The shame is Edna Brewer had an in-class program that addressed this type of situation IN CLASS. & has OUSD grown it to other locations. No, of course not. That would make to much sense. They’re still looking to reinvent a broken wheel when they have a mechanic present (& standing right there) they won’t use.

Why not? OUSD believes it’s not academic in nature. Well, OUSD, how can you get disruptive kids to learn academics if they’re too busy disrupting?

Why not use a program that is already successful doing just that?

I’m convinced to a certain degree that no matter what OUSD does, they will be criticized.

They take high performing elementary and high schools and grow them to give families a better option….and we damn them??

Seen It Before: What you are describing is not a school, it’s a holding facility for the damned. Why would any parent not a drug addict or drunk enroll a child in such a place? It’s not like you don’t have choices.

We are seeing the destruction of public education in the urban areas. Students will attend completely different schools depending on their Caste – from that point on they will work, marry and associate with their own. We will have a lot less social mobility than in previous generations.

I already see it – when you want to hire or promote you use people from the correct track and can’t take a chance on anyone else because they won’t fit in or know the very basics of how to behave and how to think. You can’t assume than an adult in this society knows/understands anything anymore – including the National Anthem.

It is true that kids in middle school know that they don’t have to pass their classes since they will automatically be passed on. When there was mandatory summer school at least there was something to hold over their heads but even that was too short to really be effective. Those who have a D or F in a core subject should have school from mid-June through the end of August-that might cut down on the apathy.

What made my son’s middle school education be just adequate-and he went to Montera-was the teachers putting up with bad behavior and the administration going along with it, although they claim they don’t. I sometimes sat in a classroom of a teacher who always looked scared and was afraid to say of do anything to the disruptive students in her class. The better students spent the 10 minutes or so of work doing it and then pulled out books and read. His best teacher, according to him, was the one who didn’t teach down and had no patience for the badly behaved. He was offered drugs constantly and told me there were a lot of kids dealing, but the administration was oblivious to it. Until schools are willing to enforce after school detention and stop worrying about the feelings of their worst students and their parents (the apple often doesn’t fall far from the tree) then the schools will continue to be mediocre and parents will yank their kids out of the OUSD and send them to private middle and high schools.

But…. I truly believe that THAT is the intention. To destroy public education in Oakland such that Charter schools and privatization are the ONLY solution.

The district should be looking at creating developmentally appropriate groupings (5-6) (7-8) (8-9), STOP social promotion and begin working DILIGENTLY to get our students caught up to grade level. And hold all students accountable to display appropriate social and academic behaviors.

There is a HUGE difference between a 6th grader and an 8th grader…. HUGE….and we have seen firsthand at our school how an out of control 8th grade cohort can effect the behavior of the 7th and 6th graders on a campus. We already see rampant drug and alcohol use, inappropriate sexual behavior, profanity, violence towards other students as well as teachers and community members, vulgarity, disrespect….. a complete “Lord of the Flies”scenario with no consequences. The kids already figured out that it doesn’t matter what they do at school… they will still get passed to the next grade. So…. who cares!? Do whatever you want…or do nothing. It doesn’t matter.

I would be extremely uncomfortable placing 6th graders who are incapable of dealing with 14 year olds who are TWICE their size in some cases….into a situation where they now had to react to 17 and 18 year old “grown men or women” pressuring them to turn over their lunch money, ipod or bodies.

Is there ANY hope that logic or pure common sense will EVER be applied to the problems we face in the education of Oakland youth???? smh…..

The burden of crossing up to 4 major boulevards, with no apparent AC Transit support, will likely cause many of the Santa Fe families to settle on the local charters closer to San Pablo.

Others may try to slip across into Emeryville, and those with higher academic records will probably be accepted if past history continues to be the current and future practice.

Considering their options, and considering the transportation issues, I again am not at all optimistic about a substantial part of Santa Fe’s current student population continuing with OUSD.