Lots on the back to school planning, an ambitious plan to end the digital divide in Oakland, the challenges of tech and tech support, reporting language matters, updates on the grab and go program, Alameda’s online program and its racist content, the color coded scheme around reopening, and so much more, please read, share and get involved
Oakland:
- Academic Update from OUSD
- Oakland’s “Bold and Transformational” Plan to End the Digital Divide, That Might Just Work
- Oakland teachers face challenges as schools enter critical learning phase due to COVID-19 pandemic
- From Teaching to Tech Support: Helping Oakland Students Through IT Woes
- Charters Don’t “Siphon” Students, Oakland Needs More Journalism and Less Reporter Judgments
- OUSD’s Grab and Go Student Meal Service Returning to Summer Rules that Allow All Oakland Children to Receive Food Starting on Thursday
- Alameda County Begins Elementary School Reopening Waiver Process
- Charter Schools with Open Seats 8/31, You Can Still Apply
- Alameda school district cuts ties with online program after objections to ‘racist and sexist’ content
- Op-Ed: Between a Rock and a Hard Place, Oakland Schools Face Reopening Dilemma
- OUSD school board election: District 1 candidates prioritize budget issues
California:
- When can schools reopen under new state rules? It’s all about color-coded tiers and waivers
- Opinion: As California Legislative Session Ends, Semi-Secret ‘Trailer Bills’ Pop Up
- School sends California family a hotspot after students went to Taco Bell to use their free WiFi
- Ethnic studies requirement for California high school students passes Legislature
- Legislature fixes funding problem for growing districts and some charter schools
- Taco Bell is not the solution for student broadband access
Other Stories:
- This Is What It’s Like to Be a Teacher During the Coronavirus Pandemic
- Our students can’t wait any longer. We must bring the internet to everyone
- Arne Duncan, Andre Perry, Randi Weingarten join Doug Harris to discuss new book
- The Inanity of Zoom School Suspensions
- 8th Grade Teacher Asks Students to “Write Funny Captions” for Slavery Photos… Seriously
Oakland:
- Academic Update from OUSD
- Thank you for your continued grace and flexibility in supporting your child’s learning these first few weeks of school. Our students have begun establishing regular learning routines and are now moving into core academic content. We are doing a lot to improve distance learning. Below are important points for families to know.
- Oakland’s “Bold and Transformational” Plan to End the Digital Divide, That Might Just Work
- I was pleasantly surprised to be wrong. As a vocal critic of Oakland’s Digital divide plan, Oakland Undivided, it would be an interesting podcast to have its backers as guests and to push them on whether the plan would really work. And work for the most underserved families who really need it.
- Oakland teachers face challenges as schools enter critical learning phase due to COVID-19 pandemic
- McClymonds High School teacher Clayton Evans likes to describe his engineering classroom as organized chaos. But instead of the usual hustle and bustle in his classroom, Evans sits alone in a corner trying to connect with his students through distance learning. He is literally going to great lengths to engage students.
- From Teaching to Tech Support: Helping Oakland Students Through IT Woes
- As online school rolls out in Oakland and across much of the country, kids are being forced to contend with the bane of every office worker’s existence: tech issues. And in Oakland, in some cases, it’s teachers like Zellman who’ve been tasked with doing IT.
- Charters Don’t “Siphon” Students, Oakland Needs More Journalism and Less Reporter Judgments
- I was really hoping that the Oaklandside would add more light and less heat to the circular and counterproductive public school wars in Oakland. We have two under resourced, generally underperforming school sectors, serving roughly the same students, pitted against each other, while Black families struggle to find solace in either. The sectors are united in struggling for crumbs of crumbs, while underserved families are united in swimming against the current searching for the few islands of opportunity.
- OUSD’s Grab and Go Student Meal Service Returning to Summer Rules that Allow All Oakland Children to Receive Food Starting on Thursday
- After the first three weeks of the school year, in which our nutrition services team was required to verify all students receiving food attend our District-run schools, the federal government has made a big change. This week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reversed course and announced that schools can now return to their grab and go policies from the summer.
- Alameda County Begins Elementary School Reopening Waiver Process
- The Alameda County Public Health Department (ACPHD) announced Wednesday that it will begin the process of accepting waivers to bring students in transitional kindergarten to 6th grade on campus for in-person learning at schools in Alameda County.
