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"content": "\u003cp>Berkeley school board officials are considering tougher enrollment requirements to curb illegal enrollment in the district, following the initial success of new registration requirements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stricter enforcement implemented this year led the BUSD admissions office to reject 11% of applicants from private middle schools to Berkeley High School for 2015-2016 after it was determined they did not actually reside in Berkeley, according to Francisco Martinez, the BUSD admissions manager. About 150 students applied. Thirty-seven students were flagged for follow-up and officials found that 17 of them did not reside in Berkeley, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>BUSD, for the first time, also required all currently enrolled fifth graders to prove their Berkeley residency before being accepted into sixth grade. About 8% of the 684 students did not reapply for admission, despite an aggressive campaign to inform families of new requirements, said Martinez.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”DzXhFW5QTAm6wRjWuQSZBwrL6o6V7W9Y”]The new board policy, titled BP 5111, asks students seeking admission to BUSD to provide three sets of proof of residency and a declaration form — two more forms than are currently required. Its accompanying administrative regulations drew myriad of questions from the board at its May 20 meeting, ranging from the legality of the policy, to its impact on homeless students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Currently, families enrolling their children in Berkeley schools have to prove residency by submitting \u003ca href=\"http://www.berkeleyschools.net/departments/berkeley-school-admissions/required-enrollment-documentation/\">three documents from two categories \u003c/a>— a utility bill (PG&E, water, garbage, phone, cable, internet) and a driver’s license, bank statement, or paycheck stub.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the school board adopts the new policy, families in the 2016-17 school year will also have to provide a rental contract or a lease, home insurance statement, property tax statement, or property deeds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, parents will have to sign an affidavit declaring they live in Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are asking parents to affirm and declare they are Berkeley residents,” said Martinez. “They need to understand there would be consequences if we determined they were not living in Berkeley We wanted them to be aware of what the consequences would be.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Families will have to resubmit proof of residency three times: when they enroll their children in kindergarten, when they transition to middle school, and when they enter high school. Until this year, families only had to do that once.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If families move to a different home in Berkeley, the policy asks for parents to alert the district of the move within five days and verify the new address within 30 days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The question of illegal enrollment of students in Berkeley schools has long plagued BUSD and other strong school districts in close proximity to under-performing districts. A \u003ca href=\"http://www.berkeleyside.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Attending-to-the-Bottomline-Final.pdf\">study done ten years ago\u003c/a> by a UC Berkeley graduate student interning at BUSD estimated that from\u003ca href=\"http://www.berkeleyside.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Attending-to-the-Bottomline-Final.pdf\"> 10 to 12% of the students enrolled did not live in Berkeley.\u003c/a> The study, which was never formally embraced by the school administration or school board, also concluded that the illegally enrolled students were a net financial boon for the district. The students brought in more money from the state in Average Daily Attendance funds then cost the district in BSEP funds, according to the report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berkeleyside \u003ca href=\"http://www.berkeleyside.com/2014/04/08/illegal-enrollment-is-boon-and-burden-to-berkeley-schools/\">reported in depth on the issue of illegal enrollment in 2014\u003c/a>, and the article drew 375 comments — one indication of how strongly families feel about the question. The district was checking records and doing home visits at the time, but has since stepped up its enforcement efforts, said Martinez.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2014-15, the district allotted more resources to home visits. There are now three people doing them part-time, including Martinez himself, who said he takes on the more troublesome cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>BUSD did 477 home visits this school year, both in the summer and spring of 2015. As a result, 80 students were asked to leave the district as they were not living in Berkeley. Some left immediately and some will leave at the end of the school year, Martinez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The home visits also resulted in denying admission to 17 of the 150 private-school applicants for Berkeley High School, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re being a little bit more proactive,” said Martinez. “The superintendent (\u003ca href=\"http://www.berkeleyside.com/tag/donald-evans/\">Donald Evans\u003c/a>, who came on board in 2013) has been very supportive of being proactive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Berkeley School Board has questions about equity\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the first reading of BP 5111 on May 20, school board members asked Martinez about various special circumstances that may make families unable to verify their home address. Board Vice President Beatriz Leyva-Cutler asked, for instance, about how families who share a house with other families, or who are undocumented, can provide rental contracts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Board member Karen Hemphill expressed the greatest concern in the meeting, saying she feared the new policy would target lower-income and homeless families more than others. Hemphill also mentioned concerns voiced by the Berkeley NAACP about the district’s authority to conduct home visits, and recommended random house checks for equity’s sake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I really struggled with this [policy],” Hemphill said. “While I understand why some of the verification was chosen, it does seem the burden of having to prove your residency through a home visit is disproportionately being placed on lower-income families.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Martinez said after the meeting that his office paid home visits to families of all income levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have families who live in Kensington, we have families who live in the Oakland Hills,” said Martinez. “We also found families who live in Richmond, the poor areas of Richmond and Oakland. It’s a cross-section.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the interests of greater transparency, and to demonstrate that home visits are not targeting any specific group, Martinez proposed publishing a map on where the home visits happens in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hemphill also questioned the necessity of language involving custody provisions in the criteria for residency. She said the district should not need to get involved in family matters and that low-income families regularly go through divorces without proper custody provisions, as the necessary documentation costs money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While picking at the trickier legal consequences of the policy — such as what would happen if a family owned a rental property in Berkeley but chose not to live in it — the board expressed enough confidence in the policy and in Martinez to send it back to the Policy Subcommittee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the board meeting, Martinez said he believed there would not be major revisions coming to the policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Changes will be very minor,” he said. “There is nothing new in any way, but we are always trying to address concerns for families.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Support independent local journalism by \u003c/b>\u003ca href=\"http://www.berkeleyside.com/support-berkeleyside/\">\u003cb>becoming a Berkeleyside member\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003cb>. Members enjoy lots of perks, like invitations to member-only events, and an annual party.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "The school board wants to curb illegal enrollment in the district.",
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"title": "Berkeley Poised to Adopt Tougher School Enrollment Policy | KQED",
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"headline": "Berkeley Poised to Adopt Tougher School Enrollment Policy",
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"nprByline": " Seung Y. Lee\u003cbr> \u003ca href=\"http://www.berkeleyside.com/\">Berkeleyside\u003c/a>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Berkeley school board officials are considering tougher enrollment requirements to curb illegal enrollment in the district, following the initial success of new registration requirements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stricter enforcement implemented this year led the BUSD admissions office to reject 11% of applicants from private middle schools to Berkeley High School for 2015-2016 after it was determined they did not actually reside in Berkeley, according to Francisco Martinez, the BUSD admissions manager. About 150 students applied. Thirty-seven students were flagged for follow-up and officials found that 17 of them did not reside in Berkeley, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>BUSD, for the first time, also required all currently enrolled fifth graders to prove their Berkeley residency before being accepted into sixth grade. About 8% of the 684 students did not reapply for admission, despite an aggressive campaign to inform families of new requirements, said Martinez.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>The new board policy, titled BP 5111, asks students seeking admission to BUSD to provide three sets of proof of residency and a declaration form — two more forms than are currently required. Its accompanying administrative regulations drew myriad of questions from the board at its May 20 meeting, ranging from the legality of the policy, to its impact on homeless students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Currently, families enrolling their children in Berkeley schools have to prove residency by submitting \u003ca href=\"http://www.berkeleyschools.net/departments/berkeley-school-admissions/required-enrollment-documentation/\">three documents from two categories \u003c/a>— a utility bill (PG&E, water, garbage, phone, cable, internet) and a driver’s license, bank statement, or paycheck stub.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the school board adopts the new policy, families in the 2016-17 school year will also have to provide a rental contract or a lease, home insurance statement, property tax statement, or property deeds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, parents will have to sign an affidavit declaring they live in Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are asking parents to affirm and declare they are Berkeley residents,” said Martinez. “They need to understand there would be consequences if we determined they were not living in Berkeley We wanted them to be aware of what the consequences would be.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Families will have to resubmit proof of residency three times: when they enroll their children in kindergarten, when they transition to middle school, and when they enter high school. Until this year, families only had to do that once.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If families move to a different home in Berkeley, the policy asks for parents to alert the district of the move within five days and verify the new address within 30 days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The question of illegal enrollment of students in Berkeley schools has long plagued BUSD and other strong school districts in close proximity to under-performing districts. A \u003ca href=\"http://www.berkeleyside.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Attending-to-the-Bottomline-Final.pdf\">study done ten years ago\u003c/a> by a UC Berkeley graduate student interning at BUSD estimated that from\u003ca href=\"http://www.berkeleyside.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Attending-to-the-Bottomline-Final.pdf\"> 10 to 12% of the students enrolled did not live in Berkeley.\u003c/a> The study, which was never formally embraced by the school administration or school board, also concluded that the illegally enrolled students were a net financial boon for the district. The students brought in more money from the state in Average Daily Attendance funds then cost the district in BSEP funds, according to the report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berkeleyside \u003ca href=\"http://www.berkeleyside.com/2014/04/08/illegal-enrollment-is-boon-and-burden-to-berkeley-schools/\">reported in depth on the issue of illegal enrollment in 2014\u003c/a>, and the article drew 375 comments — one indication of how strongly families feel about the question. The district was checking records and doing home visits at the time, but has since stepped up its enforcement efforts, said Martinez.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2014-15, the district allotted more resources to home visits. There are now three people doing them part-time, including Martinez himself, who said he takes on the more troublesome cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>BUSD did 477 home visits this school year, both in the summer and spring of 2015. As a result, 80 students were asked to leave the district as they were not living in Berkeley. Some left immediately and some will leave at the end of the school year, Martinez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The home visits also resulted in denying admission to 17 of the 150 private-school applicants for Berkeley High School, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re being a little bit more proactive,” said Martinez. “The superintendent (\u003ca href=\"http://www.berkeleyside.com/tag/donald-evans/\">Donald Evans\u003c/a>, who came on board in 2013) has been very supportive of being proactive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Berkeley School Board has questions about equity\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the first reading of BP 5111 on May 20, school board members asked Martinez about various special circumstances that may make families unable to verify their home address. Board Vice President Beatriz Leyva-Cutler asked, for instance, about how families who share a house with other families, or who are undocumented, can provide rental contracts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Board member Karen Hemphill expressed the greatest concern in the meeting, saying she feared the new policy would target lower-income and homeless families more than others. Hemphill also mentioned concerns voiced by the Berkeley NAACP about the district’s authority to conduct home visits, and recommended random house checks for equity’s sake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I really struggled with this [policy],” Hemphill said. “While I understand why some of the verification was chosen, it does seem the burden of having to prove your residency through a home visit is disproportionately being placed on lower-income families.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Martinez said after the meeting that his office paid home visits to families of all income levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have families who live in Kensington, we have families who live in the Oakland Hills,” said Martinez. “We also found families who live in Richmond, the poor areas of Richmond and Oakland. It’s a cross-section.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the interests of greater transparency, and to demonstrate that home visits are not targeting any specific group, Martinez proposed publishing a map on where the home visits happens in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hemphill also questioned the necessity of language involving custody provisions in the criteria for residency. She said the district should not need to get involved in family matters and that low-income families regularly go through divorces without proper custody provisions, as the necessary documentation costs money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While picking at the trickier legal consequences of the policy — such as what would happen if a family owned a rental property in Berkeley but chose not to live in it — the board expressed enough confidence in the policy and in Martinez to send it back to the Policy Subcommittee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the board meeting, Martinez said he believed there would not be major revisions coming to the policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Changes will be very minor,” he said. “There is nothing new in any way, but we are always trying to address concerns for families.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Support independent local journalism by \u003c/b>\u003ca href=\"http://www.berkeleyside.com/support-berkeleyside/\">\u003cb>becoming a Berkeleyside member\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003cb>. Members enjoy lots of perks, like invitations to member-only events, and an annual party.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "mom-seeks-to-make-schools-better-for-kids-traumatized-by-violence",
