Category Archives: Local

Local, Research, Youth Media

Twin Sisters from Oakland Heading to Yale — Together

Staff Photojournalist
Photo of Kim and Jack (left to right) by Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Grou

The Education Blog
May 8, 2012
Written By Katy Murphy

I recently had the chance to sit down with Kim and Jack Mejia-Cuellar, twin sisters from Media Academy (Fremont campus) in East Oakland who have both been awarded full scholarships to Yale University. It was inspiring to hear their story — and how, as one of their teachers put it, they shaped their education into something rigorous and meaningful.

I was struck by something Kim said about feeling like outsiders, at times, for working so hard:

“No one said it outright, but our behavior was strange,” Kim said. “By setting goals for ourselves while other people were setting limits, we were always sort of the odd ones out. We felt pressured, but we didn’t let the pressure get to us.”

Both said that they doubted they’d be where they are if they didn’t have the other as a support system. What about the other bright minds who will show up to school tomorrow, but without an identical twin or best friend with the same drive, discipline and self-assurance? What can their families, friends and the school system do (or avoid doing) to help them set goals instead of limits?

Read more about these incredible twins.

Local, Research

Parents Fundraising Keeps Programs in Schools

A librarian reads to children. (Image credit: Getty Images)
A librarian reads to children. (Image credit: Getty Images)

 

 

Written by Vanessa Romo

Librarians, PE teachers, and music teachers are essential to public education, but thoseprograms have suffered as public schools cut the budget year after year after year. Some parents are fundraising to bring back and bolster the programs schools can’t finance themselves. Listen here.

Local, Research

KQED Radio Forum Broadcast: Schools Under Stress

Teacher Arlene Lebowitz assists a student in her third-grade class during summer school.

Originally aired on May 8, 2012
Hosted by Michael Krasny
A study of California’s 30 largest school districts finds the recession has taken a hard hit on public education. Teacher layoffs, fewer counselors, increased demand for free and reduced-price meals has stressed California’s schools according to the report by an education non-profit. Forum discusses the findings and how schools can compensate. Listen here.

Guests: Ann Hughes, 4th grade teacher at Hillcrest Elementary School in San Francisco, Bruce Fuller, professor of education and public policy at U.C. Berkeley, Jonathan Raymond, Superintendent of Sacramento Unified School District and Louis Freedberg, Executive Director of EdSource, an independent non-profit research and reporting organization

Events, Local, Research

Teachers and Parents Talk About How To Overcome Communication Barriers

Alma Reyes, a parent of a middle school student at Unified for Success, talks about how she gets in touch with teachers during the Parent-Teacher Summit on Thursday evening at International Community School.

Oakland North
Posted on April 27, 2012
Written by Ryan Phillips

Teachers want parents to be more involved, and parents want to know teachers are doing their best to educate their children. While that may sound easy to accomplish, it becomes impossible when the two sides don’t communicate.

On Thursday evening, parents and teachers from schools around the Oakland Unified School District gathered in the gymnasium of the International Community School in the Fruitvale area to talk about how to overcome communication barriers and learn how parents and teachers can better work together.

Learn more about: “Parent-Teacher Summit: Parents and Teachers Working Together”

Local, Research, Youth Media

Video: Poetry Inside Out

Truly CA Shorts is KQED’s monthly podcast of short documentary films by California filmmakers. Serious to absurd, the truth is always stranger than fiction!

Poetry Inside Out captures the struggle of bilingual kids who are crossing boundaries of culture and language within Bay Area public schools. The documentary follows several ethnically diverse students in San Francisco and Oakland over a year-long period. Coming from families where English may be the second or even third language, Carmen, Ke’Shae, Gentail, Caroline, Ricardo, and their friends create imaginative worlds of dragons, space aliens, love, and death in a unique writing program based on literary translation. The students’ spirited and insightful poems transcend their imperfect urban world.

Local, Town Hall

Teacher Town Hall Panelist Dave Orphal on The Oakland Education Blog Part Two

Teacher evaluations — And Surveys of Students and Colleagues
Posted on April 25, 2012
Written by: Dave Orphal

In my last post, I offered an overview of a proposed teacher evaluation system that two Oakland schools are piloting. The proposed system would replace the six performance criteria outlined in the California Standards for the Teaching Profession in favor of five new, but remarkably similar, criteria. I also examined one major departure from the current system of teacher evaluation, specifically the use of student performance data.

In this post, we will look at another significant difference from the current and piloted systems: feedback from a teacher’s students and colleagues.

The proposed teacher evaluation system will add a component called 360-Degree Feedback. In essence, this is corporate jargon for using multiple perspectives and sources of information to inform an evaluation. Jargon aside, I applaud the effort to draw in more voices and viewpoints that just one administrator’s in the evaluation of a teacher.

Read more about the pilot evaluation system.

Local, Research

KQED Radio Forum: The Cheating Culture

Originally aired on Forum with Michael Krasny, April 24, 2012
More than 30 students have been suspended from Berkeley High School for breaking into the school’s attendance system and changing records. We begin with a look at the Berkeley High scandal, and then we’ll discuss cheating more generally with David Callahan, author of “The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead.”
Listen to more.

Local, Research

Teacher Town Hall Panelist Dave Orphal on The Oakland Education Blog

A New Teacher Evaluation System Being Tested at Two OUSD Schools
The Education Blog
April 23, 2012
Written By Dave Orphal

Dave Orphal, a teacher at Skyline High School in Oakland, will write a series of blog posts for The Education Report about teacher evaluations — including a pilot program that two middle schools are using this year. He serves as a veteran teacher leader for the Bay Area New Millennium Initiative and works with the California Teachers Association’s Institute for Teaching. You can read more of Dave’s thoughts on teaching and educational reform at TransformED.

In the last session of the OEA/OUSD teacher conference last Saturday, I sat in a session about a new teacher-evaluation system piloted by two Oakland schools. Like my own school, these two are under interdict from the state and federal education authorities to dramatically remodel themselves because their test scores remain unsatisfactory.

The schools applied for, and received, a federal grant to help them with their remodeling. One of the conditions for the money is to revamp their teacher evaluation system so that student achievement data is included. Additionally, the new system will have to include provisions for teacher improvement, reward, and removal.

The panel talking about the evaluation system included teachers, principals, and district personnel in charge of school transformation. Read More