Bullets, marijuana and other barriers to school reform in East Oakland
Posted: 05/08/2012 04:01:47 PM PDT
Updated: 05/09/2012 04:56:49 AM PDT
OAKLAND -- East Oakland's Fremont High School campus is undergoing a transformation this year -- the second major reform effort in a decade. Its three small schools, created in 2003 with millions of dollars from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, are combining back into one: a "full-service community school" that promises to focus on students' overall health and well-being.
In an attempt to shore up Fremont's teaching force and curb its 33 percent dropout rate, Oakland Superintendent Tony Smith created a new kind of teaching position for the school-in-the-making, with a longer work year and higher pay. Of the 53 teachers at Fremont this year, 43 applied for the job; 35 have been accepted.
But parents, students and teachers say that for the school to truly turn around, something must be done about the violence on the streets outside the school, the fights on campus and the lack of student motivation -- as evidenced in groups of students who cut class to smoke marijuana and drink. More than 2