"title": "Oakland Mom Seeks to Make Schools Better for Kids Traumatized by Violence",
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"headTitle": "Oakland Mom Seeks to Make Schools Better for Kids Traumatized by Violence | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">N\u003c/span>icole Wiggins knows violence firsthand. When she was pregnant with her son, someone opened fire on a car she was riding in with her baby’s father. He was shot and killed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I got shot as well, twice,” Wiggins says. “So I feel like I’m here for a reason. That’s why I think this journey I’m taking is something I’m supposed to be doing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10506823\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 450px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/kids-on-couch.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10506823 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/kids-on-couch-1440x837.jpg\" alt=\"Nicole Wiggins' children, Margaret Cooksey (left) and Asim Smith, Jr. (right) at home on the couch. (Adam Grossberg/KQED)\" width=\"450\" height=\"262\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/kids-on-couch-1440x837.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/kids-on-couch-400x233.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/kids-on-couch-800x465.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/kids-on-couch-1180x686.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/kids-on-couch-960x558.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nicole Wiggins’ children, Margaret Cooksey (left) and Asim Smith Jr. (right), at home on the couch. (Adam Grossberg/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Wiggins is now an active parent leader in Oakland schools, trying hard to make sure both her kids go to college. In their East Oakland apartment, Wiggins sits in the living room with her teenagers, Asim Smith Jr. and Margaret Cooksey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Asim, 16, is an avid turf dancer. “I’m looking forward to being either a construction worker or a fashion designer,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What I want to be when I grow up is I want to be an OB-GYN,” says Margaret, 15. “I love babies, for one. Second of all, I would like to bring a new living being into the world.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">‘I feel like I’m here for a reason … this journey I’m taking is something I’m supposed to be doing.’\u003ccite>Nicole Wiggins\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Wiggins knows achieving those dreams might be hard for her kids. Ever since they were very small, she says, Asim and Margaret have faced a very different reality than kids from wealthy areas of Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My kids have actually seen a dead body,” says Wiggins. “One day we were coming home from school, and our street was blocked off. The kids were like, ‘Oh my God, look!’ Can you imagine being 8 years old and seeing a dead body on the street?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As they’ve gotten older, Wiggins has worried her kids are becoming numb to death. Both teenagers have had friends or schoolmates who have suffered violent deaths.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">\n\u003ch2>\u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/booksandbullets\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Books and Bullets\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This story is Part 3 in a three-part series.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/04/28/an-oakland-9-year-old-shot-and-paralyzed-struggles-to-return-to-school\">An Oakland 9-Year-Old, Shot and Paralyzed, Struggles to Return to School\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/04/29/violence-causes-ripple-effects-for-thousands-of-oakland-students\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Violence Causes Ripple Effect for Thousands of Oakland Students\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/04/30/mom-seeks-to-make-schools-better-for-kids-traumatized-by-violence\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mom Seeks to Make Schools Better for Kids Traumatized by Violence\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Asim heads into his bedroom and returns with a handful of laminated photos, each dangling from a lanyard. It’s his collection: All people he has known who are now dead, most of them shot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of my best friends got killed,” he says. “His name was Olajuwon. When I heard he got killed, it made me sad, and it made me think about it like, ‘That would have been me.’ ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The year Asim’s friend was shot and killed, their high school, Castlemont, was in the news because of all the shootings nearby. Bullets reportedly flew into the school at one point. Wiggins decided to move her son to Oakland High School.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10506820\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 470px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/lanyards.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10506820\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/lanyards-1440x810.jpg\" alt=\"Asim Smith Jr. keeps a collection of placards to remember those in his life who have passed away. (Adam Grossberg/KQED)\" width=\"470\" height=\"265\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/lanyards-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/lanyards-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/lanyards-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/lanyards-1180x663.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/lanyards-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 470px) 100vw, 470px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Asim Smith Jr. keeps a collection of placards to remember those in his life who have passed away. (Adam Grossberg/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“My concern was safety, just for things that I experienced or seen when I came on campus,” says Wiggins. “When I gotta leave work early just to pick my son up, and don’t even trust for him to walk literally a block away to get on the bus, that’s an issue.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiggins picked Oakland High partly because she had heard the district’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.ousd.k12.ca.us/aama\">African-American Male Achievement Program\u003c/a> was strong there. Now she volunteers with the program, giving workshops to other parents on advocating for their kids, and helping them get better grades, graduate and go to college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiggins believes tackling the problem of violence in the city and its impact in the schools is going to take parents like her working together. But she also wants the district to invest in more school counselors instead of more security officers.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">\u003cstrong>Resources: Responding to Community Violence\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Some organizations working to prevent violence and help children and youth exposed to chronic violence succeed in school: \u003c/em>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.nctsn.org/resources/audiences/school-personnel\">National Child Traumatic Stress Network Resources for School Personnel:\u003c/a> Includes a Child Trauma Toolkit for Educators\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://traumaawareschools.org/\">Treatment and Services Adaptation Center:\u003c/a> Promoting trauma-informed school systems that provide prevention and early intervention strategies to create supportive and nurturing school environments\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://traumasensitiveschools.org/\">Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative\u003c/a>: Helping traumatized children learn\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.centerforyouthwellness.org/\">Center for Youth Wellness: \u003c/a>Preventing, screening and healing toxic stress\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://acestoohigh.com/\">ACES Too High\u003c/a>: Research about adverse childhood experiences\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.youthalive.org/\">Youth ALIVE!:\u003c/a> Preventing violence and developing youth leaders\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.preventioninstitute.org/\">Urban Networks to Increase Thriving Youth (UNITY)\u003c/a>: Preventing violence using a public health approach\u003c/p>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>California overall has the \u003ca href=\"www.schoolcounselor.org/asca/media/asca/home/Ratios10-11.pdf\">worst K-12 student-to-counselor ratio\u003c/a> in the country. The most recent data from 2010-11 shows that ratio to be 1,016-to-1. Oakland has 24 school counselors, placed in about half of its middle and high schools. The district calculates a 679-to-1 student-to-counselor ratio based only on middle-and-high school enrollment. It recently agreed during labor negotiations to bring that ratio down to 600-to-1. The American School Counselor Association recommends a ratio of 250-to-1.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, Oakland has partnered with Alameda County and social service agencies to add dozens of mental health professionals on-site in the schools. But Wiggins says there still aren’t enough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Schools need counselors, they need more case management, things of that sort, to deal with kids that are going through trauma,” says Wiggins. “You gotta realize that there are a lot of kids that go to school, that either they know a friend or family member that has been killed or shot or murdered.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland Unified has actually \u003ca href=\"http://ousd.maps.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=03b0cdee25104d329e8170a42596ddb2\">mapped out\u003c/a> which schools have more violence and other stress factors in the neighborhood. You can see it: Red dots are the schools in areas with more violence or unemployment, or where it’s tough to find a supermarket selling fresh fruits and vegetables. The green and blue dots are schools with the least stress.\u003cbr>\n\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"700\" height=\"400\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" marginheight=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" src=\"http://ousd.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Embed/index.html?webmap=03b0cdee25104d329e8170a42596ddb2&extent=-122.3192,37.7234,-122.1315,37.8569&zoom=true&scale=true&legend=true&theme=light\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not all children in Oakland go to their neighborhood schools. \u003ca href=\"http://www.ousd.k12.ca.us/Page/11486\">But living in the neighborhood gives a child priority.\u003c/a> If you look at the maps that show \u003ca href=\"http://www.gistools.org/oakland2014\">where students at each school live\u003c/a>, you can see there is not a lot of mobility between poor and rich neighborhoods. On the stress map, the blue schools are in the hills, and they have much higher proportions of white students than the red and orange schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have [close to] 100 percent students of color and 99 percent free or reduced lunch — that’s ridiculous,” says Marisa Morales, a third-grade teacher at Community United Elementary School. That statistic on the percentage of students getting subsidized meals is a measure that’s widely used to gauge the number of students living in poverty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/203299859″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can’t tell me it’s not segregated,” Morales continues. “You go up to a hills school and you have demographics that don’t come close to what our school looks like.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district is using its stress map to give the most afflicted schools more money from the state’s new \u003ca href=\"http://edsource.org/publications/local-control-funding-formula-guide\">Local Control Funding Formula\u003c/a>. Red schools on the stress map got an additional $95,000 last year. Orange schools like \u003ca href=\"http://www.ousd.k12.ca.us/communityunited\">Community United Elementary\u003c/a> got an extra $50,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Community United is hiring two additional interns to provide mental health services next year. Morales says there’s a huge need. Like a lot of schools in Oakland, Community United has gotten by until now with one mental health counselor, paid for by Medi-Cal funds coming through the county.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">N\u003c/span>ine-year-old Jacqueline Funes was in Morales’ class last year, before being shot in her front yard and left paralyzed. Jacqueline’s shooting brought a lot of other trauma to the surface.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">\n\u003ch3>More videos from the \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/booksandbullets\">Series\u003c/a>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://player.vimeo.com/video/126156795\" width=\"369\" height=\"211\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>Jacqueline Funes’ story\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://player.vimeo.com/video/126209798\" width=\"369\" height=\"211\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>Marisa Morales and Community United Elementary\u003c/h4>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“During our community meetings, it would come up. One of my students said, ‘I’ve had three family members pass this year, I’ve gone to three funerals this year.’ Another would say, ‘I had this family member shot and died,’ ” says Morales.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district sent crisis counselors after Jacqueline was shot, and Morales made sure each of her students was able to talk about what happened, either one-on-one or in a group. But after that week, the school was back to one counselor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That counselor only sees students that are on Medi-Cal already,” says Morales. “She was not able to open any new cases. Which means, after Jacqueline was shot, none of my students received any further counseling beyond that week.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Morales knows that even with more counselors, there still won’t be enough therapy for all the kids who need it. Researchers and advocates point to creating \u003ca href=\"https://traumaawareschools.org/\">“trauma-sensitive schools,”\u003c/a> where all the teachers and staff understand the effects of trauma and how to teach children who live with it. Morales says more training for teachers would be ideal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When one of my students comes to school crying, because his mom was arrested over the weekend, and he’s afraid he won’t have anybody to go home to, I have nobody else to send that child to,” says Morales. “That therapist? With the current structure? She can’t just pop in, and grab him and support him. She can’t give him emergency services. She would have to completely open a new case, which would involve contacting his parent or guardian, who is imprisoned, so it’s sort of a Catch-22.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alex Briscoe, Alameda County’s health services director, says the county is working to put more counselors in the schools and train teachers and other providers but, he says, even if the district provided top-quality therapy for every Oakland student who needed it, schools alone can’t deal with the roots of trauma.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You don’t treat away the things that are causing trauma in poor communities. Access to a therapist doesn’t in and of itself reduce homicide rates,” Briscoe says. “It doesn’t shorten or mitigate the fact that communities of color are living in multigenerational poverty in ways that are new in our culture.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10506821\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/nicole-wiggins.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10506821 size-large\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/nicole-wiggins-1440x810.jpg\" alt=\"Nicole Wiggins at an OUSD planning meeting. (Adam Grossberg/KQED)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/nicole-wiggins-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/nicole-wiggins-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/nicole-wiggins-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/nicole-wiggins-1180x663.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/nicole-wiggins-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nicole Wiggins at an OUSD planning meeting. (Adam Grossberg/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>How do you change the equation of violence in neighborhoods with high unemployment and low graduation rates?