Kids: Want a crash course in astrophysics? Juggling?
photo courtesy of Shuai Chen, co-founder of Splash If you know a middle or high school student who has a free day this weekend and might be interested in, say, neuroscience, dancing, artificial...
View ArticleSummer school in OUSD: still here
At tonight’s Oakland school board meeting, a staffer handed me a colorful guide almost the size of a newspaper on summer resources for kids. Despite the cutbacks, the district is still offering:...
View ArticleSerious math
Over the years, I feel like I’ve come to know you — your political leanings and life experiences, your writing style, sense of humor and average snark level. But what about your math skills? For...
View ArticleCollege prep for all: Chicago’s hard lessons
Next fall, Oakland’s ninth-graders will automatically enroll in a course sequence that closely matches state university entrance requirements. The Oakland school board passed this policy, known as “A...
View ArticleAt two-way immersion school, math class is in Spanish
You might have noticed, when glancing through Oakland schools’ latest test scores, that one made a 106-point jump on the API. That was Manzanita SEED, a two-way language immersion elementary school...
View ArticleLet me tell you something about decimals…
Two of the elementary school principals I’ve talked to in the last week — John Melvin at Lincoln in Chinatown and Monica Thomas at Greenleaf (formerly Whittier) in East Oakland — told me about a skill...
View ArticleClose the achievement gap and graduate college. Then what?
Zeus Yiamouyiannis is an Oakland-based learning consultant and former professor of education at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and Carroll College. He gives us his take on education reform in...
View ArticleOakland makes national news – in a good way
When friends and relatives from other parts of the country see Oakland in the news, it’s almost always because something tragic or bizarre has happened here. I’m sure many of you can relate. Now I hate...
View ArticleAn Oakland classroom, on national TV
photo of Kristen Casaretto by Hasain Rasheed Photography Did anyone watch Education Nation on NBC last week? It highlighted the work of three teachers, including Teach for America alum Kristen...
View ArticleCommon state standards in math and English — a step forward?
By now, all but five states (Alaska, Texas, Minnesota, Nebraska and Virginia) have adopted what’s known as Common Core State Standards for math and English, a common agreement of what students in the...
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