Huff Post
December 30, 2011
Written by Linnie Frank Bailey
The road to U.C. Berkeley was not an easy one for Moreno Valley’s Jamal Samuel. It included 4:15 am treks along the barren landscape of the former March Air Force base to catch the first of two buses that would get him to Riverside’s North High School.

Unbeknownst to most of his fellow students and teachers, Jamal spent his junior and senior year of high school living at King Hall — a homeless shelter on the base run by Path of Life Ministries. Once military housing, the barracks have been converted into small one-room apartments for the homeless.
Read this inspirational story at The Jamal Samuel Story

PBS News Hour
December 29, 2011
Written by Spencer Michels
Steele, author of “Whistling Vivaldi and Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us,” sat down with me to talk about prospects for programs like Techbridge, which enrolls 600 girls in Oakland and nearby cities in two hours of after-school science classes a week. Many of the girls are not high achievers, many are black or Latina, girls some people wouldn’t expect to see giving up their 3 to 5 p.m. slot so they could design catapults or connect electrical circuits. But they’re doing it and the results have been good. They are more aware of job opportunities for women in technology; they see themselves as having a role, and their interest has been piqued.

In the video below, Steele also shares his concerns about the real-world implications for gender stereotypes — including its role in the dropout rate — and some of the other proactive solutions schools and companies can take to counterbalance them.

Huff Post
December 30, 2011
Written By Kristen Pagalia
According to Department of Education data, about 1 in 5 students in California dropped out of high school in 1986 when the blockbuster was released, and that statistic has not improved. In recent years, the drop out rate in the Los Angeles Unified School District has climbed as high as 1 in 3. Further, a University of California, Santa Barbara study found it costs California over $46 billion for each year’s cohort of dropouts over their lifetimes. Still, year after year, district leadership and educational policy makers cite reducing attrition as a top priority while continuing to cut resources to the curricular activities proven to keep kids in school and doing well — namely the arts. In her new book, Why Our High Schools Need the Arts — Fighting Attrition with Interest and Relevance, Dr. Jessica Hoffmann Davis weaves a masterful case for arts education as an antidote to academic disengagement, as well as a uniquely affective method of teaching the character and intellectual traits associated with scholastic, social, and professional success.

For more about this article go to: Schools Need the Arts

PBS News Hour
December 29, 2011
Written by Spencer Michels
One of the toughest jobs in modern America has got to be running an urban school district. Superintendents of schools in big cities like Washington, D.C, Los Angeles and Oakland, Calif., don’t have very good job security because if they are taking any risks, and messing with the status quo, it provokes controversy and opposition.

The Education Blog
Wednesday, December 14th, 2011
Written by Katy Murphy

In Oakland, recall is in the air.
As some citizens collect signatures to recall Mayor Jean Quan, another group named Concerned Parents and Community Coalition is trying to oust five of the seven Oakland school board directors. It’s targeting those who voted `yes’ on the proposal this fall to close elementary schools: Jody London, David Kakishiba, Jumoke Hinton Hodge, Gary Yee, and Chris Dobbins.
To read more about the board meeting go to OUSD five.