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A lot of parents and teachers talk about “\u003ca href=\"http://www.abcdinstitute.org/docs/kelloggabcd.pdf\">asset-based community development\u003c/a>” — investing in a neighborhood’s assets. The idea is to focus on things that tie a community together: for example, family businesses, community gardens and youth organizers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Briscoe believes change can come in unexpected ways. He points to a \u003ca href=\"http://www.acphd.org/ems-corps.aspx\">county program that’s training youth\u003c/a> from foster care and juvenile detention to become emergency medical technicians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">N\u003c/span>icole Wiggins agrees that people who live in the community should be agents for change. She says she moved to Oakland when she was young because the African-American community here has strong roots and a history of organizing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Like I tell my son, when you graduate and you out there, you doing better, you come back to your community and you help. ’Cause that’s how we help other kids get out of what they call the ‘hood, the ghetto, whatever you want to call it,” she says. “That’s how we get them kids up out of here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiggins knows the best way to do this is to lead by example. It’s why she says she will continue organizing other parents to raise their voices and come up with solutions to make their children’s schools places where all kids can heal and learn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There might be a child out there like I was when I was young,” says Wiggins. The kind of child, she says, who needs a caring adult to stand up for them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is the last in our three-part \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/tag/booksandbullets\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">“Books and Bullets”\u003c/a> series about how chronic violence in some neighborhoods puts kids at a disadvantage in school, even before they walk in the door.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This report was produced in collaboration with Renaissance Journalism’s \u003ca href=\"http://renjournalism.org/educational-opportunity-reporting-project/\">Equity Reporting Project: Restoring the Promise of Education\u003c/a>, with funding from the Ford Foundation. With additional help from the \u003ca href=\"http://www.mesarefuge.org/\">Mesa Refuge\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">N\u003c/span>icole Wiggins knows violence firsthand. When she was pregnant with her son, someone opened fire on a car she was riding in with her baby’s father. He was shot and killed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I got shot as well, twice,” Wiggins says. “So I feel like I’m here for a reason. That’s why I think this journey I’m taking is something I’m supposed to be doing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10506823\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 450px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/kids-on-couch.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10506823 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/kids-on-couch-1440x837.jpg\" alt=\"Nicole Wiggins' children, Margaret Cooksey (left) and Asim Smith, Jr. (right) at home on the couch. (Adam Grossberg/KQED)\" width=\"450\" height=\"262\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/kids-on-couch-1440x837.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/kids-on-couch-400x233.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/kids-on-couch-800x465.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/kids-on-couch-1180x686.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/kids-on-couch-960x558.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nicole Wiggins’ children, Margaret Cooksey (left) and Asim Smith Jr. (right), at home on the couch. (Adam Grossberg/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Wiggins is now an active parent leader in Oakland schools, trying hard to make sure both her kids go to college. In their East Oakland apartment, Wiggins sits in the living room with her teenagers, Asim Smith Jr. and Margaret Cooksey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Asim, 16, is an avid turf dancer. “I’m looking forward to being either a construction worker or a fashion designer,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What I want to be when I grow up is I want to be an OB-GYN,” says Margaret, 15. “I love babies, for one. Second of all, I would like to bring a new living being into the world.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">‘I feel like I’m here for a reason … this journey I’m taking is something I’m supposed to be doing.’\u003ccite>Nicole Wiggins\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Wiggins knows achieving those dreams might be hard for her kids. Ever since they were very small, she says, Asim and Margaret have faced a very different reality than kids from wealthy areas of Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My kids have actually seen a dead body,” says Wiggins. “One day we were coming home from school, and our street was blocked off. The kids were like, ‘Oh my God, look!’ Can you imagine being 8 years old and seeing a dead body on the street?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As they’ve gotten older, Wiggins has worried her kids are becoming numb to death. Both teenagers have had friends or schoolmates who have suffered violent deaths.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">\n\u003ch2>\u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/booksandbullets\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Books and Bullets\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This story is Part 3 in a three-part series.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/04/28/an-oakland-9-year-old-shot-and-paralyzed-struggles-to-return-to-school\">An Oakland 9-Year-Old, Shot and Paralyzed, Struggles to Return to School\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/04/29/violence-causes-ripple-effects-for-thousands-of-oakland-students\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Violence Causes Ripple Effect for Thousands of Oakland Students\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/04/30/mom-seeks-to-make-schools-better-for-kids-traumatized-by-violence\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mom Seeks to Make Schools Better for Kids Traumatized by Violence\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Asim heads into his bedroom and returns with a handful of laminated photos, each dangling from a lanyard. It’s his collection: All people he has known who are now dead, most of them shot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of my best friends got killed,” he says. “His name was Olajuwon. When I heard he got killed, it made me sad, and it made me think about it like, ‘That would have been me.’ ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The year Asim’s friend was shot and killed, their high school, Castlemont, was in the news because of all the shootings nearby. Bullets reportedly flew into the school at one point. Wiggins decided to move her son to Oakland High School.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10506820\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 470px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/lanyards.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10506820\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/lanyards-1440x810.jpg\" alt=\"Asim Smith Jr. keeps a collection of placards to remember those in his life who have passed away. (Adam Grossberg/KQED)\" width=\"470\" height=\"265\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/lanyards-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/lanyards-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/lanyards-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/lanyards-1180x663.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/lanyards-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 470px) 100vw, 470px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Asim Smith Jr. keeps a collection of placards to remember those in his life who have passed away. (Adam Grossberg/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“My concern was safety, just for things that I experienced or seen when I came on campus,” says Wiggins. “When I gotta leave work early just to pick my son up, and don’t even trust for him to walk literally a block away to get on the bus, that’s an issue.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiggins picked Oakland High partly because she had heard the district’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.ousd.k12.ca.us/aama\">African-American Male Achievement Program\u003c/a> was strong there. Now she volunteers with the program, giving workshops to other parents on advocating for their kids, and helping them get better grades, graduate and go to college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiggins believes tackling the problem of violence in the city and its impact in the schools is going to take parents like her working together. But she also wants the district to invest in more school counselors instead of more security officers.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">\u003cstrong>Resources: Responding to Community Violence\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Some organizations working to prevent violence and help children and youth exposed to chronic violence succeed in school: \u003c/em>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.nctsn.org/resources/audiences/school-personnel\">National Child Traumatic Stress Network Resources for School Personnel:\u003c/a> Includes a Child Trauma Toolkit for Educators\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://traumaawareschools.org/\">Treatment and Services Adaptation Center:\u003c/a> Promoting trauma-informed school systems that provide prevention and early intervention strategies to create supportive and nurturing school environments\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://traumasensitiveschools.org/\">Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative\u003c/a>: Helping traumatized children learn\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.centerforyouthwellness.org/\">Center for Youth Wellness: \u003c/a>Preventing, screening and healing toxic stress\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://acestoohigh.com/\">ACES Too High\u003c/a>: Research about adverse childhood experiences\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.youthalive.org/\">Youth ALIVE!:\u003c/a> Preventing violence and developing youth leaders\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.preventioninstitute.org/\">Urban Networks to Increase Thriving Youth (UNITY)\u003c/a>: Preventing violence using a public health approach\u003c/p>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>California overall has the \u003ca href=\"www.schoolcounselor.org/asca/media/asca/home/Ratios10-11.pdf\">worst K-12 student-to-counselor ratio\u003c/a> in the country. The most recent data from 2010-11 shows that ratio to be 1,016-to-1. Oakland has 24 school counselors, placed in about half of its middle and high schools. The district calculates a 679-to-1 student-to-counselor ratio based only on middle-and-high school enrollment. It recently agreed during labor negotiations to bring that ratio down to 600-to-1. The American School Counselor Association recommends a ratio of 250-to-1.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, Oakland has partnered with Alameda County and social service agencies to add dozens of mental health professionals on-site in the schools. But Wiggins says there still aren’t enough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Schools need counselors, they need more case management, things of that sort, to deal with kids that are going through trauma,” says Wiggins. “You gotta realize that there are a lot of kids that go to school, that either they know a friend or family member that has been killed or shot or murdered.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland Unified has actually \u003ca href=\"http://ousd.maps.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=03b0cdee25104d329e8170a42596ddb2\">mapped out\u003c/a> which schools have more violence and other stress factors in the neighborhood. You can see it: Red dots are the schools in areas with more violence or unemployment, or where it’s tough to find a supermarket selling fresh fruits and vegetables. The green and blue dots are schools with the least stress.\u003cbr>\n\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"700\" height=\"400\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" marginheight=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" src=\"http://ousd.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Embed/index.html?webmap=03b0cdee25104d329e8170a42596ddb2&extent=-122.3192,37.7234,-122.1315,37.8569&zoom=true&scale=true&legend=true&theme=light\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not all children in Oakland go to their neighborhood schools. \u003ca href=\"http://www.ousd.k12.ca.us/Page/11486\">But living in the neighborhood gives a child priority.\u003c/a> If you look at the maps that show \u003ca href=\"http://www.gistools.org/oakland2014\">where students at each school live\u003c/a>, you can see there is not a lot of mobility between poor and rich neighborhoods. On the stress map, the blue schools are in the hills, and they have much higher proportions of white students than the red and orange schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have [close to] 100 percent students of color and 99 percent free or reduced lunch — that’s ridiculous,” says Marisa Morales, a third-grade teacher at Community United Elementary School. That statistic on the percentage of students getting subsidized meals is a measure that’s widely used to gauge the number of students living in poverty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cdiv class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__shortcodes__shortcodeWrapper'>\n \u003ciframe width='”100%”' height='”166″'\n scrolling='no' frameborder='no'\n src='https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/203299859″&visual=true&”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false”'\n title='”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/203299859″'>\n \u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/div>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can’t tell me it’s not segregated,” Morales continues. “You go up to a hills school and you have demographics that don’t come close to what our school looks like.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district is using its stress map to give the most afflicted schools more money from the state’s new \u003ca href=\"http://edsource.org/publications/local-control-funding-formula-guide\">Local Control Funding Formula\u003c/a>. Red schools on the stress map got an additional $95,000 last year. Orange schools like \u003ca href=\"http://www.ousd.k12.ca.us/communityunited\">Community United Elementary\u003c/a> got an extra $50,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Community United is hiring two additional interns to provide mental health services next year. Morales says there’s a huge need. Like a lot of schools in Oakland, Community United has gotten by until now with one mental health counselor, paid for by Medi-Cal funds coming through the county.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">N\u003c/span>ine-year-old Jacqueline Funes was in Morales’ class last year, before being shot in her front yard and left paralyzed. Jacqueline’s shooting brought a lot of other trauma to the surface.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">\n\u003ch3>More videos from the \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/booksandbullets\">Series\u003c/a>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://player.vimeo.com/video/126156795\" width=\"369\" height=\"211\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>Jacqueline Funes’ story\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://player.vimeo.com/video/126209798\" width=\"369\" height=\"211\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>Marisa Morales and Community United Elementary\u003c/h4>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“During our community meetings, it would come up. One of my students said, ‘I’ve had three family members pass this year, I’ve gone to three funerals this year.’ Another would say, ‘I had this family member shot and died,’ ” says Morales.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district sent crisis counselors after Jacqueline was shot, and Morales made sure each of her students was able to talk about what happened, either one-on-one or in a group. But after that week, the school was back to one counselor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That counselor only sees students that are on Medi-Cal already,” says Morales. “She was not able to open any new cases. Which means, after Jacqueline was shot, none of my students received any further counseling beyond that week.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Morales knows that even with more counselors, there still won’t be enough therapy for all the kids who need it. Researchers and advocates point to creating \u003ca href=\"https://traumaawareschools.org/\">“trauma-sensitive schools,”\u003c/a> where all the teachers and staff understand the effects of trauma and how to teach children who live with it. Morales says more training for teachers would be ideal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When one of my students comes to school crying, because his mom was arrested over the weekend, and he’s afraid he won’t have anybody to go home to, I have nobody else to send that child to,” says Morales. “That therapist? With the current structure? She can’t just pop in, and grab him and support him. She can’t give him emergency services. She would have to completely open a new case, which would involve contacting his parent or guardian, who is imprisoned, so it’s sort of a Catch-22.