Thank you OUSD for throwing some hard numbers into the charter school debates. While I missed 2/22/16 Board engagement session (I was in NYC), I did look at the materials. Big takeaways; students at charter-run schools tend to perform somewhat better on state tests and be more economically disadvantaged. While district-run schools had somewhat greater…
Oakland Unified School District (OUSD)
Keeping the Oakland Promise
You have to love the Oakland Promise Initiative, an ambitious visionary look at the supports that families and students need to be successful; coordinated early care, school based college and career pathway development and money to pay for college. Kudos to the mayor, superintendent, district, and the constellation of funders and nonprofits for making this…
Bad Arguments Against Common Enrollment Part 2
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…
OUSD should issue diplomas to kids caught in the bureaucratic crossfire
Thank you OUSD. Sludge tends to predictably flow downhill in bureaucracies. So I was heartened to hear that OUSD has changed its mind and will vote to award diplomas to a subset of seniors who were caught in a bureaucratic snafu. This drama is pretty well explained in the recent Mercury News article, “Decision to…