Education

Oakland Unified School District takes on tech, with corporate help

Over the last year and a half, the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) has been making an effort to deepen its science, technology, engineering and math programs, but so far it has had to depend on donations from corporations to fund much of them. The district’s efforts to bring so-called STEM education to students have been funded in no small part by grants from Intel and Salesforce, in addition to partnerships with Code.org and the Oakland mayor’s office, among others. According…

At historic Black Panthers school, Black teachers were key to student success

In 1973, the Black Panther Party opened an elementary school in an old church on International Boulevard. At its peak, The Oakland Community School (OCS) served around 160 students, and relied on a combination of grants and private donations to give it total autonomy: the Panthers hired whom they pleased, taught how they wanted, and won awards doing it. When the party disbanded in 1982, the school shut its doors. But a generation of its alumni still live—and to hear…

Tales of Two Cities Podcast: Spaces

For our final episode of 2016, we bring you stories all about different spaces and the creatures that inhabit them. Tune in to hear stories about: an East Oakland mural transforming the space around a community center, a heated governmental debate about the best way to stop illegal dumping in the East Bay, and a trip up to Bodega Bay to explore the legacy of the classic film, The Birds.

Sandra Johnson needs a job: Finding work after incarceration

Sandra Johnson needs a job, desperately. The formerly incarcerated 59-year-old Oakland woman is now a City College of San Francisco student, but needs to find work as well.

In June, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously in favor of establishing a new re-entry hiring program that aims to create 1,400 county job opportunities for the formerly incarcerated.

Oakland’s own video game archive, the M.A.D.E.

The Museum of Digital Art and Entertainment, or the M.A.D.E.,  is a gateway to, and an archive for, video game history, showcasing consoles and games from gaming’s early days in the 1970’s to the present day. Not only does it showcase video game history, the museum also holds free classes such as beginner coding and game designing for participants of all ages. Other museums have shown limited video game exhibits, while Stanford University has its own private video game archive. The M.A.D.E.,…

Voters approve $9 billion for public school construction, repairs

This week, California voters approved Proposition 51, a $9 billion bond for public school construction and improvement across the state. By noon on Wednesday, the proposition led 54 percent to 46 percent and the Associated Press had declared the victory. “If you’ve been in some of our most antiquated schools, then you’ve seen, firsthand, how difficult it is to learn in that environment,” said Justine Fischer, president of the California State PTA, a nonpartisan organization that supported the measure. “We…