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alex Briscoe, Alameda County’s health services director, says the county is working to put more counselors in the schools and train teachers and other providers but, he says, even if the district provided top-quality therapy for every Oakland student who needed it, schools alone can’t deal with the roots of trauma.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You don’t treat away the things that are causing trauma in poor communities. Access to a therapist doesn’t in and of itself reduce homicide rates,” Briscoe says. “It doesn’t shorten or mitigate the fact that communities of color are living in multigenerational poverty in ways that are new in our culture.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10506821\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/nicole-wiggins.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10506821 size-large\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/nicole-wiggins-1440x810.jpg\" alt=\"Nicole Wiggins at an OUSD planning meeting. (Adam Grossberg/KQED)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/nicole-wiggins-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/nicole-wiggins-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/nicole-wiggins-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/nicole-wiggins-1180x663.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/nicole-wiggins-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nicole Wiggins at an OUSD planning meeting. (Adam Grossberg/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>How do you change the equation of violence in neighborhoods with high unemployment and low graduation rates?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A lot of parents and teachers talk about “\u003ca href=\"http://www.abcdinstitute.org/docs/kelloggabcd.pdf\">asset-based community development\u003c/a>” — investing in a neighborhood’s assets. The idea is to focus on things that tie a community together: for example, family businesses, community gardens and youth organizers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Briscoe believes change can come in unexpected ways. He points to a \u003ca href=\"http://www.acphd.org/ems-corps.aspx\">county program that’s training youth\u003c/a> from foster care and juvenile detention to become emergency medical technicians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">N\u003c/span>icole Wiggins agrees that people who live in the community should be agents for change. She says she moved to Oakland when she was young because the African-American community here has strong roots and a history of organizing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Like I tell my son, when you graduate and you out there, you doing better, you come back to your community and you help. ’Cause that’s how we help other kids get out of what they call the ‘hood, the ghetto, whatever you want to call it,” she says. “That’s how we get them kids up out of here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiggins knows the best way to do this is to lead by example. It’s why she says she will continue organizing other parents to raise their voices and come up with solutions to make their children’s schools places where all kids can heal and learn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There might be a child out there like I was when I was young,” says Wiggins. The kind of child, she says, who needs a caring adult to stand up for them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is the last in our three-part \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/tag/booksandbullets\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">“Books and Bullets”\u003c/a> series about how chronic violence in some neighborhoods puts kids at a disadvantage in school, even before they walk in the door.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This report was produced in collaboration with Renaissance Journalism’s \u003ca href=\"http://renjournalism.org/educational-opportunity-reporting-project/\">Equity Reporting Project: Restoring the Promise of Education\u003c/a>, with funding from the Ford Foundation. With additional help from the \u003ca href=\"http://www.mesarefuge.org/\">Mesa Refuge\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>This time of year, we’re posting selfies with happy college graduates and forwarding inspirational commencement speeches — and why not? Graduation is a righteous achievement. But it’s a lot harder for some than others. Especially for low-income students who are the first in their families to go to college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dalia Angel was always headed up and out of East Menlo Park. “Because I’m young and I’m motivated and I feel like I need to get out of where I was born, at least a step higher,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s the fourth of seven children. Her dad’s a gardener; her mom, a nanny. She wants to be a lawyer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/205297501″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many first-generation students like Angel never graduate from college. They get lost for a number of reasons: poverty, poor K-12 schools, parents who can’t really help much. But Angel, who is 21, got into a program called the \u003ca href=\"http://www.peninsulacollegefund.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Peninsula College Fund\u003c/a>, which supports kids like her with $12,000 in scholarship money, career workshops, summer internships and mentoring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Charles Schmuck founded the fund, which is modeled, like the \u003ca href=\"http://www.eastbaycollegefund.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">East Bay College Fund\u003c/a>, after the \u003ca href=\"http://meritus.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Meritus College Fund\u003c/a> in San Francisco. Schmuck says his aim is to serve better-than-average students from tough neighborhoods like East Palo Alto, East Menlo Park and Redwood City east of Highway 101.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He figures schools like Harvard, Stanford and the like will seek out underprivileged academic superstars. He wants to support the kids with respectable grades (3.2 to 3.8 GPA) who don’t have the family resources to achieve all that they’re capable of.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This group of dedicated students is often overlooked by other scholarship programs,” Schmuck says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scholarship money functions like bait to attract students like Angel to a wraparound support system. The focus isn’t just on getting her \u003cem>into\u003c/em> college. It’s also on getting her \u003cem>out\u003c/em>, with a \u003cem>degree\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hard Work Not Enough on Its Own\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She was really determined, very impressively focused, and also kind of scared,” says Carole Melis, a public relations consultant from San Mateo. The fund asked Melis to mentor Angel right after high school graduation — in large part because Melis was also the first in \u003cem>her\u003c/em> family to go to college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That was actually one of my motivations,” says Melis. “My father worked for the post office. And my mother was a secretary. When I brought home straight A’s, my parents would laugh and say, ‘Oh, they got the wrong kid at the hospital.’ So I didn’t have to worry about living up to crazy expectations. But I did feel when I first went to Oxy [Occidental College in Los Angeles] that I was out of place. I did have some doubts at first. Like, do I really belong here?”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘I’m young and I’m motivated and I feel like I need to get out of where I was born, at least a step higher.’ \u003ccite>Dalia Angel, first-generation college student\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The program had encouraged Angel to apply to Cal State instead of community college. Many kids in her situation \u003ca href=\"http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2014/01/15-undermatching-higher-ed-chingos\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">underestimate\u003c/a> how high they can fly. Sure enough, she got into three Cal State schools and chose San Jose. So far, so good. Then she discovered how unprepared she was.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I didn’t have any idea on how to manage my time wisely,” says Angel. “I didn’t know that I had to study every single night.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Angel blames her high school for not giving her tough enough courses — a common problem in poor Zip codes across California. She got a 3.7 GPA, while working 21 hours a week as a cashier at Trader Joe’s. She even played on the soccer team. But once at San Jose State, she tested into remedial math and English, to cover ground she had ostensibly covered already.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>It Helps To Be Able to Call in the Cavalry\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three weeks into the first semester, a transcript snafu almost derailed her career at San Jose State. The admissions office informed Angel that she had failed to send a transcript from her time at La Cañada Community College. She’d taken a few classes, as many kids in high school do, but she hadn’t embarked on a college degree before coming to San Jose State. Schmuck marched down to the admissions office and got them to relent and let Angel back in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Think back, if you will, to what you were like as a college freshman. Timid? Just a little bit cowed by authority? There are numerous ways parents help in a situation like this because they know when a “no” can be turned into a “yes” — if they’re familiar and comfortable with the system in question.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I felt very alone,” she says. “I couldn’t talk to my family about it because, coming from a first-generation family, none of them had any idea what I was talking about.” Her parents didn’t graduate from high school, let alone college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’re dealing with a parent who has no context of what’s going on in college,” says Schmuck. For students, muddling through alone, it’s hard to shake the feeling they’re out of place at the university. “When they get a D or an F, it reinforces that feeling, ‘Hey, you don’t belong here.’ Whether the kid’s at Harvard or San Jose State, they don’t have the confidence.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Worse Than Getting An F\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Angel was getting by with a 2.4 GPA her freshman year. She told everybody, including Melis, that she was doing fine, and she was — until she gave up on an anthropology class during her sophomore year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was never able to get there on time, and I stopped attending and I got a WU. Unauthorized Withdrawal. That’s worse than getting an F.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At this point, Melis interjects. ” ’Course, I didn’t know about this until later.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Because I thought I’ll just take it again next semester,” Angel responds. She was used to functioning on her own without adult support or supervision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I didn’t do anything, to be honest,” she says. “I didn’t seek help. I thought this was going to be another challenge, and I was going to overcome it quickly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She got several email alerts warning that her grade-point average had fallen below 2.0. She had \u003ca href=\"http://www.sjsu.edu/aars/faq/probationdisqualification\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">one semester\u003c/a> to bring it back up or be kicked out of San Jose State.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She finally reached out. “I had to come clean — quickly — and I got The Talk.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10522159\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15143_20150420-PCF_jt-2-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10522159\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15143_20150420-PCF_jt-2-qut-800x1198.jpg\" alt=\"Dalia Angel plans to practice family law after she graduates from law school. But first, she has to graduate from San Jose State.\" width=\"800\" height=\"1198\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15143_20150420-PCF_jt-2-qut-800x1198.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15143_20150420-PCF_jt-2-qut-400x599.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15143_20150420-PCF_jt-2-qut-1440x2157.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15143_20150420-PCF_jt-2-qut-1180x1768.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15143_20150420-PCF_jt-2-qut-960x1438.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15143_20150420-PCF_jt-2-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dalia Angel plans to practice family law after she graduates from law school. But first, she has to graduate from San Jose State. \u003ccite>(James Tensuan/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Now Angel was on probation. She had to switch to a community college for a semester to get her GPA back above 2.0. But more than that, she needed the kind of grown-up guidance many other kids take for granted. Twenty-plus hours a week at Trader Joe’s? Living at home with her folks and six siblings? Angel couldn’t focus on school — or take advantage of San Jose State’s workshops and tutoring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Jose State, like a number of Cal State and UC campuses, offers an \u003ca href=\"http://www.sjsu.edu/eop\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Educational Opportunity Program\u003c/a> specifically designed for low-income, first-generation students. Angel was leaving critical resources on the table.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Melis says the crisis was a wake-up call for her, too. “What I realized was it was just really important to really ride herd more closely in terms of getting grades, status reports — being a little bit more parental, as opposed to being a friend,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Angel moved out of her family’s home and into a shared house near campus. Her parents weren’t happy about it at the time, but she says, “It’s soooo much better! And my grades have improved dramatically, and I am more involved and I have more friends, and I’m really happy with my life right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She is now on track to graduate next year: one step closer to practicing family law, one step closer to beating the odds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A first-generation Latina has only a 55 percent chance of graduating within six years, according to the \u003ca href=\"http://heri.ucla.edu/DARCU/CompletingCollege2011.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA\u003c/a>. Students backed by the Peninsula College Fund are more than 90 percent likely to graduate.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">‘They’re not the kinds of kids that are going to college so they can become investment bankers.’ \u003ccite>Carole Melis, Peninsula College Fund mentor\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>That said, it’s a tiny, local program that has helped 116 kids over the last decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know, there are bright spots in different places, but it’s not happening at every single college and university,” says Michelle Siqueiros, who heads a statewide nonprofit research and advocacy group, the\u003ca href=\"http://collegecampaign.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Campaign for College Opportunity\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The campaign recently issued a \u003ca href=\"http://collegecampaign.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/2015-State-of-Higher-Education_Latinos.pdf%20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">report\u003c/a> finding three out of four Latinos graduated from high school in California in 2012-13 — but only three out of 10 completed the requirements to be eligible for a public four-year university. The gist of the argument is in this opening paragraph:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\n\u003cdiv>California is home to more than 15 million Latinos, the largest\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>racial/ethnic group in the state. When one in two children\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>under the age of 18 in California is Latino, one conclusion\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>is clear: the future of our economy and the state will rise\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>or fall on the educational success of Latinos. To secure\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>the economic future of California we need to significantly\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>increase the number of Latino students who are prepared for,\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\n\u003cp>enroll in and graduate from college.\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Siqueiros says that, regardless of ethnicity, there are tens of thousands of low-income, first-generation students in California who need intensive support to survive college. “The challenge is making sure that more students get access to that kind of support. That’s the challenge, is really scaling the things that we know that work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even at the local level, each individual success story has a multiplier effect, according to Melis at the Peninsula College Fund.