The way that Oakland Unified allocates facilities is bad for kids, schools, and likely the district’s bank account. We have all heard about the “too many schools” problem, but here I am talking about Proposition 39 which mandates that districts make “reasonably equivalent” facilities available to public charter school students. This is an annual ritual…
The Spook Who Sat by the Charter School Door
I am the fly in the school reform buttermilk. An outsider, now marginally on the inside, trying to plot the revolution. Young, gifted and Black, I founded a charter school support organization in Oakland at the dawn of the movement in the ’90s, followed Katrina into New Orleans to help resuscitate the (charter) schools, and…
What to Make of the New ‘Dashboard’ for California Schools?
How is your local school doing? Last week, the state of California presented its answer in a new, color-coded dashboard, reflecting a range of academic and school culture measures. This was a 180-degree turn from the old measure, the Academic Performance Index (API), which boiled school performance down to a single number. While the API was easy to…
Rethinking the Superintendent to Reflect Reality in Oakland
The visionary superintendent. Riding in on a white horse. Or better yet, a homegrown hero—politically connected but without enemy. With the vision and prowess to slay Oakland’s education problems and deliver both equity and results. Look, this wistful existence of the perfect leader for our district is more than just a unicorn. It’s a harmful…
California’s School Funding Crisis and Two Ways to Fix it
Where does California rank in per-pupil spending? Depends who you ask. I’ve seen us ranked 46th, 41st, 29th or even 22nd. But no matter which number you use, when you consider that we have more low-income children and English learners than anyone else in the country, it’s not enough. It’s time we addressed the structural…