Category Archives: Events

Events

KQED American Graduate Education Town Hall

Thursday, September 12, 2013 from 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM (PDT)

Oakland,CA

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americangraduatetownhall

 

 

KQED, 100 Black Men of the BayAreaCommunitySchool, OaklandUnifiedSchool Districtand OUSD Office of African American Male Achievement invite you to join us on Thursday, September 12, 2013 for KQEDAmericanGraduateEducationTown Hallwhere the topic of discussion will highlight innovative educational solutions to the crisis facing Oakland’s African American male youth.

The event will open with remarks from KQED and theOaklandUnifiedSchool District, followed by a youth performance by Young, Gifted and Black, a cultural arts and education repertory group of youth that uses historic poetry, rap and song to teach Black History and Black Pride.

We will watch Geoffrey Canada’s TED TALKS EDUCATION segment, along with KQED’s documentary on African American Male Achievement and OUSD.

This will be followed by a panel discussion. Panelists are Dr. Mark Alexander (Founder, 100 Black Men Bay Area Community School), Mr. Christopher Chatmon (Executive Director, African American Male Achievement), Rev. Dr. Charley Hames, Jr. (Senior Pastor, Beebe Memorial Cathedral) and Ms. Jill Tucker (Education Reporter, San Francisco Chronicle).

To learn more about TED TALKS EDUCATION, please visit: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ted-talks-education/

This program is designed to extend public awareness, debate and community action around important issues related to the dropout crisis, showcased in TED TALKS EDUCATION (the first-ever TED project specifically produced for television) and is part of American Graduate:  Let’s Make It Happen, a public media initiative supported by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.”

 

 

Events, Local

The Education Report: Oakland’s new youth theater company opens its season Dec. 6

Gritty City Rep rehearsal

November 28, 2012
By Katy Murphy

Gritty City Rep opened in January, and its executive artistic director, Lindsay Krumbein, says it’s the first stand-alone youth theater company in Oakland.

The group rehearses six hours a week in downtown Oakland. Its first show of the season opens at the Berkeley City Club Theatre on Dec. 6 and runs for two weeks. The actors will be performing “Anon(ymous)” by Naomi Iizuka, which Krumbein describes as “very physical, minimalist, dealing with issues of war and immigration, exploitation of refugees – relevant stuff. Not your typical `high school theatre’ by any stretch of the imagination.”

To read more.

Events, Local, Youth Media

Video: The Oakland Youth Friendly Business Awards

On September 13, 2012 The Oakland Youth Friendly Business Awards(OYFBA) recognized and honored businesses that have gotten involved in helping our young people find jobs and internships in Oakland.
KQED, Oakland’s America’s Promise Alliance, Inner City Advisors, the Jonas Family Fund, Oakland Youth Commission, All About the Biz, a youth business program which is an active partner that is managing the event logistics and development and other community stakeholders hosted Oakland’s first Youth Friendly Business Awards event.

Watch here: Oakland Youth Friendly Business Awards

 

Events, Local, Research, Youth Media

Video: Attend And Acheive Back To School Rally

On the steps of Oakland City Hall on August 18 for the Attend and Achieve Back-to-School Rally 2012 — in partnership with the Oakland Natives Give Back, the Oakland Unified School District and the City of Oakland’s Office of the Mayor, City Administrator and community organizations.
The day will include performers, family-friendly activities, a teen summit and parent workshops. The first 1,000 people to register in the morning and take advantage of a series of life-enrichment workshops and networking opportunities with community organizations and vendors will receive backpacks and school supplies for their kids. The “tools for school” giveaways will be distributed at the end of the day to those with wristbands received during registration.
This event is sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and is part of KQED’s American Graduate initiative in Oakland, which seeks to build awareness about the dropout issue by working with students, teachers, parents, businesses and nonprofits on news coverage, reporting, community events and town hall.

Watch this compelling video: Attend And Acheive Back To School Rally 2012

Events, Local, Youth Media

More High School Students Passing Exit Exam

San Francisco Chronicle

August 23, 2012

Written by: Jill Tucker

The vast majority of the class of 2012 – 95 percent of the state’s 450,000 seniors – passed the California High School Exit Exam by graduation day, an all-time-high pass rate, according to results released Wednesday.

Not surprisingly, state education officials celebrated the news, noting steady improvement from the 90 percent pass rate in 2006, the first year students were required to pass the math and English test in order to graduate.

“When 95 percent of California students are hitting the mark – despite the tremendous challenges we face and the work we still have to do – there’s an awful lot going right in our public schools,” said state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson.

Yet critics of the Exit Exam have long questioned whether passing the test is anything to celebrate.

The exam, which was adopted by the Legislature in 1999, tests students on eighth- or ninth-grade math and 10th-grade English skills. Students are first required to take the exam in their sophomore year and have several chances to pass it.

Over the years, the state has spent hundreds of millions of dollars administering the test as well as providing remediation, tutoring and test preparation to ensure students who graduate meet minimum standards.

And yet the Exit Exam isn’t much of a gatekeeper. Relatively few students who didn’t pass would have graduated anyway because they didn’t finish required coursework.

In San Francisco, for example, 109 of the district’s 4,058 high school seniors were denied a diploma in the spring solely because they had not passed the Exit Exam.

And those students were eligible to take the test again after their senior year. Those results were not available.

In other words, the Exit Exam is costly, measures early high school skills on a multiple-choice test, and the vast majority of students pass it.

Is it worth the time, energy and money?

Read more>>

Events, Local, National, Youth Media

Behind "An American Graduate" Album

BAVC Blog
August 14, 2012
Written by: Chris Runde

Since March of this year, musicians and filmmakers in BAVC’s Next Gen youth programs have been contributing to a nationwide project focusing on the high school dropout crisis in the United States. Supported by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, American Graduate is a public media initiative created in response to the staggering 1.3 million young people who drop out of high school each year. The project engages with 68 public broadcasting stations and 300 community partners throughout the country to create locally-based solutions and media content.
Working in partnership with KQED, youth from BAVC’s Factory and BUMP Records programs were recruited to create work that documents the state of the American educational system as experienced by the students in it. Artists in BUMP Records recently completed a compilation of music that explores the complexity of the situation in Oakland, California. Touching on topics like the links between education level and income/incarceration, student alienation, and the challenges faced by teachers working in the system, the songs approach difficult subject matter with nuance and honesty. The album, An American Graduate, can be downloaded for free at BUMP Records’ Bandcamp site: http://bumprecords.bandcamp.com/
In support of the album release and larger project goals, BUMP artists Bhindi G, JustKidding and 3ss3ns3 performed a short selection of songs from An American Graduate on Saturday, August 18 at Frank Ogawa Plaza in Oakland.
Visit: KQED’s Sound Cloud site to listen to the album.
Events, National, Research

Radio Broadcast: Can Girls' Education Change the World?

There is a growing consensus among economists and world leaders that girls’ education is the single most effective tool for fighting poverty in developing countries. While not a panacea, education yields enormous benefits for girls, their families, and society, including increased future income, lower risk of HIV/AIDS, and improved health outcomes. Yet not all approaches to educating girls are equally effective. Join Ann Cotton, Wanjiru Kamau-Rutenberg, and Joel Samoff as they discuss the benefits and the challenges of educating girls in Africa, and share lessons learned from years of experience working in the sector.

Listen to these great episodes tonight at 8:00pm on KQED 88.5FM and a rebroadcast tomorrow May 8, 2012 at 2:00am.