The most affected stakeholders in the public education wars are largely silent. Underserved families are more often used as props than propped up. Not since Oakland Community Organization’s push for reform in the late 90’s early 2000’s have I seen the progressive mobilization and empowerment of families, researching models, organizing for change, and making a…
Does Oakland Have Too Many Schools?
For the number of students, Oakland has a lot of schools. When you look at similar California districts, Oakland has roughly twice as many schools per student, with the lowest average number of students per school, according to research provided to me by Director London, who has repeatedly raised this issue. This is a complex…
After Common Enrollment, What’s Next for Equity in OUSD
Oakland’s raucous debate around including all public schools—charters and district-run in a single enrollment system—is literally much ado about nothing. Common enrollment will not happen in the short term in Oakland—the politics are too hot, and the real beneficiaries, Oakland parents stranded without satisfactory neighborhood schools are relegated to the sidelines. The debate dominated by…
Proof Points on Reform- Coliseum College Prep Academy
We hear so much about the real and purported failures in Oakland Unified that the successes get lost. And a big exclamation of District success is Coliseum College Prep Academy (CCPA), formerly Havenscourt, a school boasting a 91% cohort graduation rate and serving Flatland kids. It wasn’t always like this. Havenscourt may have had a…
“750 destroyers” or 750 families?
It’s hard to keep your eyes open during the 8 hour OUSD board meetings, but sometimes you hear something so peculiar that you are jarred awake. And when you actually watch the meetings the craziness tends to slap you in the face. So yeah, the families who attend Lighthouse Charter were called “destroyers” of public…