All the education news for Oakland as well as key state and equity issues in the news, this week, OUSD adopts a new lead policy, how we can be safe without guns, the Warriors visit to DC, breaking the link between trauma and poor health, SpEd funding in CA, the CA school dashboard, teaching special education students to self advocate, A trans student shares their story, the Wakanda curriculum, all that and much more with links and info below, please read share and get involved
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My PE Experience as a Trans Student; Swim Class, Changing Rooms and Sometimes Ignorant Adults – (A guest post from Ash Whipple an Oakland public school student who uses the pronouns they/them, they are a First Robotics Competition Captain and an Energy Convertor) Being transgender and trying to comfortably take a PE class is nearly impossible.
Rapper Master P Provides Free Glasses For Oakland Kids In Need – A multi-platinum rap artist with strong ties to the Bay Area is making sure local teens can see their own futures, literally.
Oakland schools seek safety without guns – Arming teachers with guns is not a new idea, in fact, on Thursday President Donald Trump suggested looking into the possibility of allowing “gun concealed guns to gun-adept teachers with military or special training experience.”
Warriors Skip White House, Take Students To African-American Museum – On Tuesday (Feb. 27), the Golden State Warriors visited Washington, D.C. but bypassed the White House.
Breaking the Link Between Childhood Trauma and Poor Health – About 10 years ago, in her Bayview-Hunters Point clinic, Dr. Nadine Burke Harris examined a 7-year-old boy who was the height and weight of a 4-year-old.
Oakland Unified adopts policy to address lead contamination – The Oakland Unified board adopted a policy to address high lead levels in school water taps.
Antioch school district must face trial on agreement to remedy bias against Black students – Read an article about this in the East Bay Times. A state court has rejected the Antioch Unified School District’s (AUSD’s) attempt to renege on an agreement made with the East County NAACP to address federal civil rights and disability rights violations against African American students.
California Ethnic Studies Bill Would Make Classes Mandatory – Jurisdictions around the U.S. are adopting, and fighting over, such curricula.
Single state agency needed to coordinate California’s ‘patchwork’ of early childhood education programs, new report urges – Establishing one lead agency will help coordinate the state’s often confusing array of child care and preschool programs, researchers say in a new report examining California’s early childhood education system.
Walters: Is California Gov. Jerry Brown’s school finance reform paying off? – Three weeks after Brown defended LCFF, he and other advocates received some good news from the Learning Policy Institute, a Palo-Alto-based education think tank.
Overview of Special Education Funding in California – Presented to Senate Committee on Education;Assembly Committee on Education;Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Subcommittee No. 1 on Education; and Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 2 on Education Finance.
California’s school dashboard is just confusing. Here’s a better way to grade schools – Grading California’s public schools has always been iffy. The California School Dashboard has room for improvement, too.
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Urgent Needs, Deep Histories… – The Thomas B. Fordham Institute interviewed Dr. Howard Fuller the other day. You may remember Dr. Fuller from a recent debate hosted by The Century Foundation. During the TCF debate on whether school segregation is one of the most pressing educational issues, Dr. Fuller was standing in for the negative, for why segregation isn’t where he chooses to spend his efforts.
Special EDition: The Importance of Teaching Students to Advocate for Themselves – Making our own decisions about where and how we work, live, play, and access needed services is critical to improving our quality of life as adults—and teaching our children how to do this is an important part of our job as parents and educators.
DeVos moves to delay Obama-era rule on minority special-education students – She is pushing implementation back two years — that is, if she doesn’t wind up scrapping it altogether.
Fifty Years On, African Americans Still Face Economic Disadvantages – The report from the Economic Policy Institute found that, fifty years after the Kerner Commission report about the lack of economic opportunities in African-American communities.
The Schoolhouse Network: How school buildings affect teacher collaboration – Education Next – How school buildings affect teacher collaboration
Charters and the Common Good: The spillover effects of charter schools in New York City – Education Next – The spillover effects of charter schools in New York City
Former DC Public Schools Chancellor Antwan Wilson to receive 6 months of severance pay – Following his resignation last week, former D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Antwan Wilson will receive six months of severance pay from the city.
I Saw the Devil- The Need for a Better Abuser List – I saw the Devil. Twice. The first time, I worked at a group home. A small voice, without shaking, said the devil visited him while he slept, and slipped a hand under the covers.
News Roundup: School secession updates- the good, the bad and the ugly – Cross-posted from the School Desegregation Notebook There was big news in the school segregation world, and good news at that!
Scholars defend ‘African American English,’ from Ebonics to slang to improper grammar – The College Fix – ‘Talking Black in America’ documentary.
Wakanda Curriculum – This curriculum is designed for students who are seeing Black Panther, as a means to having them engage more critically and thoughtfully with the film. The curriculum assumes that students, like mine, have previous experience of studying the African continent, its diversity and colonialism.
Bukrah Inshallah on Real Action to Reduce School Shootings – Seeing Florida’s legislature take quick and decisive action to post signs in all schools stating “in God We Trust” as a response to the latest massacre reminded me of a precious lesson I learned over a decade ago in the Middle East. It started with a simple phrase, “bukrah inshallah” and ended with inaction. And the parallels here slapped me in the face.
New Research Shows Aggressive Immigration Enforcement Deeply Affecting Students — Immigrant and Citizen, Alike — and Their Teachers – Washington, D.C. An uptick in immigration raids and deportations has had wide-ranging impacts on America’s schools, its teachers and its students — immigrant and otherwise, new research has found.
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Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes Accepting Applications – Each year, up to twenty young leaders each receive $10,000 in recognition of the impact of their work on people, their communities, and the environment.