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re not the kinds of kids that are going to college so they can become investment bankers,” she says. “They’re entering social work. They’re entering education. If they do law, it’s usually for some social good.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each of these kids, she says, will ultimately give back to the families and the communities they came from.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>This time of year, we’re posting selfies with happy college graduates and forwarding inspirational commencement speeches — and why not? Graduation is a righteous achievement. But it’s a lot harder for some than others. Especially for low-income students who are the first in their families to go to college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dalia Angel was always headed up and out of East Menlo Park. “Because I’m young and I’m motivated and I feel like I need to get out of where I was born, at least a step higher,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s the fourth of seven children. Her dad’s a gardener; her mom, a nanny. She wants to be a lawyer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cdiv class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__shortcodes__shortcodeWrapper'>\n \u003ciframe width='”100%”' height='”166″'\n scrolling='no' frameborder='no'\n src='https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/205297501″&visual=true&”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false”'\n title='”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/205297501″'>\n \u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/div>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many first-generation students like Angel never graduate from college. They get lost for a number of reasons: poverty, poor K-12 schools, parents who can’t really help much. But Angel, who is 21, got into a program called the \u003ca href=\"http://www.peninsulacollegefund.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Peninsula College Fund\u003c/a>, which supports kids like her with $12,000 in scholarship money, career workshops, summer internships and mentoring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Charles Schmuck founded the fund, which is modeled, like the \u003ca href=\"http://www.eastbaycollegefund.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">East Bay College Fund\u003c/a>, after the \u003ca href=\"http://meritus.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Meritus College Fund\u003c/a> in San Francisco. Schmuck says his aim is to serve better-than-average students from tough neighborhoods like East Palo Alto, East Menlo Park and Redwood City east of Highway 101.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He figures schools like Harvard, Stanford and the like will seek out underprivileged academic superstars. He wants to support the kids with respectable grades (3.2 to 3.8 GPA) who don’t have the family resources to achieve all that they’re capable of.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This group of dedicated students is often overlooked by other scholarship programs,” Schmuck says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scholarship money functions like bait to attract students like Angel to a wraparound support system. The focus isn’t just on getting her \u003cem>into\u003c/em> college. It’s also on getting her \u003cem>out\u003c/em>, with a \u003cem>degree\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hard Work Not Enough on Its Own\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She was really determined, very impressively focused, and also kind of scared,” says Carole Melis, a public relations consultant from San Mateo. The fund asked Melis to mentor Angel right after high school graduation — in large part because Melis was also the first in \u003cem>her\u003c/em> family to go to college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That was actually one of my motivations,” says Melis. “My father worked for the post office. And my mother was a secretary. When I brought home straight A’s, my parents would laugh and say, ‘Oh, they got the wrong kid at the hospital.’ So I didn’t have to worry about living up to crazy expectations. But I did feel when I first went to Oxy [Occidental College in Los Angeles] that I was out of place. I did have some doubts at first. Like, do I really belong here?”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘I’m young and I’m motivated and I feel like I need to get out of where I was born, at least a step higher.’ \u003ccite>Dalia Angel, first-generation college student\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The program had encouraged Angel to apply to Cal State instead of community college. Many kids in her situation \u003ca href=\"http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2014/01/15-undermatching-higher-ed-chingos\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">underestimate\u003c/a> how high they can fly. Sure enough, she got into three Cal State schools and chose San Jose. So far, so good. Then she discovered how unprepared she was.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I didn’t have any idea on how to manage my time wisely,” says Angel. “I didn’t know that I had to study every single night.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Angel blames her high school for not giving her tough enough courses — a common problem in poor Zip codes across California. She got a 3.7 GPA, while working 21 hours a week as a cashier at Trader Joe’s. She even played on the soccer team. But once at San Jose State, she tested into remedial math and English, to cover ground she had ostensibly covered already.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>It Helps To Be Able to Call in the Cavalry\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three weeks into the first semester, a transcript snafu almost derailed her career at San Jose State. The admissions office informed Angel that she had failed to send a transcript from her time at La Cañada Community College. She’d taken a few classes, as many kids in high school do, but she hadn’t embarked on a college degree before coming to San Jose State. Schmuck marched down to the admissions office and got them to relent and let Angel back in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Think back, if you will, to what you were like as a college freshman. Timid? Just a little bit cowed by authority? There are numerous ways parents help in a situation like this because they know when a “no” can be turned into a “yes” — if they’re familiar and comfortable with the system in question.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I felt very alone,” she says. “I couldn’t talk to my family about it because, coming from a first-generation family, none of them had any idea what I was talking about.” Her parents didn’t graduate from high school, let alone college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’re dealing with a parent who has no context of what’s going on in college,” says Schmuck. For students, muddling through alone, it’s hard to shake the feeling they’re out of place at the university. “When they get a D or an F, it reinforces that feeling, ‘Hey, you don’t belong here.’ Whether the kid’s at Harvard or San Jose State, they don’t have the confidence.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Worse Than Getting An F\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Angel was getting by with a 2.4 GPA her freshman year. She told everybody, including Melis, that she was doing fine, and she was — until she gave up on an anthropology class during her sophomore year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was never able to get there on time, and I stopped attending and I got a WU. Unauthorized Withdrawal. That’s worse than getting an F.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At this point, Melis interjects. ” ’Course, I didn’t know about this until later.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Because I thought I’ll just take it again next semester,” Angel responds. She was used to functioning on her own without adult support or supervision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I didn’t do anything, to be honest,” she says. “I didn’t seek help. I thought this was going to be another challenge, and I was going to overcome it quickly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She got several email alerts warning that her grade-point average had fallen below 2.0. She had \u003ca href=\"http://www.sjsu.edu/aars/faq/probationdisqualification\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">one semester\u003c/a> to bring it back up or be kicked out of San Jose State.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She finally reached out. “I had to come clean — quickly — and I got The Talk.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10522159\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15143_20150420-PCF_jt-2-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10522159\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15143_20150420-PCF_jt-2-qut-800x1198.jpg\" alt=\"Dalia Angel plans to practice family law after she graduates from law school. But first, she has to graduate from San Jose State.\" width=\"800\" height=\"1198\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15143_20150420-PCF_jt-2-qut-800x1198.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15143_20150420-PCF_jt-2-qut-400x599.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15143_20150420-PCF_jt-2-qut-1440x2157.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15143_20150420-PCF_jt-2-qut-1180x1768.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15143_20150420-PCF_jt-2-qut-960x1438.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15143_20150420-PCF_jt-2-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dalia Angel plans to practice family law after she graduates from law school. But first, she has to graduate from San Jose State. \u003ccite>(James Tensuan/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Now Angel was on probation. She had to switch to a community college for a semester to get her GPA back above 2.0. But more than that, she needed the kind of grown-up guidance many other kids take for granted. Twenty-plus hours a week at Trader Joe’s? Living at home with her folks and six siblings? Angel couldn’t focus on school — or take advantage of San Jose State’s workshops and tutoring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Jose State, like a number of Cal State and UC campuses, offers an \u003ca href=\"http://www.sjsu.edu/eop\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Educational Opportunity Program\u003c/a> specifically designed for low-income, first-generation students. Angel was leaving critical resources on the table.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Melis says the crisis was a wake-up call for her, too. “What I realized was it was just really important to really ride herd more closely in terms of getting grades, status reports — being a little bit more parental, as opposed to being a friend,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Angel moved out of her family’s home and into a shared house near campus. Her parents weren’t happy about it at the time, but she says, “It’s soooo much better! And my grades have improved dramatically, and I am more involved and I have more friends, and I’m really happy with my life right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She is now on track to graduate next year: one step closer to practicing family law, one step closer to beating the odds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A first-generation Latina has only a 55 percent chance of graduating within six years, according to the \u003ca href=\"http://heri.ucla.edu/DARCU/CompletingCollege2011.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA\u003c/a>. Students backed by the Peninsula College Fund are more than 90 percent likely to graduate.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">‘They’re not the kinds of kids that are going to college so they can become investment bankers.’ \u003ccite>Carole Melis, Peninsula College Fund mentor\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>That said, it’s a tiny, local program that has helped 116 kids over the last decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know, there are bright spots in different places, but it’s not happening at every single college and university,” says Michelle Siqueiros, who heads a statewide nonprofit research and advocacy group, the\u003ca href=\"http://collegecampaign.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Campaign for College Opportunity\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The campaign recently issued a \u003ca href=\"http://collegecampaign.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/2015-State-of-Higher-Education_Latinos.pdf%20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">report\u003c/a> finding three out of four Latinos graduated from high school in California in 2012-13 — but only three out of 10 completed the requirements to be eligible for a public four-year university. The gist of the argument is in this opening paragraph:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\n\u003cdiv>California is home to more than 15 million Latinos, the largest\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>racial/ethnic group in the state. When one in two children\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>under the age of 18 in California is Latino, one conclusion\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>is clear: the future of our economy and the state will rise\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>or fall on the educational success of Latinos. To secure\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>the economic future of California we need to significantly\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>increase the number of Latino students who are prepared for,\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\n\u003cp>enroll in and graduate from college.\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Siqueiros says that, regardless of ethnicity, there are tens of thousands of low-income, first-generation students in California who need intensive support to survive college. “The challenge is making sure that more students get access to that kind of support. That’s the challenge, is really scaling the things that we know that work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even at the local level, each individual success story has a multiplier effect, according to Melis at the Peninsula College Fund.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re not the kinds of kids that are going to college so they can become investment bankers,” she says. “They’re entering social work. They’re entering education. If they do law, it’s usually for some social good.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each of these kids, she says, will ultimately give back to the families and the communities they came from.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Between Homelands: A U.S.-Born Teen Follows Her Undocumented Brother to College",
"title": "Between Homelands: A U.S.-Born Teen Follows Her Undocumented Brother to College",