- Charter Schools with Open Seats 8/31, You Can Still Apply
- 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.
- Alameda school district cuts ties with online program after objections to ‘racist and sexist’ content
- Nearly 1,000 students in the Alameda school district may have to wait two weeks before getting a new online curriculum after officials cut ties with a virtual learning program following parents’ protests that it included sexist and racist content.
- Op-Ed: Between a Rock and a Hard Place, Oakland Schools Face Reopening Dilemma
- The Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) is currently in negotiations with the teachers’ union and staff on how and when to resume in-person instruction. But the city will need extra assistance and supplies from the state if it’s ever going to reopen schools safely, in one of the hardest-hit cities in the state by COVID-19.
- OUSD school board election: District 1 candidates prioritize budget issues
- Three candidates are vying to represent Oakland’s northernmost district on the school board.
California:
- When can schools reopen under new state rules? It’s all about color-coded tiers and waivers
- As coronavirus caseloads drop, the prospect of reopening schools improves, although new state guidelines will not lead to a quicker return to campus. In most counties, including Los Angeles, the new rules have no immediate effect on schools because disease rates remain too high.
- Opinion: As California Legislative Session Ends, Semi-Secret ‘Trailer Bills’ Pop Up
- In practice, so-called “trailer bills” have become vehicles to semi-secretly do things that might otherwise be difficult to do, often with little or no relationship to the budget. They are drafted behind closed doors and quickly enacted with minimal exposure to the public, the press and those affected by their provisions.
- School sends California family a hotspot after students went to Taco Bell to use their free WiFi
- As millions of students are heading back to school virtually from the comfort of their own homes, two young girls in California relied on a Taco Bell’s free WiFi to access their coursework from the restaurant’s parking lot, according to a county official.
- Ethnic studies requirement for California high school students passes Legislature
- Every high school student in California would be required to take a course on the contributions of racial and ethnic groups that have been oppressed and exploited through U.S. history, under a bill now on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk.
- Legislature fixes funding problem for growing districts and some charter schools
- Anticipating that the coronavirus would create a turbulent and financially unstable year, the Legislature agreed in June to fund schools at the same levels of student attendance in 2020-21 as in 2019-20. Most school districts welcomed the predictable funding.
- Taco Bell is not the solution for student broadband access
- In a time of ecological, political and social crises, it isn’t easy to command attention. Yet, occasionally, a simple image can cut through the noise. Last week, a photo of two children outside a Taco Bell captured this disgraceful moment in California history.
Other Stories:
- This Is What It’s Like to Be a Teacher During the Coronavirus Pandemic
- In 2018, as teacher protests were sweeping the country, TIME spoke with several teachers who described how wage stagnation and budget cuts were affecting their lives, forcing them to take on second jobs and spend hundreds of dollars of their own money on school supplies or preventing them from being able to afford children of their own. Two years later, as educators face an entirely new set of challenges caused by the coronavirus pandemic, we followed up with these teachers to see how they’re preparing for an unprecedented school year.
- Our students can’t wait any longer. We must bring the internet to everyone
- The coronavirus pandemic has revealed the depths of the digital divide in this country. It’s time for lawmakers to step up and provide broadband to all families.
- Arne Duncan, Andre Perry, Randi Weingarten join Doug Harris to discuss new book
- Tune in today at noon Central time for a discussion of the book Charter School City by ERA-New Orleans Director Douglas N. Harris, hosted by the Brown Center for Education Policy at the Brookings Institution. Harris will give an overview of the book during the webinar, followed by a panel discussion with a group of national leaders who offer very different perspectives about charter schools
- The Inanity of Zoom School Suspensions
- Disciplinary action is often needless and discriminatory. The patchwork of in-person and virtual schooling is making things worse.
- 8th Grade Teacher Asks Students to “Write Funny Captions” for Slavery Photos… Seriously
- This week, a veteran teacher on Long Island gave an assignment to her students that required them to create “funny captions” for Reconstruction Era photos from United States history. The teacher is white and, yes, that is very important to note. The assignment would have gone unchecked, had it not been for the grandmother of a student given the assignment who spotted it and bought it to the attention of her Facebook community who, in turn, bought it to the attention of the Freeport School District Middle School administrators of the school where this act of terror took place.
What do you think?