The leadership of Ed Trust West is female, African-American, and lawyers. They are attempting to push Dr. Dubois’ talented ten beyond the ten percent and aiming for a larger number. I have seen nothing that indicates this push is not sincere.

After all playing this role has provided the corporation with contracts from the government to right civil right wrongs. Being able to pursue ones dream of change and get paid is a good combination to blind one to facts on the ground.

Jim Mordecai

I keep remembering that jury instruction that says “You are presumed to intend the logical results of your actions”. They know exactly what they are doing.

I don’t buy the bona fides of these people for a minute. They intend to destroy the minority students and sweep them from society. And they’re going to do it, too.

The aim of the A-G graduation policy is to jack up the standards so that more students of color are U.C qualified. Righteousness that is felt by Ed Trust West spokespersons is projected whenever they speak in public.

They believe if standards are held high and proper resources provided all students will be able to master whatever the standard. If it doesn’t happen it is because the adults in the school system do not have their belief that all students can learn and meet whatever standard.

The logic of Ed Trust West is only those committed to the status quo and maintaining the racial achievement gap would oppose their righteous mission to end that gap.

As a civil rights organization Ed Trust West has great influence in the new President Obama administration with its former Ed Trust West Director getting a civil rights enforcement position in the Department of Education.

If you are concerned for the students of Oakland, this same approach is the coming National policy embedded in establishment of National standards followed by a National test. But, this is not a left or right policy but a continuation of Bush’s NCLB policy on stereoids.

Jim Mordecai

It seems to me that the intent of the Public School system is the educate the people. Please do not continue creating barriers to impedede the progress of the masses.

That’s the sad part about all this – it is a move to break the spirit and the will of the “failing” students, to convince them they are no good (and that the school is “good”).

There is and should be a place in our society and our economy for all our citizens, above average, average, and below average academic aptitude. It is the job of the public school system to evaluate, guide and place all our kids on the ladder of society, to get the best possible outcomes for all the kids. Not just those who are ready, able and willing to pursue higher education. OUSD had better remember this, these kids are not going away. They are all our responsibility to take care of. That’s why we have public schools.

Would this change apply to charter schools as well?

As Katherine stated above: “One year is a joke – it’s almost not worth it.”

There are no students with IQs over 105, nor under 95. Just ask the school board.

Why is OUSD trying to increase the drop rate? What is their plan here? Are they trying to get “better”, higher performing schools by eliminating any students with an IQ of less than 110? Let there be no mistake, imposing a university eligible course requirement is incompatible with the presence of students with IQ’s below a certain (higher than average) number whatever that number may be. Average IQ students do not do college prep, and most of OUSD student body will be less than national avg.

And anybody who is University Educated who has studied sociology and related courses knows exactly who is on the hit list here. And who is not.

Very small changes in testing conditions produce very large differences in who can pass. We can see this when DMV adds time pressure conditions to the DMV written tests.

Despite my occasional mention that OUSD needs to establish a Lowell High School I never in my wildest rants meant to say that OUSD should turn it’s entire High School Program into a Lowell High School operation.

To put it bluntly – and I think that is called for – mandating UC entrance requirements for all OUSD High School Students will essentially turn OUSD into a Negro-Free environment. There will be exceptions, there are blacks at Piedmont Unified too. But there will not be so many you’d notice. And the ones that will survive might just be tilted to the Eqyptians.

OUSD exists to serve the needs of the people of Oakland by getting their children into occupations, military, or higher education. Exactly how does this proposed policy serve the needs of even half of the Oakland residents? Or do they expect us to believe you can tutor the majority of the students into passing college prep courses? If it were that easy UC Berkeley would have better drop rates for the different groups.

And least the readers think I’m only speaking of the black students, what about the Mexican students (soon to be a majority)? What are their projected fail rates for such a program? We can chart that just as easily. Yes, some will manage – but what ratio?

This policy looks to me like a simple withdrawal of educational services from the proletariat. And put through by “liberals” I suppose, Obama supporters.

Brave New World. In the old one, we had social mobility. Not anymore.

A retired OUSD counselor, David Turner, on a teacher list service provided details as to why making A-G is not a practical policy.

Re: A-G School Board Resolution
Saturday, June 13, 2009 11:48 PM
From: “Eugene Debs”

This whole issue of A-G requirements as grad requirements was much debated and implemented back in the mid-90s and I railed against it as long as there wasn’t any safety net to provide tutoring and extra help to those who couldn’t possibly pass 3rd year math after failing or getting D grades in Algebra and Geometry. There were no provisions then and I’ll bet there won’t be any in this new initiative. It’s all window dressing to make OUSD look good but there is no concern for the students’ ability to pass Intermediate Algebra, Chemistry, 2 years of foreign language (especially when we’re facing a severe shortage of foreign language and math teachers). They never discuss the real world issue that is created by raising the bar without supports to insure student success. All they say is we’re going to offer A-G and make it required for graduation. What that means is more students will drop out feeling unable to successfully complete the 3 years of math, 2 years of foreign language, biological and physical science labs etc etc etc. Because the more needy students will need large doses of intervention, they won’t be able to participate in choir, drama, computer labs etc because they’ll be so bogged down in taking multiple classes in math , science and reading. Many will drop out when realizing that they won’t have “electives” in their program. Their program will be dictated by these administrators who have never taught in a classroom and have never tried to teach 3rd year math to students who haven’t grasped Algebra and Geometry. This is a farce and won’t succeed any more than the initiative in the 90′s did. We need extra resources and that doesn’t mean more of the same, two classes in English don’t improve secondary students English skills, they only serve to further deaden the curriculum and accelerate the drop out rate.

We need to reform education by bringing the best and brightest teachers into our classrooms and allowing them to “turn students on” to learning. We’ll only do that successfully when we stop all the window dressing and start determining what each student needs to succeed. OUSD administration will always find it difficult to deal with the complexities of the classroom, it’s up to the educators to confront their ignorance with the truth about what works with secondary students.

Even if a kid isn’t going to do much with her/his life, at least knowing something about the world outside the hood might prevent the rest of the world from having to suffer from their ignorance.