Comments on: Is bullying inevitable?

By: Diamond Broussard

Diamond Broussard — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 21:58:27 +0000

in suburban more wealthy schools the bullying is not also jsut more verbal but in many circumstances more hurtful. We read about these situations all the time in newspapers in which a child in a suburban school district commits suicide due to bullying most often verbal and not physical. How often do you read about students in OUSD committing sucide? Of course, fighting is not the solution but often times and in my own experience it solves the problem. There hasn’t been one time in which i’ve seen that someone who was in a fight was ever messed with again after beating the kid up. That’s all I’m saying.

By: Sue

Sue — Thu, 29 May 2008 18:49:06 +0000

It wasn’t a point it was a question.

By: Nextset

Nextset — Thu, 29 May 2008 18:18:52 +0000

Sue: I’m not sure I understand that point. Perhaps we should meet again on another thread. Regrets on any confusion.

By: Sue

Sue — Thu, 29 May 2008 17:18:34 +0000

Then why was the paragraph I quoted addressed to me?

By: Nextset

Nextset — Thu, 29 May 2008 16:46:10 +0000

Sue: It’s not about you, it’s certainly not about your kids – I really don’t care.

I’m here to discuss policy pros and cons. Not you. Don’t expect that from me. If you take any of this personally you are going to be way too fretful and hyper. Deal with it.

By: Sharon

Sharon — Thu, 29 May 2008 01:09:48 +0000

Re: the accuracy of the above mentioned OUSD document – College-Bound Oakland Graduates.

As far as I know, this document has been produced by OUSD for the past two years. This type of publicity about the successes of OUSD students is extremely important. Unfortunately, the accuracy of the information in these last two brochures is questionable to me.

I know for certain that the 2006 version had many errors for Skyline High School; this was my daughter’s graduating class. For instance, one of her friends with plans to go to a private college in Oregon was listed as heading for Laney in the fall. My daughter counted at least 12 similar mistakes. It was very disappointing for the kids to read this misinformation.

In addition, a former Oakland Tech AP told me that students that year wrote whatever they pleased on the inquiry form. She did not believe the information was then verified.

Skyline’s information for 2007 was also incomplete. Several students heading for good colleges were not included in the OUSD brochure.

I presume these errors are because of insufficient notice to counselors, heavy workloads, and other factors that prevent people from being thorough, but the information needs to be correct (I hope this is being read by central office people). I also would prefer to see a list of the college acceptances of students at each school, rather than specific student destinations. This would paint a more complimentary picture for the schools by revealing the potential of that outgoing class and would also not infringe on student privacy.

By: Steven Weinberg

Steven Weinberg — Thu, 29 May 2008 00:43:37 +0000

Cranky, Your points are all well taken. Administrative stability is important. The schools I know have not had a problem with downtown removing their administrators, but they have had good people decide to leave because of the unbelievable demands placed on urban principals and the lack of respect they sometimes feel from downtown.

By: Realist

Realist — Wed, 28 May 2008 23:39:28 +0000

Nextset, the data you looked at only applies to Paideia students, not all students at Tech. that is why you’re only seeing 40 some kids listed. there are many more students that will be attending college in the fall, that data isn’t provided at the site i shared with you.

each year, OUSD sends out info on college grads and where they will be attending school. i haven’t seen the list for 2008 yet, but if you’re interested, here is the link for 2007:

http://webportal.ousd.k12.ca.us/docs/8319.pdf

By: Nextset

Nextset — Wed, 28 May 2008 23:30:49 +0000

Realist: It appears that 41 students in the 2007 and 2008 school years made it into college with good backups also. I hope they were actually able to attend. Now how many students were in each graduating class? I wish all the OUSD High Schools published data on their websites about the fate of their graduating classes.

Reminds me of the term “Discharge Planning”… I would hope the schools would hand all the students calendars in September and remind them weekly of the countdown to age 18/end of school – and having to start the rest of their life – and provide referrals to social workers/counselors to come up with options for them.

Maybe they do? Anybody have any first hand experience with this?

By: Realist

Realist — Wed, 28 May 2008 23:21:29 +0000

Nextset: regarding your query “Tell me about a OUSD school that does what Lowell does, provides the training Lowell does for Prole kids who can get into Berkeley or Stanford”.

one of those OUSD schools is Oakland Tech, specifically its 25 year old Paideia program and its academies. check out the college acceptances for the Paideia graduates over the last two years at:

http://www.oaklandtech.com/paideia.htm

these college acceptances rival most of the private schools in the east bay that i’m familiar with. these kids are truly impressive and very highly sought after.

i think i’ve invited you before to stop by and “check it out”. at a minimum, stop by the engineering academy and notice all the awards the students have won year after year after year at the Sacramento State Fair. this is in large part to the fabulous teachers and supportive families that are a part of the high school community.

you see, there’s hope and not all is lost in OUSD.