy.
• Housing Solutions for Our Most Vulnerable Students; What Schools and Districts Can Do
  • We owe a duty both to the victims of historic discrimination and also to our most vulnerable children; those in foster or supervised care.  And we can do something.
• Racism in Class; Learning a Damaging Behavior–A Young Teacher’s Story
  • In education, we imagine school to be a safe and equitable place, but  as a young Black male educator my experience has been very different.

Best of the Rest:

• Homelessness in New York Public Schools Is at a Record High: 114,659 Students
  • Of New York’s 1,800 schools, 144 have had the vast majority of homeless students in their classrooms over the last four years. Homeless students tend to struggle academically: In the 2015-16 school year, just 12 percent of students living in shelters passed the state math exam, and 15 percent passed English.
• We’re a middle-class black family. Here’s why we’ve skipped our local schools for now.
  • Our neighborhood is rapidly gentrifying, but the public schools lag behind, with no obviously good choices available. While some newcomers — mostly white parents — seem willing to take a chance on these works-in-progress schools, we feel we have little room for error. After all, we are raising a little black boy in America.