Education
The mayor covered inequity, policing and housing in the address.
Thanks to an Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) school board vote Wednesday night, within the next three years ethnic studies classes like this one will be offered at all Oakland high schools. The courses may count as an academic graduation credit, but will not be required.
As the one-year anniversary of Prop. 47’s passage approaches, many people working in the state’s legal system are evaluating its effectiveness.
Oakland has joined 130 other communities nation-wide that aim to increase reading proficiency levels by 2020, its specific initiative called the Oakland Reads 2020 campaign.
The passing of SB 277 is already having effects on the Oakland Unified School District, but not necessarily in the ways one would expect.
The Catholic Dioceses of Oakland, Catholic Charities of the East Bay (CCEB), and the East Bay Naturalization Collaborative co-organized a citizenship workshop, offering legal assistance to over 200 participants.
During Wednesday night’s Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) Board of Education meeting, the CFO presented a new web tool which would make the district’s annual budget more accessible to the public, special education staffers explained a service plan that’s being implemented in stages over the next three years, and the district’s civic engagement coordinator delivered an explanation of a proposed ethnic studies curriculum.
Grinning at his colleagues clustered nearby and draping one arm across the shoulders of executive director Amana Harris, artist Justin Metoyer-Mullon cut a red ribbon. The ribbon stretched across the opening to the courtyard of the Marcus Foster Education Center to the right of a large, bright mural depicting the center’s namesake. “We’re really using our art to transform our environment,” said Metoyer-Mullon, gesturing to the space behind him. The five murals contrast sharply with the fence to which they…
In a brightly decorated room in the event space Oakstop, seven teenagers laugh with one another as they share anecdotes from the past week. A box of pizza balances on the table next to the entrance. The young people, ages 13 to 19, circle around an oblong table, some chatting, others writing or drawing in their notebooks. Colored pencils are scattered in a pile, like pick-up sticks, alongside a pencil bag with a Scrabble piece design. This group is attending…