The Oakland Education Week in Review: 9/14-9/20

last week, OUSD closes the books and the numbers look better, a couple of election forums for school board, looking at literacy and supporting students now and after COVID, a report on linked learning, We Are the Dream is making waves, A sanctuary city message, several digital divide stories including an interview with Cleveland’s superintendent on how they are closing the digital divide without private broadband companies

Oakland:

California:

Other Stories:

Oakland:

  • The San Francisco 49ers Make Two Year Commitment to Support SPAAT’s Efforts to Advance Racial Justice Through Education in Oakland Unified School District
    • The Student Program for Academic and Athletic Transitioning (SPAAT), a key organization for helping Oakland’s student-athletes prepare for college and career, is announcing a major new partnership with the Bay Area’s one remaining NFL football team. The San Francisco 49ers have entered into an agreement with SPAAT for a two year grant which will be used to support SPAAT’s cause of advancing racial justice through education in Oakland.
  • Continued Progress Toward Fiscal Health, Closing of the Books for the 2019-20 school year
    • OUSD’s financial operations are improving. The significant challenges in the years ahead make this work even more critical. We will reflect on last year to inform how we improve our practices. We have modeled the commitment to sound fiscal practices and will continue to prioritize and execute this work. Becoming financially healthy is essential to supporting our employees and improving educational quality for our students.
  • Oakland School Board Elections Forum: Meet District 5 Candidates!
    • Local school Board Elections matter! Their outcome will shape future education and funding policies in Oakland. That is why FIA Oakland is partnering with ASCEND, Latitude High 37.8, Achieve Academy, Lazear Charter Academy, Community School For Creative Education,  Aspire ERES Academy, Aspire College Academy, ARISE High School, Lighthouse Community Charter School, Lodestar, and Oakland charter High school to broadcast a virtual forum for candidates running in District 5.
  • How Will School Board Candidates Serve Black Families, Our State of Black Education Candidate Forum Has Answers
    • Our State of Black Education In Oakland (SoBEO) and the East Bay Young Democrats hosted our first candidate forum, focusing on how we will improve services to Black and other underserved families. Great moderation from Anthony Wilson and a great discussion on the actual facts and issues, please watch
  • Leading for Literacy: Hope in a Time of COVID-19
    • A strong instructional focus; targeted use of data at the student, classroom, and school level; shared leadership; and a growth mindset for staff and students. These were the guiding principles I applied over 10 years at ACORN Woodland. ACORN Woodland is a typical East Oakland Elementary School: 95% Latinx and African American, 90% low-income, 70% English Learners, and 15% Special Education students. These demographics do not usually correlate with high academic achievement. Yet with concerted work, we were able to ensure that the vast majority of students grades 1-5 were reading at grade level. Guided by these leadership principles we became a California Distinguished School. Later they enabled a smooth transition to distance learning and the promise of even greater gains after COVID-19.
  • Celebrating OUSD’s Linked Learning Summer Student Engagement
    • Summer 2020 was not like other summers. Shelter-in-place remained throughout Alameda County, businesses slowly reopened after weeks of being shuttered, and students were not able to enjoy many of the typical summer freedoms. Despite the limitations, nearly 550 high school students participated in paid career exploration through CTE and Counseling at Laney and Merritt, in-person and virtual internships, and supported employment this summer. 
  • A Message to Families from the Sanctuary Task Force- OUSD Will NEVER Ask about Immigration Status
    • Oakland Unified School District supports our students, staff, and families no matter where they came from or how they got here. OUSD is a sanctuary district, inside a sanctuary city, inside a sanctuary state.
  • How Librarians Are Keeping Kids Learning During The Pandemic
    • Oakland Public Library is open for curbside pickup, but its doors remain shut. So what happens to families and kids who depend on libraries for more than books? In this installment of The Essentials, meet a children’s librarian who is working to preserve what makes the library so special.
  • We Are The Dream: The Kids Of The Oakland MLK Oratorical Fest
    • We Are the Dream wins an Emmy for Outstanding Children’s Program 

California:

  • Prop. 15: The Legislature should reform California’s tax system
    • As California grapples with one of its worst economic crises in decades, there is little doubt that people are hurting, businesses are suffering, cities and counties are under extraordinary pressure, and our long-term fiscal outlook uncertain. 
  • Access Denied Ep. 10: Getting Foster Children the Services They Need to Thrive (ft. Serita Cox, Rochelle Trochtenberg, and Jeszabel Millan)
    • Right now, over 15 million students do not have reliable internet access in America. One subset of those students, foster youth, are challenged with disproportionate disparities alongside the #DigitalDivide. When reliable internet access is ingrained in our modern lives and is a requisite for attending public school, we (as a society, not as individuals) are locking our children out of the school house. 
  • Opinion: Prop 15 will build a better future for California
    • The global COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the depth of structural racism and systemic inequalities in California again. Decades of disinvestment have burdened our communities, and people of color face the brunt of this historic hardship. We could experience the full extent of this crisis for years to come. But November, California’s registered voters can take bold action toward recovery and reinvestment with Proposition 15.
  • First big reform of California’s education funding law awaits governor’s signature
    • The first significant change to the state’s 7-year-old K-12 funding system, the Local Control Funding Formula, is a signature away from becoming law. But if Gov. Gavin Newsom accepts the recommendation of his advisers at the California Department of Finance and ignores the Legislature’s near-unanimous vote favoring the significant reform, he’ll veto the legislation within the next few weeks. Hundreds of nonprofits and civil rights groups signed a letter last week urging him not to do that; signing it instead would ensure that funding for “our highest-need, most vulnerable students is actually directed to support them,” the letter said.
  • Fearing distance learning, many parents opt for preschool instead of kindergarten
    • Many California parents are opting out of kindergarten this year, due to concerns about whether distance learning or attending school for the first time with strangers in masks will be good for children.
  • Families face the demands of online and hybrid learning
    • As the coronavirus pandemic surges into autumn, California’s students, teachers and families are embarking on an extraordinary school year. Most of the usual back-to-school traditions have been scrapped. Now, students in most parts of the state are getting to know new teachers, learning new skills and meeting new friends virtually, in a high-tech experiment that will likely affect education in California for years to come.

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