East Oakland's Baby College

As I was browsing my facebook updates, I was intrigued by Oakland Local's article on the Baby College early-childhood intiative in East Oakland. OUSD, Alameda County, and Safe Passages are working together to bring a program akin to Harlem Children's Zone Baby College to Sobrante Park and Havenscourt neighborhoods in East Oakland. This 6-week program provides parents with much needed support and information as they raise their kids in the toughest neighborhoods in Oakland. Oakland's new major, Jean Quan, supports the collaborative initiative, and hopes that its success will bring more funding for the program in the future (as do I).

We need more programs like this in Oakland. Hear, hear? Research time and time again says that early childhood education is pivotal for student success later in school. The charter system I belong to focuses on college readiness, which is a noble aspiration, however, I feel like we need to put more effort into preventative solutions to our students' struggles with academics.

Currently, more than 60% of my school's student body is reading below grade level (probably more- that's a guesstimate). Our students, their families, and most-certainly our teachers are hard-working. Everyone wants the students to succeed. We give students a bucket full of support in the classroom and provide a buffet of research-proven reading and math interventions. But it's just not enough. Our students make a ton of progress, but many of them still enter middle school below grade level.

Our students NEED preschool, and they NEED pre-pre-school.

95% of our student body are English Language Learners, and as you might assume, most of our students come to kinder with little knowledge of the English language. If we gave the families more support in the early years (like baby college), the kids would be ready to enter kindergarten.

I know I'm preaching to the choir. But how do we make the system change? How do we get entire communities the early childhood education that their children desperately need? I love these small-scale initiatives, they do so much to help...but we need change on a larger scale. Am I right?

I think we need a charter system that is eager and willing to tackle this issue!
Baby college leads to real college.

The School Day

I was reading Oakland Local's post about ARISE H.S. in Oakland. It's a charter school in the Fruitvale Village (near Fruitvale BART). Does anyone know anything about this school? According to the article, their school day is from 9am-5:15pm. That's craziness! But I get it, and I think it's a good move. Studies have shown for eons that H.S. students function better later in the day, and yet we ask them to get to school usually by 7:30 in the morning. I also think it's good to provide them learning opportunities in the afternoon.

My push back on the long school day: What about those students that need to work to help support themselves or their families? What do those students do? I think that is a reality for many students in Oakland (or any other urban area).

Check out the full article Here.

Read On!

Rheeform?

What are your thoughts on Michelle Rhee? Do you think this video is mostly accurate? Or, do you find that her drastic cuts are just what we need to keep bad teachers out of the classroom? In a recent Newsweek article she told the public that even though she stepped down from her position in DC, she's not done fighting yet.


"Michelle Rhee claims she won the battle for DC public schools. But can you win a war when you're firing on your own troops?" from the youtube post. 

School Reform with Diane Ravitch

Diane Ravitch, author of the book The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education, is pushing back against the charter school movement, especially those schools that invest so much into high-stakes testing. I work for a charter school system that she probably would have plenty to rail against. I agree with her on many points: I do feel like we need to support our teachers, give them due process, along with good curriculum. However, I have never been a part of a union, which she seems to support, and I am also really content teaching at my charter school(non-union), and I see that the teachers and the school are doing a lot of good for the students.

I plan to read her book soon, and after I understand where she's coming from, I'm sure I'll have a more developed opinion about her position on school reform. 

For leisure reading, check out this article she wrote on CNN.com about education reform in light of the recent protests in Wisconsin.

What do you think of charter schools? Unions? High-stakes testing? Does Ravitch have it right?