Segregation won another round in New York City’s most elite “public” schools. The admission numbers are out and they are pathetic. Black and Latino children make up 67.6 percent of the students in NYC schools, yet only 10 percent of the students admitted to the selective high schools. And get this, only one—yes one—Black student…
My Advice for Folks Who Want to Fund Education Reform: Break Out of the Echo Chamber
When I moved back to Oakland a few years ago, a now somewhat infamous charter school network was sucking up a lot of the philanthropic funding. Some of the large funders saw this network of schools and the academic outcomes, and not only did they shower it with cash, but they began asking other schools…
See How a Waldorf School in Oakland Is Embracing the Head, the Heart and the Hands to Help All Kinds of Students
“Johnny” (not his real name) was a newcomer from halfway around the world. For the better part of the first year, he wouldn’t take his jacket or backpack off and hovered near the front door of the school. Silent, he honestly preferred the front office staff to his class, so he waited for the next…
Oakland, We Are Failing Our Foster Youth. These Kids Deserve Better.
The system lies. Rosy language disguises the routine inequities. Promises made are seldom kept to some. You can see this in black and white in OUSD’s recent report from the Foster Youth Advisory Commission, which shows how these youth are shortchanged. These are some of our highest need and lowest performing students, and while they…
A Different Kind of Integration: Bringing Students With Mental Health Challenges Into Our School and Watching Them Thrive
I have written about John W. Lavelle Prep Charter School before. I helped start it as a middle school, built on the crazy idea that you must integrate students with mental health challenges with the general population for them to be successful. Mind you, these students tend to have the highest dropout rate of any…