I also have questions about International High School. ELL students at Oakland High have access not only to A-G, but also to AP classes. I’m guessing that is not true at International High, so I wonder whether some of those students are being shortchanged.

We are in a depression not a recession. Depression among other things means 15 + years of these troubles. The reason it doesn’t feel like 1930 is because of the government printing press welfare schemes (food stamp ATM cards instead of bread lines), Prisons instead of homeless camps, and other New World improvements that keep us from realizing what has happened such as publication of false stats (redefined stats) – the cooked “unemployment rate”.

We will soon experience hyperinflation and crashing pay and benefits – well masked with hidden taxes (try the national sales tax that’s on the way combined with payroll taxes and “mandatory” insurance of various kinds, etc).

Automation is cheaper than labor and low status children like the proletariat are just not going to rate a 40 to 1 student-teacher ratio.

So you will soon see computer delivered instruction. And when it arrives it will seem like a good thing. Maybe it will be. The alternative is correspondence courses.

It has recently come to my attention that at least 20 of the proposed new intake at International H.S have on average 5.6 yrs i district middle schools !. Indeed 2-3 student in the new intake are closer to being designated long term learners then newcomers!these student more properly belong in a high school where they may access teachers who have been recognized by the district as expert instructors, a full A-G curriculum and a real American High School experiance.

The main claim that the Broad org and its handpicked trainees completely dominated the district during the years of the state takeover is not a “conspiracy theory,” it is a documented fact. Go back and read the archives of the East Bay Express, if you want to know more.

Broad is a moderate, of sorts, and certainly not out to destroy public education completely; but his foundation’s role in the transformation of OUSD was certainly anti-democratic, especially when you consider the financial role he had in funding our state superintendent’s political campaigns.

It is certainly fair to note who funds a study, as well, although it doesn’t have to discredit it if the evidence itself is solid.

And are you implying that nobody lied about WMD in the lead up to the Iraq War?

Conspiracies DO exist, even moderate ones. For folks like Broad and Gates, it is not even a secret: They want to transform public education. Why pretend otherwise?

See http://oaklandea.com/
I also voted to authorize.

That study also found that rewarding attendance was an experiment that didn’t work because it transferred money from poor schools to schools with relatively better resources.

Unfortunately, the Oakland School Board since taking over this school year has done nothing to follow up that 2008 study and change that aspect of the RBB budgeting procedure.

Jim Mordecai

But you’re a researcher, and that’s just anecdotal information. There was a study about this approach to funding schools, which I blogged about in November 2008. To quote myself:

“Researchers from the nonpartisan, Washington, D.C.-based social science research group American Institutes for Research recently studied how these budgeting systems were put in place in Oakland and San Francisco, and how they have worked.

Through their interviews and focus groups, researchers found a strong preference in both school districts for this approach. But they also found that it didn’t bridge the “experience gap” between the teaching staffs at high- and low-poverty schools – and that it was quite a lot of work (no surprise there).”

You can access the study through my blog post:
http://bit.ly/cBG9Cn

If you read that report to the very end, you find out it was funded by Eli Broad who is essentially wants to privitize public education. He wants schools to be run like business. He is also the person who is responsible for running AIG into the ground. So if that’s the business model for running a school, no thanks.

Next, public education is gone into by most people as a way to give back to the community. We do not get bonuses. We can only deduct $250 as expenses for our classrooms (and everyone I know, spends far, far more than $250 a year on supplies). We work long hours. If you don’t believe that, then you have no concept as to what we do. I answer emails from parents at all hours of the night and weekends, no extra pay. I have to play psychologist, police officer, nurse, mother figure, entertainer, all beyond the scope of my just teaching.

I can tell you from experience, because I have worked at Title 1 schools and currently work in a hill school, that there are more services avaliable to Title 1 schools but higher turnover. Part of the higher turnover is due to the fact that Title 1 schools often get rid of 1st and 2nd year teachers because it looks like they are doing ‘something’ about their low test scores. Working at a Title 1 school is hard because you are dealing with students that are economically challenged, parents that are often new comers to the country or chronically economically challenged, and due to those factors, they have less exposure to museums, literature, and healthy food which can be frustrating to deal with day in and out, year after year, especially when you are paid the lost wage in the east bay. Working in a ‘hills’ school can be hard too because parents can be overly involved and sometimes believe their kid is the second coming of Albert Einstien. I’m lucky in that I often get the parents that are little more relaxed and hold realistic expectations of their children. My parents are very helpful and help pick up supplies for the class. I’m a 8 year veteran of teaching but I just happened to land at my school. I did not plan it out, nor do I plan to leave. I make a good $8000 less than the median salary quoted in the Broad pamplet for my school.

Lastly, statistics can be bent and shaped into whatever form you want them to take. They can suit any purpose, given half the chance. That’s why I have always told my students, consider the source.