FreeSkoolPlanning

Community Views

A

On Oakland:

• The teacher's union in working out an agreement with Ward's office. Things will get finalized on April 27th. The preliminary contract has the following features:
  • Art and Music programs will get cut
  • There will be caps on teacher's healthcare.
• 13 schools in Oakland were originally slated to be reformed due to poor testings scores. Ward wanted to turn all of them in charter schools but negotiations got the number down to 7.

On Compton:

• Ward was the previous emergency superintendent of Compton. After a (5?) year stint, over 50% of the teacher's left. Well, how many teachers left Compton before Ward?

• Successful schools require experienced teachers. Too many new, inexperienced teachers doesn't work.

• Response from the state: http://www.cde.ca.gov/nr/ne/yr03/yr03rel30.asp.

On White People:

• There are lots of white folks coming in from the outside with good intentions, pushing their ideas and not listening. This is a problem: it divides people, creates anger and frustration.
• We need people with long-term commitments, not fly-by-night operations.

• The thing that many volunteers have hard time understanding is that they have the option of leaving. People in the area don't.

General:

• There is a national agenda to undermine public education.

• 7 out of the top 7 African American (populated?) school districts have been slated for state-take over. Not surprising.

• Yes, the NEA is a conservative organization. But we need to work with them. It is important to maintain good public relations.

• Too much of the current struggle is fighting just for the sake of fighting. Sounds familiar.

My general opinion was that s/he sounded scripted. This probably had a lot do with the fact that s/he didn't know me and was probably giving "safe" answers.

B

On OUSD:

• There is a lot of violence...gang violence.

• The teachers are usually not "culturally-relevant" (or "socially-relevant"). Teachers don't understand where the students are coming from...they don't comprehend. S/he thinks that teachers don't have a background to be able to minimally relate to students.

• There is a lack of communication with parents. Teachers don't know how to communicate with parents. They don't understand their backgrounds.

On NCLB (No Child Left Behind):

• NCLB does not give context to where a school is operating. In other words, its perform-or-reform theme doesn't make enough exceptions for unusual situations.

• NCLB does not provide enough funding to schools so they can meet the NCLB requirements.
• NCLB causes teachers to teach more mechanically. They focus too much on things like reading and not enough on how to become a critical adult.
• Some teachers are amazing--they can do things that are (culturally) relevant but NCLB makes it impossible for them to do so. NCLB makes teachers feel forced to teach the curriculum (e.g. Open Court state mandated curriculum).

Other:

• Teachers who want to try different/innovative things are held back by their administrators.
• There are economic forces connected with developers that are creating political forces to privatize (charterize) schools. The end result will be a community that will have no say and no power.
• A lot of people concentrate on Oakland's problems but completely ignore Richmond. There are school closures in Richmond next year.
• South Berkeley also needs a lot of help.

C

On Richmond:

• The situation is really horrible, really shitty!
• The superintendent is causing/reinforcing a lot of the problems in the district.
  • She is not fighting against standardized testing. Standardized testing really hurts native Spanish speakers. She is not fighting on their behalf.

  • She seems to be on the conservative side. Reluctant to change or push for major reforms?

• The atmosphere of some schools is really anti-student. Some teachers shouldn't be teachers. It's really bad.

Other

• I have heard that schools in the wealthier areas of Oakland tend to be "better off" even though they get less district funding simply because parents in the wealthier areas donate more time, money and energy.