Blog

Oakland Schools on the Up and Up

By Children Rising
April 24, 2012

Good news: Burckhalter Elementary School was one of five to receive the Title I Academic Achievement Award for raising their test scores. Many students even improved by double digits through two years.
This news is quickly followed by the news that test scores in Oakland are on the rise.
In fact, the standardized score improvement is outpacing those of other California schools. Despite deep cuts in the budget, grades and scores are going up.
There is still a lot of work to do with out public schools, but the good news is welcome amidst the common dire statistics that plague Oakland.

School Closures: Where the Students are Going

By Children Rising
April 12, 2012

Oakland Unified School District has released some interesting maps that show where students will go for the 2012-2013 school year when their schools close.
The maps show Lakeview, Lazear, Marshall, Maxwell Park, and Santa Fe elementary’s redistribution of students. They also show the difference in API scores between the closing school and the schools that students will be attending next year. Another chart shows how the district did their best to respect the placement wishes of the families of these students in transition.
Looking at the data, it appears as though choices were mostly made based on proximity to the closing schools. The schools that will be receiving the most students will be Burckhalter and Grass Valley elementary with 88 and 75 new students each, respectively.
These are two schools within our network, so with the growing student body at each one, Children Rising will be more aware of and responsive to the schools’ changing needs.

Please take a look at the maps here.

Health 4 ALL Kids

By Children Rising
April 4, 2012

You may be familiar with Children Rising’s food program called Health4Kids (H4K).
Twice a month, our H4K volunteers pack over 2,000 bags of food for kids that receive subsidized school lunches during the week and might not have access to nutritious food during the weekend. Kids that show up to school needing basic sustenance are not ready to learn. Hunger in the classroom (and anywhere) is a huge distraction from paying attention to the task at hand.

Packing all the bags is a big task, so volunteers are always needed during those two Wednesdays each month. Please contact varetta[at]faith-network[dot]com if you would like to be a part of this great team.

To go along with this focus on nutrition as a basic need, there is news that OUSD has set a goal to be “the first major urban school district in the nation to guarantee universal access to primary health care to all its students.”
Read this article to see how funding is being used and what sites will be set up in order for Oakland to help its public school children have access to basic care.