The debate over creating a common enrollment system for parents that includes charters and district schools rages on. I attended the recent OUSD engagement session and the Oakland Post also ran an op-ed critiquing common enrollment by Rosie Torres, “’Common Enrollment’ is a Misfit for the Problems that Plague Oakland Schools Retaining and improving…
oakland
Post’s Op-Ed on charter schools and special education doesn’t serve reality or students
It’s disappointing to continually hear the half-truths and what I will call “misconceptions” around charter schools and special education students in Oakland. A little fact checking would have helped—but let me do some here. Many of these were raised in a recent op-ed in the Oakland Post in the op-ed, Charter Schools in Oakland do…
Segregated Housing, Costly Transportation, and the Practicalities of Inequality
Students in Oakland have had to choose between food and the forty dollar monthly bus fare to get to school. That was one of many troubling things we heard at a recent committee hearing as students from Unity Charter High and Skyline, as well as community representatives testified about the hardships that students face getting…
The Real Challenges of District Reform
Changing District behavior is really hard. I learned this first hand working with OUSD to reduce restrictions on schools and implement so called “site based decision-making” as part of its broader New Small Autonomous Schools Policy. And it was often not bad actors or bad intentions, but just an inertia that kept the district hurtling…
Housing should not be Destiny- Reforming Enrollment Rules to Increase Equity
Low income students in Oakland are 18.3 times more likely to be in lowest scoring schools in reading than their more advantaged peers. That was one of the most striking results in the recent CRPE study. And while that was the most jarring stat, putting Oakland in dead last among the 50 cities studies, every…