Thursday, February 11, 2010

The Education Report: A Twitter plug

The Education Report

A Twitter plug

By Katy Murphy
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 at 10:33 pm in environment
If you’re an avid consumer of education news, I should level with you: I post updates and story links about schools on Twitter, and some of it doesn’t make it into the blog or in the paper.
Even if you don’t want to sign up, or you’re not quite ready to “follow” me (understandably), you can still see those updates by going to the above Web page. Like the one I just posted about the solar panels to be installed at 17 Oakland schools. Of course, there wasn’t space to list the schools on Twitter, so I’ll do it here: Read the rest of this entry »

Oakland principals speak out about gang violence, ask for help

By Katy Murphy
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 at 2:07 pm in elementary schoolssafety,students
Two East Oakland elementary school principals have appealed to the police and the community for help, saying increased gang activity and violence is threatening to erode the progress they have made during the last several years.
In a letter sent this afternoon to Oakland school district’s police chief and dozens of others from the school district, city and county (and local newspaper), ACORN Woodland Principal Kimi Kean and EnCompass Academy Principal Tram Nguyen detailed their concerns — which include daytime shootings and weekend drug sales in the school parking lot — and proposed solutions.

Tilden update: Can one shuttered school save another from closing?

By Katy Murphy
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 at 2:00 pm in buildingselementary schoolsfamilies,preschoolspecial educationstudents
Tilden
Tribune file photo by Sean Donnelly
For well over a year, parents from Oakland’s Tilden School have cajoled, grilled and held district administrators to task about the future of the unique program, which serves children — many of them, with special needs — in preschool through third grade.
Tilden will close in June. Still, those behind the dogged effort to keep elements of the program alive have scored a substantial victory: a new preschool and special needs diagnostic center at the nearby Burbank campus. Most of Tilden’s students are in preschool. Read the rest of this entry »