Instability is bad for schools, and the churn of superintendents that Oakland has suffered has been bad for the system. We are going on our 9th, correct that, 10th, superintendent in the last 16 years, with the inevitable stalls during transitions, and churns and learning curves as the new person comes in, with or without…
True Integration Stories, A Mom’s Real Challenges and Real Victories
(this is a guest blog from a socially conscious mother, who deliberately took on and struggled with sending her child to a school where he was the “minority”, heartfelt and honest account of the journey) December 2015 Lest anyone imagine that our school integration story has been smooth, that my offspring are always on board…
Teaching Arabic on Staten Island
Walking down the halls of Lavelle Prep Charter School on Staten Island, you hear the typical energy and excitement of a bustling New York City school. One surprising sound is that of students learning and speaking Arabic. For the past 2 years, Lavelle Prep has been enrolled in the Teachers of Critical Languages (TCLP) program granted by the U.S. Department…
Progress on Elementary Teacher Training, But a Long Way to Go
Teacher training in the US has been a crapshoot. Sometimes when hiring 1st year teachers you said “crap” and sometimes you said, “shoot.” Kidding, … with a myriad of programs, some online, some with quality intern experiences and content, and others cranking out degrees en masse for the right price, separating the wheat from the…
A Missed Presidential Moment on the “Trump Effect”
It doesn’t matter who you voted for, if you are listening to the stories from schools, you can’t feel good. The so called “Trump Effect” the empowering of bigoted and hateful bullying in schools has radically increased since the election. The Southern Poverty Law Center highlighted this in a recent report, The Trump Effect: The…