Re: Education for Democracy/Principles of School Reform

[Cbgord@aol.com]

Thanks to Dave Stratman for these Principles of School Reform. We need to  
focus on a vision of what we're fighting for as much as an awareness of the  
multiple, ongoing assaults we must defend against. Otherwise, the best we can  
ever hope for is a stalemate within an unequal system that already  effectively 
accomplishes the corporate goal that Dave once described, "that  students be 
sorted out and persuaded to accept their lot in life." 
 
So here, again, is the Oakland Education Association's Vision for Education  
adopted last year.  Some of its points it overlap the MEA Principles of  
School Reform, though MEA seems stronger and more specific in the area of  
pedagogy, educational goals, and collaborative work; OEA's vision focuses  on 
establishing the material conditions necessary  for the highest levels  of teaching 
and learning and on the wealth redistribution needed to fund those  conditions.
 
Craig Gordon
 
 
 

OEA Draft  Vision for Education 
Passed by Rep Council March 7,  2005 

What Students  Need to Learn Successfully:

1)   Small class size, 15:1  district-wide.   Quality, long-term, experienced 
credentialed teachers  and instructional aides in every classroom qualified 
to provide effective  individual assistance to all students, including those 
with special learning and  language needs.

2)      Sufficient material resources to provide  what students need to learn 
and teachers need to teach. This includes high  quality and current 
curricular materials (e.g., books) for every student,  adequate supplies and 
up-to-date, well maintained technology

3)   Clean, healthy and comfortable  facilities in which to learn.

4)      Sufficient intervention personnel to  support student academic and 
extracurricular needs.  For example,  counselor to student ratio to ensure 
adequate attention, psychological, social  and medical services, tutoring during 
and after school hours, conflict  resolution and campus supervision to ensure 
safety.

5)     Adequate time for teachers to  plan individually and to collaborate 
with each other, and to meet with all  staff, parents and students for problem 
solving, planning and school  governance.

6)      Curriculum and pedagogy that meets the  needs of our students.  
Culturally relevant curriculum and instruction  that not only prepares students for 
college and for work in any field they may  choose, but for social and 
political empowerment.  Curriculum that is  rigorous, based on real world experience 
and connected to students’ needs and  interests.   Increased  affirmative 
action to ensure that the cultural/racial makeup of faculties  reflects that of 
the students they teach.

7)    An Early Childhood (pre-school) program at  each site. Adult Education 
classes at each site to assist parents with  literacy, English language, and 
other skills needed to support their  children.

8)  All  stakeholders (staff, parents and students) accept both the authority 
and  responsibility for success and failure and for developing the 
educational  program, which is tailored for the specific students at that  school.

9)     Learning environments that are personalized  and where staff, students 
and parents have sufficient autonomy to address local  needs.     This 
includes the ability to have small  schools, which at the secondary level, must be 
interconnected enough to control  and provide resources such as libraries, 
counselors, AP classes, special  education classes, and a wide range of electives 
and extracurricular activities.  

10)   Transforming  public education in Oakland will require massive funding: 
 funding for smaller classes, more schoolworkers (teachers, librarians,  
custodians, clericals, etc.), more time for planning and collaboration, more and  
better textbooks and materials, modern school facilities, etc.   This requires 
more than just  efficiently managing the district’s current funding;  it 
requires redistribution of the  corporate wealth of the Oakland metropolitan 
region. The young people  of Oakland need  and deserve no less. 
(continued on other  side)

*          *          * 

This  proposal describes what schools need to effectively educate students in 
 Oakland, both in  the hills and in the flatlands. We recognize that flatland 
schools have been  neglected for years and, in addition, face the extra, 
social problems of  poverty. These require special resources. All schools will 
succeed when we can  meet the needs of these schools. 

The OEA has advocated these points for  years, yet they have fallen on deaf 
ears. The result is the shortcomings now  being used to justify school closures 
and other destructive re-organizational  steps. Even the class size reduction 
won by OEA’s 26-day strike with huge  community support have been undermined 
by nearly a decade of underfunding and  mismanagement.  

To those who  say it is impractical:   How practical is it to address the 
urgent and  diverse needs of Oakland’s students while cutting resources that  are 
already grossly inadequate?   In 1967, Martin Luther King,  Jr., described “
limited reforms…at bargain rates for the power structure” as  “cheap victories”
 far short of genuine equality. He argued that  “to  repair the damage of 
centuries of denial and oppression means appropriations to  create jobs and job 
training; it means the outlay of billions for decent housing  and equal 
education.”  

Since King  spoke these words corporations have grabbed an even greater share 
of wealth  while selling us “practical (cheap) reforms” that  have failed 
over the decades to even approach educational equality.   We are no longer 
chasing  the mirage of soft money, of one-time corporate "grants" with strings  
attached.  To provide and maintain  quality public education, corporate wealth 
must be tapped on a regularized,  sustained basis and controlled by the staff, 
parents and students in the school  community.