Bay Area schools VS. Savage Inequalities, Do you see Change, similarities or both?

 

An article I found on ABCLocal.com states of 188 failing schools in California 43 are located in San Francisco's Bay Area. In Oakland there are five schools in one district which have has consistently scored low. “For far too long, too may kids have been dropping out of school underprepared for reading and mathematics, and these communities have been ignored,” says Alberto Retana with the U.S. Department of Education.

Unlike the schools in New York and St. Louis these school actually have options, they may not be options the communities or board members want but to say the least they do have options, 4 to be exact. The first is to close and reopen as a charter school. The second is to replace the principal and half of the staff. The third is to replace the principal, keep the staff and implement reforms. The fourth is to close and send the students to a higher-performing school. The schools are being offered between $50,000 and $2 million to make the changes. In the article I found Troy Flint from the Oakland Unified School District recommends “lengthening the schools hours, which is one of the options, increase the amount of instructional time” this seems like a strange way to “reform” failing schools, if these kids are dropping out of class or barely showing up to class then I don’t see the solution in this. Also unlike the schools in St. Louis and NY these schools are going to receive some sort of funding. On another note, while researching online I couldn’t find a understandable spreadsheet or chart clearly showing from 1-100 the schools, their locations and performance. I can understand how school related issues could seem like a burden to a parent, having to really research and basically do your own homework if you need or want clear concise information. We have made progress in the sense that this is being addressed and the solution for now, is the 4 options given with the incentive that the schools will receive funding from the federal government to uphold their part in improving the poor preforming school systems.