The unprecedented interruption of the 2020 school year has laid bare inequities in our system, with one in five California students (over 1 million) lacking either connectivity or a device, a staggering need. The pandemic has forced schools and school districts to make on-the-fly decisions about how to continue instruction and care of students. Some…
School Talk
The Oakland REACH Virtual Family Hub in Action #REACHforMore
For the past four weeks, the Oakland REACH has been doing something that has never been done before: opening and operating a virtual summer school for Black and Brown kids through a Virtual Family Hub. Every parent — regardless of where we are from or how much money we have — wants what is best…
The Oakland Education Week in Review: 7/27-8/3
School is starting and we are no where near ready, kids don’t have devices, and we don’t have long term plans to provide access or short term agreements with staff. There are solutions from Chicago and elsewhere. We need better plans and accountability. On the good side, the Bridges family, raised $250k for some of…
A Digital Inclusion Expert Shares How Those in Education Can Get Internet Into Families’ Hands
In the fourth episode of “Access Denied” host Dirk Tillotson has on Angela Siefer, Executive Director of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance to chat about how education folks can build on digital inclusion advocates’s work to solve the digital divide, together. Have you been following “Access Denied” so far? It’s the story of how 15…
Bridges Stimulus Pledge raises $250k for Oakland families
It began in April as a simple enough plan: Bridges Academy at Melrose principal Anita Iverson-Comelo and her husband would donate their stimulus checks to Bridges families, 80 percent of whom had lost their source of income during the pandemic and majority of whom did not qualify for a stimulus check or unemployment benefits from…