I am an Oakland parent, and below is the text of my speech at the Oakland REACH kickoff event. Who here wants the best for your child? This a question that every parent here is faced with every single day. Although “the best” for us all means different things, we all want them to find…
School Choice
Breaking the Cycle in Oakland: A Woke Grandparent’s Story
Connie Williams is a mother and grandmother of Oakland public school children, she also graduated from Oakland public schools. She is one of the lead parents in the Oakland REACH, a new parent driven organization advocating for quality education for ALL of Oakland’s families with a focus on equity. Making our Voices Heard We are the…
The Report Oakland Needs to Read
OUSD’s predicament of being a declining enrollment district while charter schools grow is not unique, and it needn’t be so painful according to a new report out of the Center for Reinventing Public Education. The report had some hard truths on both “sides.” And some key lessons for each public school sector to accept if…
Woke Parents, the System’s Worst Nightmare
Mama Williams graduated from an Oakland public high school with A’s and B’s, but she couldn’t read. This week she was organizing with nearly 100 other Oakland parents at DeFremery Park in West Oakland the goal was “breaking the cycle.” You can see the video here. They were part of the first class of an…
Fewer Students Transfer Out of Oakland’s Charter Schools Mid-Year, Than From District Schools
There is and inconvenient truth in the Oakland public school wars, students at charter public schools are less likely to transfer mid-year than those at district schools. I know that if you just listened to the so called debate, you would not know that. But that is what the California Department of Education’s data says.…