Proposed Projects

Strengthening Representative Bodies at the School Site

The Council proposes to work with the school district to build capacity and infrastructure at the school, district and community level to support parent groups in order to increase the capacities of parents & families to make significant choices about how their children are educated. Parents, caregivers, and community based organizations can improve individual and school-wide academic performance through effective school site councils and other parent groups to plan school-wide academic improvement plans and to increase the capacities of individual parents to support their children’s academic performance.

Improving District Communication about School Restructuring

Despite the efforts of the district over time to communicate the state and federal school performance standards and the consequence of failure to meet them (including its system of color coding schools) there does not seem to be a clear understanding among members of the various school communities about the program improvement status of their schools and the consequences of failure to meet standards of improvement.  There also seems to be reluctance to make clear the “peril” in which some schools stand.  The Council proposes to work with the school district and community partners to develop a warning system and communication tools about Program Improvement status. 

Education Research to Support Action

To support its education-related work, Urban Strategies Council has established a relationship with the Oakland Unified School District to obtain K-12 and Child Development Center student databases for school years 2000-2001 through 2007-2008 in electronic form.  The agreement will permit the Council to obtain similar databases for the academic year 2009-2010.  The Council will be conducting analysis of student achievement, attendance, discipline, graduation and mobility as well as school closures and virtual school models. Each analysis will include some spatial analysis to examine the geographic disparities in each issue across the City of Oakland.

Education and Economic Development

There is a significant and important relationship between local public education and the city’s economic development activities.  As the city continues its period of reinvestment and economic development, there is a need to pay more conscious attention to the impacts on schools and advocate for economic development policies that support the schools and families.  The council proposes to conduct research that explores these relationships and to develop information on promising polices and practices that provide support to families and the schools.