In the case of the neighbor – father paid a teacher to tutor on school grounds $55 per hour. Student is enrolled in a charter school which requires summer school and is there nearly nine hours per day to catch up on writing, math and building the background knowledge to be able to achieve at ninth grade levels.

@Gordon Danning – there are students who need help and should not have to pay the tutoring fee to learn the material. I agree that the information to graduate is EXTREMELY clear. I also agree that many students who drag themselves over the threshold to classes have been trained that they will be promoted / graduate just by showing up. If a student has been able to do this throughout elementary and middle school it is plausible that they could think the same thing for high school. Perhaps we should have students and parents initial a statement that says that unlike elementary and middle school you must earn the right to a high school diploma under the following conditions: XXXX and list them. Parents/guardians should have to initial the stsements every year and the form that shows the progress toward graduation. If at the end of the freshman year 30% of the core requirements are not met (30 vs 25 to account for required vs elective courses) an 18 point font statement must be initialed stsing the student is on the path to failure to graduate. The 18 point font is consistent with other types of strong disclosure language.

To others who are having problems with charter high schools zapping money from the system – for the first time in the nine year OUSD school career a school is making sure this African-American students knows how to complete grade level work, speak and write standard academic English and think critically to connect the learning from one subject to other subjects.

Unfortunately, yes. This persists because KDOL is unable to monitor the quality of the signal AT&T broadcasts to UVerse customers. While KDOL monitors its broadcasts signal to all cable providers, AT&T is unwilling to provide KDOL with a “return” or “on-air” signal which would allow us to address issues like the one you cited.

We encourage you to contact AT&T if you experience a low quality signal in the future. The hope is that a critical mass of complaints might prompt them to change their policy.

This, and other grievances, such as the use of different technology than traditional cable service providers and the refusal to list public access stations on the same channel as those other cable providers, has resulted in class action litigation and Congressional Subcommittee Hearings examining the experience of Public Education & Government (PEG) access channels.

Here’s a link that provides more information: http://www.dra.ca.gov/DRA/Telecom/hot/ATTs+U-verse+PEG.htm

Many students just can’t graduate because of mental problems including cognitive problems or worse. Too bad, so sad. That’s life.

You don’t hand out diplomas for racial balance or to make the recipient feel good. It was earned or it wasn’t.

Nextet, out of curiosity, in Marin or elsewhere, how is graduating from a continuation school distinguished from other schools, especially for colleges?

Some teachers are active willing participants in this social promotion sham, and some are passive participants. Not too long ago teachers were stating that they needed “tenure protection” to be able to advocate for the children without fear of backlash, well what’s happening here. A good friend of mine(a 4 year temp elementary teacher in another district)has time and again talked to parents of her struggling students and insisted on close monitoring of work at home and a host of other remedies, the parents complained and weren’t happy, but this teacher did her job anyway. By the end of the year the kids were actually able to pass the class barely. This teacher has been teacher has been told numerous times by veteran teachers that she grades too hard, and she replies that she had extensive training in the use of rubrics and grading. She is adamant that most if not all kids can and will rise to the level of work and expectations should be high. In her 4 years every single class she had has performed on par with the best school classes in the district. The parents and kids really disagree with her in the beginning but are so thankful for her and love her by the time school ends. We need more teacher to do their jobs just like this, and the amazing thing is she can be let go with no explanation at any time, but she rocks the boat anyway. She has courage and conviction and it shows.

These are not “schools” OUSD is running, they know it, I know it and the fleeing families of Oakland know it.

(See post #32)

When conditions in the “schools” are as openly wrong as this, it’s not a school, it’s a failure factory. One that seems to process blacks for the most part.

It too bad bright but not rich black students have no real school to go to, except maybe the Charters. When OUSD finished processing them these students are so damaged their chances of recovery for a decent entry into military, industrial or higher education career are poor beyond what would have occurred if they’d just been homeschooled. They’ve no time to catch up to kids from real schools.

Too bad. Maybe their parents should flee Oakland/California also.

I had dinner recently with a recent black graduate of Cal State who went to HS in Marin County. I was informed that anyone in that high school who didn’t perform to (at least minimal) college prep level was transferred out to a continuation school. They were given F’s and either they would leave or would be transferred. Which is what I remember in my East Bay Public High School back in the day. Nice to know Some districts still know how to run a school. You don’t tolerate F students, you get rid of them. They go to a lesser school where they no longer get F’s because they finally fit in.

The reason Oakland “Schools” are such a joke is that the district is unwilling to impose discipline and unwilling to segregate the students into programs suitable for the different students for fear of running afowl of the “we are all equal” PC nonsense.

So the district pretends to flog all the students together in the same classes and campuses as if that will make dull students bright. The result is no functioning schools at all while immigrants manage to educate themselves anyway.

Madness…

Brave New World.

Social promotion was eliminated by State Education code. The District got the memo and put on the books standards based promotion policy but during the State take-over promotion policy was dropped. Oakland has not had a written policy on promotion since. Its graduation policy is still in place.

I don’t think standards based policy is a good idea. But, I don’t feel it is a good thing for the District to go for years without a promotion policy just because I disagree with the state legislature’s policy.

Many times I have informed the Board that they no longer have a written policy on promotion but nothing has happened. I take that to mean that the District cannot yet read the law and follow it.

Jim Mordecai