"headTitle": "Between Homelands | The California Report | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cp>In a Mexican-American family, which side of the border you were born on determines a lot, but not everything. The challenges faced by undocumented immigrants in the United States are well known. But what about children who were born here to undocumented parents? They are full U.S. citizens, but they often face their own legal and emotional burdens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[soundcloud url=\"https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/207899967\" params=\"color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" iframe=\"true\" /]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There is no mistaking it: Jorge and Lupe Herrera are family. As they gather in the living room after dinner with the rest of the family, the siblings' similarities stand out — from their coffee-colored eyes and animated smiles to their shared passion for music, travel and learning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I'd love to go to Mexico, Europe,\" said Lupe, 18.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"And Latin America,\" added Jorge, 22.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There is one thing, however, that these siblings don't share: legal immigration status in the United States. Jorge was 4 years old when his parents arranged for family members to secretly bring him north from Mexico. Meanwhile, his parents made the treacherous journey through the desert and across the border into the United States. Lupe and her younger sister were born in Los Angeles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jorge and his mom and dad remain undocumented. Lupe and her sister are natural-born U.S. citizens. But as they sit on living room sofas, laughing and teasing each other, a visitor would not guess that this is a family divided.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10541511\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15293_Lupe-2-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-10541511 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15293_Lupe-2-qut-800x1241.jpg\" alt=\"Lupe Herrera loves the mall, where she can be a typical American teen, checking out her favorite brands and keeping friends close through text messages on her cellphone.\" width=\"800\" height=\"1241\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15293_Lupe-2-qut-800x1241.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15293_Lupe-2-qut-400x621.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15293_Lupe-2-qut-1440x2234.jpg 1440w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15293_Lupe-2-qut-1180x1831.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15293_Lupe-2-qut-960x1490.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15293_Lupe-2-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lupe Herrera loves the mall, where she can be a typical American teen, checking out her favorite brands and keeping friends close through text messages on her cellphone. \u003ccite>(Charles Magovern/USC)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The legal divide between Jorge and Lupe is a growing trend. A 2009 Pew Hispanic Center report shows that three out of four children of unauthorized immigrants are U.S. citizens by birth. The number of U.S.-born children who live in \"mixed-status\" families expanded rapidly, to 4 million in 2008 from 2.7 million just five years earlier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lupe is a 21st century American teen. Walking through the Del Amo mall in Torrance, she's clad in fashionably ripped jeans, cellphone planted in hand. Her eyes sparkle when she sees the new spring styles the shops are displaying.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"This is lace, I'd wear this … and the new jeans, boyfriend jeans, they're new!\" she announced before she rushed off to check out a rack of flower-print miniskirts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But tears well up when she's asked about the divide in her close and devoted family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I don't think it's fair for me to just have the advantages of what the U.S. gives,\" she said through sobs. \"Because to me, basically, they are American.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Legally, though, they are not. Lupe has all the protections of U.S. law, and she will never be deported. None of that is guaranteed to her brother and parents. Then there are the simple activities that most Americans never think twice about. Like piling in the car for a family road trip.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the family's living room, Lupe and Jorge's father, a quiet patriarch, becomes emotional when he talks about a dream he has -- to take his wife and children to San Diego to visit Sea World. It's less than 100 miles from the family’s home. But it's impossibly out of reach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"You have to have identification to travel there,\" Jorge said. Sea World, he explained, is too close to the Mexican border and \"everyone knows about the immigration checkpoint in San Clemente.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Jorge and Lupe's parents, who took that perilous journey across the desert to keep their children from lives of certain poverty, have reason to be hopeful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10541509\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15290_Jorge-1-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-10541509\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15290_Jorge-1-qut-800x1202.jpg\" alt=\"Jorge Herrera is the first in his family to attend university. A junior at UCLA, he is setting an example for his U.S. citizen younger sisters.\" width=\"800\" height=\"1202\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15290_Jorge-1-qut-800x1202.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15290_Jorge-1-qut-400x601.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15290_Jorge-1-qut-1440x2163.jpg 1440w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15290_Jorge-1-qut-1180x1772.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15290_Jorge-1-qut-960x1442.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15290_Jorge-1-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jorge Herrera is the first in his family to attend university. A junior at UCLA, he is setting an example for his U.S. citizen younger sisters. \u003ccite>(Charles Magovern/USC)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Their first-born son, Jorge, is now a junior at UCLA -- the first in his family to ever attend university. His mother and father went only as far as third grade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jorge says he got to college because of the tenacity and work ethic he learned from his parents, as well as a California law that allows qualified undocumented students who were brought to the U.S. before age 16 to attend school at in-state tuition rates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At college, Jorge became a community organizer, educating other students about their rights and helping them enroll when they otherwise would have given up on higher education. Ironically, it is now the undocumented Jorge who provides inspiration to his little sisters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Being the first one in the family to go to school, it comes with a big responsibility, which is teaching my sisters the importance of education,\" he said, resting his backpack on a concrete bench near his classroom at UCLA. \"More than a brother, I want to provide guidance. Someone there to say, 'It's OK, get back up, let's figure it out together – If we fail, we fail together. But as well, if we fail, we get back up together.' \"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now Lupe is following Jorge’s lead and applying to college. As an American citizen, she'll file the standard application and financial aid forms, rather than special forms the state designed for kids like Jorge. But not all of Lupe's paperwork was written with students of undocumented parents in mind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It's like, if my parents are undocumented, then I'm undocumented,\" Lupe said of the federal financial aid process. \"It doesn't matter if I am a U.S. citizen or if I'm not because, either way, my parents are not, so it doesn't change anything. When I tried to apply, they asked for my parents' social security and … we can't put what they don't have.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lupe tried repeatedly to submit her financial aid application as the instructions indicated. After many bounce-backs and error messages, Jorge's years of experience helping students through complicated college applications paid off. He was able to figure out how to file Lupe's application manually. So Lupe will be able to follow her big brother to college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I don't know how he did it,\" Lupe said, smiling. \"He just told me it was done.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As her parents' first-born U.S. citizen child, Lupe hopes one day to make her family's biggest dreams come true.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10541512\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15291_Jorge-and-Lupe-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-10541512\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15291_Jorge-and-Lupe-qut-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"Jorge and Lupe Herrera are devoted siblings, in spite of differences in immigration status. Here, they enjoy a moment together at their baby cousin’s birthday party.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15291_Jorge-and-Lupe-qut-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15291_Jorge-and-Lupe-qut-400x267.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15291_Jorge-and-Lupe-qut-1440x962.jpg 1440w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15291_Jorge-and-Lupe-qut-1180x788.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15291_Jorge-and-Lupe-qut-960x641.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15291_Jorge-and-Lupe-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jorge and Lupe Herrera are devoted siblings, in spite of differences in immigration status. Here, they enjoy a moment together at their baby cousin’s birthday party. \u003ccite>(Charles Magovern/USC)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\"When I reach that certain age -- 21 -- I will be able to give my parents papers for them to be in the process of becoming U.S. citizens,\" she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The process is long and complex, with many risks of failure. Jorge's road is even more difficult than that of his parents. But he remains undaunted. After earning his degree, he hopes to work for nonprofit organizations that help people in his community, while he returns to school to earn a master's degree.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Fear is only as big as you make it,\" he said, as he sat together with his family. \"It comes from inside you, so it can never be bigger than you. You either create fear, or you crush fear. So one way or another, we are going to manage. Sticking together and being united, that’s what evens out the playing field.\"\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Lupe Herrera feels American, but she also carries the burdens of her undocumented, Mexican-born family.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In a Mexican-American family, which side of the border you were born on determines a lot, but not everything. The challenges faced by undocumented immigrants in the United States are well known. But what about children who were born here to undocumented parents? They are full U.S. citizens, but they often face their own legal and emotional burdens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cdiv class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__shortcodes__shortcodeWrapper'>\n \u003ciframe width='100%' height='166'\n scrolling='no' frameborder='no'\n src='https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/207899967&visual=true&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false'\n title='https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/207899967'>\n \u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/div>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There is no mistaking it: Jorge and Lupe Herrera are family. As they gather in the living room after dinner with the rest of the family, the siblings' similarities stand out — from their coffee-colored eyes and animated smiles to their shared passion for music, travel and learning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I'd love to go to Mexico, Europe,\" said Lupe, 18.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"And Latin America,\" added Jorge, 22.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There is one thing, however, that these siblings don't share: legal immigration status in the United States. Jorge was 4 years old when his parents arranged for family members to secretly bring him north from Mexico. Meanwhile, his parents made the treacherous journey through the desert and across the border into the United States. Lupe and her younger sister were born in Los Angeles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jorge and his mom and dad remain undocumented. Lupe and her sister are natural-born U.S. citizens. But as they sit on living room sofas, laughing and teasing each other, a visitor would not guess that this is a family divided.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10541511\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15293_Lupe-2-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-10541511 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15293_Lupe-2-qut-800x1241.jpg\" alt=\"Lupe Herrera loves the mall, where she can be a typical American teen, checking out her favorite brands and keeping friends close through text messages on her cellphone.\" width=\"800\" height=\"1241\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15293_Lupe-2-qut-800x1241.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15293_Lupe-2-qut-400x621.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15293_Lupe-2-qut-1440x2234.jpg 1440w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15293_Lupe-2-qut-1180x1831.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15293_Lupe-2-qut-960x1490.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15293_Lupe-2-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lupe Herrera loves the mall, where she can be a typical American teen, checking out her favorite brands and keeping friends close through text messages on her cellphone. \u003ccite>(Charles Magovern/USC)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The legal divide between Jorge and Lupe is a growing trend. A 2009 Pew Hispanic Center report shows that three out of four children of unauthorized immigrants are U.S. citizens by birth. The number of U.S.-born children who live in \"mixed-status\" families expanded rapidly, to 4 million in 2008 from 2.7 million just five years earlier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lupe is a 21st century American teen. Walking through the Del Amo mall in Torrance, she's clad in fashionably ripped jeans, cellphone planted in hand. Her eyes sparkle when she sees the new spring styles the shops are displaying.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"This is lace, I'd wear this … and the new jeans, boyfriend jeans, they're new!\" she announced before she rushed off to check out a rack of flower-print miniskirts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But tears well up when she's asked about the divide in her close and devoted family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I don't think it's fair for me to just have the advantages of what the U.S. gives,\" she said through sobs. \"Because to me, basically, they are American.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Legally, though, they are not. Lupe has all the protections of U.S. law, and she will never be deported. None of that is guaranteed to her brother and parents. Then there are the simple activities that most Americans never think twice about. Like piling in the car for a family road trip.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the family's living room, Lupe and Jorge's father, a quiet patriarch, becomes emotional when he talks about a dream he has -- to take his wife and children to San Diego to visit Sea World. It's less than 100 miles from the family’s home. But it's impossibly out of reach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"You have to have identification to travel there,\" Jorge said. Sea World, he explained, is too close to the Mexican border and \"everyone knows about the immigration checkpoint in San Clemente.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Jorge and Lupe's parents, who took that perilous journey across the desert to keep their children from lives of certain poverty, have reason to be hopeful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10541509\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15290_Jorge-1-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-10541509\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15290_Jorge-1-qut-800x1202.jpg\" alt=\"Jorge Herrera is the first in his family to attend university. A junior at UCLA, he is setting an example for his U.S. citizen younger sisters.\" width=\"800\" height=\"1202\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15290_Jorge-1-qut-800x1202.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15290_Jorge-1-qut-400x601.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15290_Jorge-1-qut-1440x2163.jpg 1440w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15290_Jorge-1-qut-1180x1772.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15290_Jorge-1-qut-960x1442.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15290_Jorge-1-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jorge Herrera is the first in his family to attend university. A junior at UCLA, he is setting an example for his U.S. citizen younger sisters. \u003ccite>(Charles Magovern/USC)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Their first-born son, Jorge, is now a junior at UCLA -- the first in his family to ever attend university. His mother and father went only as far as third grade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jorge says he got to college because of the tenacity and work ethic he learned from his parents, as well as a California law that allows qualified undocumented students who were brought to the U.S. before age 16 to attend school at in-state tuition rates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At college, Jorge became a community organizer, educating other students about their rights and helping them enroll when they otherwise would have given up on higher education. Ironically, it is now the undocumented Jorge who provides inspiration to his little sisters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Being the first one in the family to go to school, it comes with a big responsibility, which is teaching my sisters the importance of education,\" he said, resting his backpack on a concrete bench near his classroom at UCLA. \"More than a brother, I want to provide guidance. Someone there to say, 'It's OK, get back up, let's figure it out together – If we fail, we fail together. But as well, if we fail, we get back up together.' \"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now Lupe is following Jorge’s lead and applying to college. As an American citizen, she'll file the standard application and financial aid forms, rather than special forms the state designed for kids like Jorge. But not all of Lupe's paperwork was written with students of undocumented parents in mind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It's like, if my parents are undocumented, then I'm undocumented,\" Lupe said of the federal financial aid process. \"It doesn't matter if I am a U.S. citizen or if I'm not because, either way, my parents are not, so it doesn't change anything. When I tried to apply, they asked for my parents' social security and … we can't put what they don't have.