If you haven’t seen Informing Equity: Student Need, Spending and Resource Use in Oakland’s Public Schools, you should. It is a critical first step in understanding what is happening in the difference public education sectors in Oakland and across the range of schools. I will excerpt the reports own big takeaways, but there are two critical…
Student Voices: My Evolution. Innocence, Confusion, Revelation.
By Michael Diaz I am a student at Lighthouse Charter on the east side of Oakland, where I have lived my whole life so far. Working toward my future I have taken class as Youth Radio in downtown Oakland and have a job at Safeway to make some money to pay for my own equipment.…
Celebrating Beginnings and Endings: SEEDS of Literacy Success at Urban Montessori Charter School!
By Kristin Burke Kristin Burke is a TK/K Lead Montessori Teacher at Urban Montessori Charter School in Oakland, California. I look up at the clock. It is Friday afternoon at 2:40 pm at Urban Montessori Charter School. As I stand and observe small bodies moving with voices exploding in chatter, the tiredness in my body reminds me…
Good News Bad News on the OUSD Budget and the Two Slides you Need to Read
OUSD will approve its budget tonight after a tumultuous year. The good news is that they really did cut into the mounting deficit, and cut significantly from central office, mostly by reducing administrative positions. The bad news is that unless something changes, we may get a year off from fiscal crisis, but its coming. You…
Graduate Stories from Lighthouse’s College Declaration Day-Believe in Yourself, Work hard and You can Do It
Brianna wanted to drop out, Isabel didn’t think she could go to college, Brandon was flunking, Diana didn’t know any English, and DJ couldn’t read. Now they are all off to college, marked by a recent emotional celebration on College Declaration Day. Staff, alumni, families and graduating seniors at Lighthouse Community Charter School came together…