The latest study on gentrification and displacement from Berkeley, confirmed what many of us feel daily. Oakland has changed and with housing prices skyrocketing, it is increasingly a place where Black folks are either being pushed or locked out of. This research further confirms the need for us to act, and not accept this fate…
Why Students Are Skipping YOUR Class: Improving Teacher Practice from a Student’s Perspective
(A guest post from Trylyon Love, an Oakland public school student and energy converter) A school is a place that we are supposed to be getting “educated.” If school is such a beneficial place for us, why are there so many students failing most of their classes? Why are students complaining every day about coming here?…
The Oakland Education Week in Review 9/17-9/23
All the Oakland news that is fit to link, lots on the bailout, a glance at the challenges of ethnic studies in OUSD, a critique of a popular platform, candidate forums, the Latinx read in, a great student voice fellowship, housing and segregation, special education meetings and videos, the early achievement gaps, how underfunded are…
The Problem with the “Great School in Every Neighborhood” Platform
Everyone wants great neighborhood schools. Thing is, that has never existed in my experience, at least not in Oakland. And saying that our school improvement strategy is centered around something that has never happened is at best a remote hope, and at worst a lie that asks parents to wait for a savior that will…
The Promise and Peril of Ethnic Studies-Should a White Teacher Say the N-Word in Class?
“Home” is a powerful and poignant and painful poem. It also contains the N-word. A little bird told me that the poem was recently used in an OUSD ethnic studies class, and a White teacher read it aloud. It is Oakland, and I love our youth. A student objected, or at least questioned whether that…