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lupe tried repeatedly to submit her financial aid application as the instructions indicated. After many bounce-backs and error messages, Jorge's years of experience helping students through complicated college applications paid off. He was able to figure out how to file Lupe's application manually. So Lupe will be able to follow her big brother to college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I don't know how he did it,\" Lupe said, smiling. \"He just told me it was done.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As her parents' first-born U.S. citizen child, Lupe hopes one day to make her family's biggest dreams come true.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10541512\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15291_Jorge-and-Lupe-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-10541512\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15291_Jorge-and-Lupe-qut-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"Jorge and Lupe Herrera are devoted siblings, in spite of differences in immigration status. Here, they enjoy a moment together at their baby cousin’s birthday party.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15291_Jorge-and-Lupe-qut-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15291_Jorge-and-Lupe-qut-400x267.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15291_Jorge-and-Lupe-qut-1440x962.jpg 1440w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15291_Jorge-and-Lupe-qut-1180x788.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15291_Jorge-and-Lupe-qut-960x641.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15291_Jorge-and-Lupe-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jorge and Lupe Herrera are devoted siblings, in spite of differences in immigration status. Here, they enjoy a moment together at their baby cousin’s birthday party. \u003ccite>(Charles Magovern/USC)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\"When I reach that certain age -- 21 -- I will be able to give my parents papers for them to be in the process of becoming U.S. citizens,\" she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The process is long and complex, with many risks of failure. Jorge's road is even more difficult than that of his parents. But he remains undaunted. After earning his degree, he hopes to work for nonprofit organizations that help people in his community, while he returns to school to earn a master's degree.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Fear is only as big as you make it,\" he said, as he sat together with his family. \"It comes from inside you, so it can never be bigger than you. You either create fear, or you crush fear. So one way or another, we are going to manage. Sticking together and being united, that’s what evens out the playing field.\"\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "violence-causes-ripple-effects-for-thousands-of-oakland-students",
"title": "Violence Causes Ripple Effects for Thousands of Oakland Students",
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"headTitle": "Violence Causes Ripple Effects for Thousands of Oakland Students | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">O\u003c/span>akland’s first homicide victim of 2014 was a boy named Lee Weathersby III. He was shot on New Year’s Eve and died early the next morning. Police say it appears he was not the intended target of the shooting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lee would have turned 14 that year. His death hit his middle school, \u003ca href=\"http://www.ousd.k12.ca.us/alliance\">Alliance Academy\u003c/a>, hard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two months later, on his birthday, 400 fellow students gathered in a circle on the school blacktop with his family and sang “Happy Birthday,” Stevie Wonder-style, to remember him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then the middle-schoolers marched around the school and lined up on 98th Avenue. They held up their index fingers and thumbs to make an L, for “Lee” and “love.” They shouted “L’s up!” Then they pointed their fingers down, shouting, “Guns down!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10505717\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/peaceday.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10505717 size-large\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/peaceday-1440x934.jpg\" alt=\"February 2014-- Students of Alliance Academy, including Diamond Allen (far left), marched to remember classmate Lee Weathersby III, who was shot and killed in Oakland. (Zaidee Stavely/KQED)\" width=\"640\" height=\"415\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/peaceday-1440x934.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/peaceday-400x259.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/peaceday-800x519.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/peaceday-1180x765.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/peaceday-960x623.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">February 2014– Students of Alliance Academy, including Diamond Allen (far left), marched to remember classmate Lee Weathersby III, who was shot and killed in Oakland. (Zaidee Stavely/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Diamond Allen, an eighth-grader at the time, helped organize the event. He and Lee had been friends since the first day of sixth grade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It used to be Lee, myself, Demond, Romelo and Keishun, always hanging out with each other after school, going to each other’s houses, going to play basketball, going to Sunnyside Park, just to hang out and have laughs, going to his house to play video games,” Diamond says. “We were like brothers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When there is a crisis like this one — when a student is killed or wounded, or a shooting happens near a campus, or children sidestep dead bodies on the way to school — often a school district grief counseling team arrives. The week after Lee’s death, almost 200 kids had to get therapy. Diamond was one of them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was hard focusing in class, just knowing that Lee was not sitting by me, Lee was not there, it was an empty seat,” says Diamond. “I was hurt inside, I was angry, I was sad. So many mixed emotions going on. Just, like, confused, like, why it happened?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10505715\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/IMG_6388.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10505715 size-large\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/IMG_6388-1440x960.jpg\" alt=\"Diamond Allen shows off pictures of his friend, Lee Weathersby III, who was shot and killed in Oakland. (Jeremy Raff/KQED)\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/IMG_6388-1440x960.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/IMG_6388-400x267.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/IMG_6388-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/IMG_6388-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/IMG_6388-960x640.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diamond Allen shows off pictures of his friend, Lee Weathersby III, who was shot and killed in Oakland. (Jeremy Raff/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11732955\">well documented\u003c/a> that experiencing ongoing violence can make it harder for kids to succeed in school. One study on \u003ca href=\"http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/acestudy/\">adverse childhood experiences\u003c/a> showed that traumatic incidents in childhood can have long-lasting effects on health and development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The coordinator of \u003ca href=\"http://ousd.k12.ca.us/domain/85\">behavioral health\u003c/a> at the Oakland Unified School District is Barbara McClung. She says the effects of violence on kids like Diamond spill into the classroom and make it hard for kids to learn.”Difficulty concentrating, hypervigilance, feeling hopeless or helpless, being fearful or afraid. … All those things require a lot of skill at self-regulation in order to sort of suppress that and focus on academic content. And for so many of our students, that is really impossible,” says McClung.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Diamond got his first “C” grade after Lee died.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">F\u003c/span>rom 2002 to 2014 — the time it has taken for a kid in Oakland to go from kindergarten to senior year in high school — 111 children under 18 have been shot and killed in the city, according to the city’s Police Department. The department also reports that 1,280 children were wounded by gunfire from 2004 through 2014.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">\n\u003ch2>\u003c/h2>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/booksandbullets\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Books and Bullets\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This story is Part 2 in a three-part series.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/04/28/an-oakland-9-year-old-shot-and-paralyzed-struggles-to-return-to-school\">An Oakland 9-Year-Old, Shot and Paralyzed, Struggles to Return to School\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/04/29/violence-causes-ripple-effects-for-thousands-of-oakland-students\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Violence Causes Ripple Effect for Thousands of Oakland Students\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/04/30/mom-seeks-to-make-schools-better-for-kids-traumatized-by-violence\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mom Seeks to Make Schools Better for Kids Traumatized by Violence\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Those statistics don’t capture the number of students who have seen others in their lives — siblings, parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins — shot, stabbed or beaten. McClung estimates that half the district’s 37,000 or so students will need some form of mental health services. That’s more than double the estimated \u003ca href=\"http://www.nasponline.org/resources/handouts/revisedPDFs/childrenmh.pdf\">national rate\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because violence is concentrated in certain Oakland neighborhoods, certain schools have more kids traumatized by violence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we convene kids at school sites and we sit in circle together and we ask, ‘Besides this event, have you ever lost anyone due to violence?’ three-quarters of the kids, no matter what grade they’re in — you know, elementary school kids, middle, high school — raise their hand. And then they share out how they’ve lost their father, they’ve lost their uncle, they’ve lost their brother, they’ve lost their cousin, they’ve lost their sister,” says McClung.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10505718\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 491px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/mental-health-graphic_web.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10505718\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/mental-health-graphic_web-400x225.jpg\" alt=\"OUSD estimates that half of all Oakland students will need mental health treatment at some point during their school years. (KQED News)\" width=\"491\" height=\"276\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/mental-health-graphic_web-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/mental-health-graphic_web-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/mental-health-graphic_web-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/mental-health-graphic_web-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/mental-health-graphic_web-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 491px) 100vw, 491px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">OUSD estimates that half of all Oakland students will need mental health treatment at some point during their school years. (KQED News)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The sad truth is that the violence of having someone murdered wasn’t a new experience,” says Ashlee George, restorative justice coordinator at Alliance Academy. “A lot of students, and adults, we’ve all gone through it. So when it happens, you almost get numb.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Teachers and counselors have the heartbreaking job of trying to heal the unseen wounds of children who are affected by violence against loved ones and to teach them, despite it all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">M\u003c/span>arisa Morales teaches third grade at Community United Elementary School, in one of the neighborhoods with \u003ca href=\"http://www2.oaklandnet.com/oakca1/groups/police/documents/webcontent/oak050934.pdf\">the highest incidence of gunfire in the city\u003c/a>. She says you can see the effects in her 8-year-old students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sometimes the tears want to come out, and they feel like … they don’t even know why,” Morales says. “So that will lead to one of my students, just completely unprovoked, just punching another girl in the face. It leads to students trying to read, but not being able to focus on the words, so they just sit there and they stare at a book, and they’re trying so hard, but they can’t.”\u003cbr>\n\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://player.vimeo.com/video/126209798\" width=\"768\" height=\"432\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland has tried to put more mental health professionals in schools that need them the most. These are not the school counselors, nor are they the school psychologists, who tend to focus more on special-ed assessments. These therapists are there specifically for kids’ mental health issues. Jasmine Gonzalez leads the team at Diamond’s middle school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re already coping — they’re so resilient — they’re able to come here to school, though they might not always be able to get through class,” says Gonzalez. “I really try to focus on their strengths and then find other ways that they can cope: journaling, taking deep breaths, different coping skills, that they might already be using, but highlighting those things and giving them new skills.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote align left\">‘Sometimes the tears want to come out …\u003cbr>\nthey don’t even know why.’\u003cbr>\n\u003ccite>Marisa Morales, Third-grade teacher\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>There is some progress in terms of responding to students’ problems. McClung says that in 2000, only a handful of schools in Oakland had a mental health professional on-site. Beginning last year, she says all schools have at least one, though not all are full time. The improvement is due to the district’s partnership with \u003ca href=\"http://www.acgov.org/health/\">Alameda County’s Health Services Agency\u003c/a>, under Alex Briscoe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We took a lemon, the increasing concentration of poverty in public education, which is the harsh truth, and we turned it into lemonade,” says Briscoe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alameda County took Medi-Cal money and redirected it to put therapists on-site in the public schools. That’s pretty unusual. Other counties have visited Briscoe to figure out the formula for their own students. Briscoe says in six years, the county doubled the number of children from low-income families it’s helping with mental health care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10505714\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 509px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/IMG_6357.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-10505714\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/IMG_6357-400x267.jpg\" alt=\"Diamond Allen (right) eats lunch in the cafeteria of his new school, Eastside College Preparatory School in East Palo Alto. (Jeremy Raff/KQED)\" width=\"509\" height=\"339\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/IMG_6357-400x267.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/IMG_6357-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/IMG_6357-1440x960.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/IMG_6357-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/IMG_6357-960x640.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 509px) 100vw, 509px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diamond Allen (right) eats lunch in the cafeteria of his new school, Eastside College Preparatory School in East Palo Alto. (Jeremy Raff/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“They stay in school longer, they do better in school, they go to emergency room less. They self-report better self-regulation and capacity,” says Briscoe. “[It’s] healthy development of children. We know what healthy development is, we know how to support it. It happens in rich communities every day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The problem is there are long waitlists for therapists in Oakland public schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lee Weathersby’s school, Alliance Academy, shares a campus with another middle school. In the 2013-14 school year, there were three therapists there, for about 700 students. Clinical case manager Jasmine Gonzalez says each of them saw about 10 to 15 students on a weekly basis, in addition to family outreach and crisis calls. After the first week of grief counseling after Lee died, his friend Diamond Allen never started regular therapy at school. He relied on talks with the school’s restorative justice coordinator and his parents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/203149186″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Diamond’s father and mother, Jesus and Nicole Rodriguez, have known their own share of violence and trauma. They’re doing their best to make life better for their own kids and other kids in Oakland. Not long before Lee’s death, Diamond’s parents had already decided to move to a different neighborhood. They found one with fewer homicides, one they hope will be safer for his little brothers and sisters. They sent Diamond away to a boarding school for high school, \u003ca href=\"http://www.eastside.org/\">Eastside College Preparatory Academy\u003c/a> in East Palo Alto. The school is focused on getting first-generation students into college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Diamond’s old friends still live over near 98th Avenue. One of them was recently robbed at gunpoint. Diamond’s parents still feel connected to those kids. So does Diamond. The family is trying hard to stay in touch with them all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10505792\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 477px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/IMG_6412.