Oakland Local
Story by Barbara Grady
March 2, 2014

The first test of Oakland Unified School District’s ability to include parents and students in making budget decisions — something now required by state law — happened Wednesday night when about 100 people asked the school board to let schools, rather than the central administration, decide how to spend a pot of money.

The students and parents won.

At issue was $1.5 million — a paltry sum within an overall $589 million budget for the district — but it was the subject of great debate, because the Board of Education had decided last June to gives schools this money, and $3 million more, to spend as they see fit, but then faced increased expenses, so considered rescinding that decision.

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Story by Rebecca Parr

SAN LEANDRO — SiLin Huang is headed to an Ivy League school in the fall after overcoming the challenges of speaking no English when she immigrated at age 8, growing up poor and missing two years of high school because of a mysterious illness.

“I’m the only child, so my parents viewed me as the hope for the family,” she said. “My goal was to get a good education and do well in school, because my parents only completed high school, and I wanted to help them.”

That goal was set back because of a still-undiagnosed illness. The straight-A San Leandro High student could not attend school — she was too sick to even take online courses — her junior and senior years. But when she recovered, she earned her high school diploma in one year at adult school and has been accepted by Columbia University in New York. In recognition of her accomplishments, she is one of 12 women chosen for the Alameda County Women’s Hall of Fame.

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Story by Barbara Grady

Oakland’s school board is considering putting a parcel tax on the November ballot to fund improvement in its high schools.

Although it’s made progress lowering the high school drop out rate and adding more rigor to its curriculum, Oakland Unified School District still sees more than 25 percent of high schoolers drop out. And not all of those who graduate are prepared for college or for starting a career. So the district wants to embark on a new approach to high school education.

It wants to bring to all schools a pedagogy called Linked Learning, in which students both pursue college preparatory academic subjects and work in internships at local employers in government, education, media, healthcare and business. Under the proposal in consideration, it would ask voters to approve a parcel tax of $150 per household to pay for this program and to raise teacher salaries at high schools to help in retaining and recruiting good teachers.

The district already offers some Linked Learning programs at most of its high schools, and the curriculum at two schools Life Academy and MetWest High School is built entirely around Linked Learning. The possible parcel tax would raise money to expand the program to all eight high schools in the district and made it available to all students.

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Story by Jill Tucker

In the 15 years since voters essentially banned bilingual education in state schools, teaching English learners to read, write and do arithmetic first in their native language has nearly disappeared from California classrooms.

Since Proposition 227 overwhelmingly passed in June 1998, it’s been all about learning English, first and foremost – but not in San Francisco. Nearly 30 percent of the city’s 17,000 English learners are in bilingual education programs, compared with 5 percent on average statewide, according to the most recent data available.

And it’s working, according to a recently published Stanford University study commissioned by the San Francisco Unified School District.

Districts can get around the Prop. 227 ban by having parents sign a waiver authorizing their children to be in bilingual education programs.

Bilingual education students, who learn to read and write in their native language and then transfer those academic skills into English, are – after a slower start – as fluent by sixth grade as those focused on and immersed in English with minimal support in their home language, according to the study.

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