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10505792\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/IMG_6412-400x267.jpg\" alt=\"Diamond Allen, pictured in his dorm room at his new school, Eastside College Preparatory College. (Jeremy Raff/KQED)\" width=\"477\" height=\"319\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/IMG_6412-400x267.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/IMG_6412-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/IMG_6412-1440x960.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/IMG_6412-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/IMG_6412-960x640.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 477px) 100vw, 477px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diamond Allen, pictured in his dorm room at his new school, Eastside College Preparatory Academy. (Jeremy Raff/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After Lee’s death, Diamond’s parents raised money to buy a van to be able to pick all of Diamond’s friends up and take them to church or to come spend weekends at their house. They have dreams to one day open a restaurant that can double as a community center where young people can feel safe and build relationships with mentors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I want them to live,” says Diamond’s dad, Jesus Rodriguez. “I want them to be successful. I want them to reach 18, and further on. I don’t want them to slip through the cracks in society. There’s so many cracks to slip in, it’s almost like they’re walking around on eggshells, just waiting to crack something, you know? I just want them to make it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In their kitchen, Diamond’s mom, Nicole Rodriguez, pulls up a video on the family’s computer. It shows Lee and Diamond and a bunch of their friends, girls and boys, playing leapfrog in a park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They don’t even look like this anymore,” says Rodriguez. “That’s Lee with the red shirt.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the video, the kids are laughing and clapping. Diamond turns away from the screen. He puts his head down on the kitchen table.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Later, in his bedroom, he reaches into the closet and pulls out a white T-shirt, covered with scribbles, the kind middle-schoolers give to their friends to write on at the end of the year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He wrote, ‘Lee Weathersby. Diamond, I will miss you, brother,'” he reads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pain is still there. Diamond’s just learning to live with it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is the second story in our \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/tag/booksandbullets\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">“Books and Bullets” \u003c/a>series about how chronic violence in some neighborhoods puts some kids at a disadvantage in school, even before they walk in the door.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This report was produced in collaboration with \u003ca href=\"http://renjournalism.org/educational-opportunity-reporting-project/\">Renaissance Journalism’s Equity Reporting Project: Restoring the Promise of Education\u003c/a>, with funding from the Ford Foundation. With additional help from the \u003ca href=\"http://www.mesarefuge.org/\">Mesa Refuge\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">O\u003c/span>akland’s first homicide victim of 2014 was a boy named Lee Weathersby III. He was shot on New Year’s Eve and died early the next morning. Police say it appears he was not the intended target of the shooting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lee would have turned 14 that year. His death hit his middle school, \u003ca href=\"http://www.ousd.k12.ca.us/alliance\">Alliance Academy\u003c/a>, hard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two months later, on his birthday, 400 fellow students gathered in a circle on the school blacktop with his family and sang “Happy Birthday,” Stevie Wonder-style, to remember him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then the middle-schoolers marched around the school and lined up on 98th Avenue. They held up their index fingers and thumbs to make an L, for “Lee” and “love.” They shouted “L’s up!” Then they pointed their fingers down, shouting, “Guns down!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10505717\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/peaceday.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10505717 size-large\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/peaceday-1440x934.jpg\" alt=\"February 2014-- Students of Alliance Academy, including Diamond Allen (far left), marched to remember classmate Lee Weathersby III, who was shot and killed in Oakland. (Zaidee Stavely/KQED)\" width=\"640\" height=\"415\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/peaceday-1440x934.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/peaceday-400x259.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/peaceday-800x519.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/peaceday-1180x765.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/peaceday-960x623.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">February 2014– Students of Alliance Academy, including Diamond Allen (far left), marched to remember classmate Lee Weathersby III, who was shot and killed in Oakland. (Zaidee Stavely/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Diamond Allen, an eighth-grader at the time, helped organize the event. He and Lee had been friends since the first day of sixth grade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It used to be Lee, myself, Demond, Romelo and Keishun, always hanging out with each other after school, going to each other’s houses, going to play basketball, going to Sunnyside Park, just to hang out and have laughs, going to his house to play video games,” Diamond says. “We were like brothers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When there is a crisis like this one — when a student is killed or wounded, or a shooting happens near a campus, or children sidestep dead bodies on the way to school — often a school district grief counseling team arrives. The week after Lee’s death, almost 200 kids had to get therapy. Diamond was one of them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was hard focusing in class, just knowing that Lee was not sitting by me, Lee was not there, it was an empty seat,” says Diamond. “I was hurt inside, I was angry, I was sad. So many mixed emotions going on. Just, like, confused, like, why it happened?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10505715\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/IMG_6388.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10505715 size-large\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/IMG_6388-1440x960.jpg\" alt=\"Diamond Allen shows off pictures of his friend, Lee Weathersby III, who was shot and killed in Oakland. (Jeremy Raff/KQED)\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/IMG_6388-1440x960.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/IMG_6388-400x267.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/IMG_6388-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/IMG_6388-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/IMG_6388-960x640.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diamond Allen shows off pictures of his friend, Lee Weathersby III, who was shot and killed in Oakland. (Jeremy Raff/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11732955\">well documented\u003c/a> that experiencing ongoing violence can make it harder for kids to succeed in school. One study on \u003ca href=\"http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/acestudy/\">adverse childhood experiences\u003c/a> showed that traumatic incidents in childhood can have long-lasting effects on health and development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The coordinator of \u003ca href=\"http://ousd.k12.ca.us/domain/85\">behavioral health\u003c/a> at the Oakland Unified School District is Barbara McClung. She says the effects of violence on kids like Diamond spill into the classroom and make it hard for kids to learn.”Difficulty concentrating, hypervigilance, feeling hopeless or helpless, being fearful or afraid. … All those things require a lot of skill at self-regulation in order to sort of suppress that and focus on academic content. And for so many of our students, that is really impossible,” says McClung.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Diamond got his first “C” grade after Lee died.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">F\u003c/span>rom 2002 to 2014 — the time it has taken for a kid in Oakland to go from kindergarten to senior year in high school — 111 children under 18 have been shot and killed in the city, according to the city’s Police Department. The department also reports that 1,280 children were wounded by gunfire from 2004 through 2014.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">\n\u003ch2>\u003c/h2>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/booksandbullets\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Books and Bullets\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This story is Part 2 in a three-part series.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/04/28/an-oakland-9-year-old-shot-and-paralyzed-struggles-to-return-to-school\">An Oakland 9-Year-Old, Shot and Paralyzed, Struggles to Return to School\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/04/29/violence-causes-ripple-effects-for-thousands-of-oakland-students\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Violence Causes Ripple Effect for Thousands of Oakland Students\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/04/30/mom-seeks-to-make-schools-better-for-kids-traumatized-by-violence\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mom Seeks to Make Schools Better for Kids Traumatized by Violence\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Those statistics don’t capture the number of students who have seen others in their lives — siblings, parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins — shot, stabbed or beaten. McClung estimates that half the district’s 37,000 or so students will need some form of mental health services. That’s more than double the estimated \u003ca href=\"http://www.nasponline.org/resources/handouts/revisedPDFs/childrenmh.pdf\">national rate\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because violence is concentrated in certain Oakland neighborhoods, certain schools have more kids traumatized by violence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we convene kids at school sites and we sit in circle together and we ask, ‘Besides this event, have you ever lost anyone due to violence?’ three-quarters of the kids, no matter what grade they’re in — you know, elementary school kids, middle, high school — raise their hand. And then they share out how they’ve lost their father, they’ve lost their uncle, they’ve lost their brother, they’ve lost their cousin, they’ve lost their sister,” says McClung.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10505718\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 491px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/mental-health-graphic_web.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10505718\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/mental-health-graphic_web-400x225.jpg\" alt=\"OUSD estimates that half of all Oakland students will need mental health treatment at some point during their school years. (KQED News)\" width=\"491\" height=\"276\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/mental-health-graphic_web-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/mental-health-graphic_web-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/mental-health-graphic_web-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/mental-health-graphic_web-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/mental-health-graphic_web-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 491px) 100vw, 491px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">OUSD estimates that half of all Oakland students will need mental health treatment at some point during their school years. (KQED News)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The sad truth is that the violence of having someone murdered wasn’t a new experience,” says Ashlee George, restorative justice coordinator at Alliance Academy. “A lot of students, and adults, we’ve all gone through it. So when it happens, you almost get numb.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Teachers and counselors have the heartbreaking job of trying to heal the unseen wounds of children who are affected by violence against loved ones and to teach them, despite it all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">M\u003c/span>arisa Morales teaches third grade at Community United Elementary School, in one of the neighborhoods with \u003ca href=\"http://www2.oaklandnet.com/oakca1/groups/police/documents/webcontent/oak050934.pdf\">the highest incidence of gunfire in the city\u003c/a>. She says you can see the effects in her 8-year-old students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sometimes the tears want to come out, and they feel like … they don’t even know why,” Morales says. “So that will lead to one of my students, just completely unprovoked, just punching another girl in the face. It leads to students trying to read, but not being able to focus on the words, so they just sit there and they stare at a book, and they’re trying so hard, but they can’t.”\u003cbr>\n\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://player.vimeo.com/video/126209798\" width=\"768\" height=\"432\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland has tried to put more mental health professionals in schools that need them the most. These are not the school counselors, nor are they the school psychologists, who tend to focus more on special-ed assessments. These therapists are there specifically for kids’ mental health issues. Jasmine Gonzalez leads the team at Diamond’s middle school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re already coping — they’re so resilient — they’re able to come here to school, though they might not always be able to get through class,” says Gonzalez. “I really try to focus on their strengths and then find other ways that they can cope: journaling, taking deep breaths, different coping skills, that they might already be using, but highlighting those things and giving them new skills.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote align left\">‘Sometimes the tears want to come out …\u003cbr>\nthey don’t even know why.’\u003cbr>\n\u003ccite>Marisa Morales, Third-grade teacher\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>There is some progress in terms of responding to students’ problems. McClung says that in 2000, only a handful of schools in Oakland had a mental health professional on-site. Beginning last year, she says all schools have at least one, though not all are full time. The improvement is due to the district’s partnership with \u003ca href=\"http://www.acgov.org/health/\">Alameda County’s Health Services Agency\u003c/a>, under Alex Briscoe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We took a lemon, the increasing concentration of poverty in public education, which is the harsh truth, and we turned it into lemonade,” says Briscoe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alameda County took Medi-Cal money and redirected it to put therapists on-site in the public schools. That’s pretty unusual. Other counties have visited Briscoe to figure out the formula for their own students. Briscoe says in six years, the county doubled the number of children from low-income families it’s helping with mental health care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10505714\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 509px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/IMG_6357.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-10505714\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/IMG_6357-400x267.jpg\" alt=\"Diamond Allen (right) eats lunch in the cafeteria of his new school, Eastside College Preparatory School in East Palo Alto. (Jeremy Raff/KQED)\" width=\"509\" height=\"339\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/IMG_6357-400x267.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/IMG_6357-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/IMG_6357-1440x960.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/IMG_6357-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/IMG_6357-960x640.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 509px) 100vw, 509px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diamond Allen (right) eats lunch in the cafeteria of his new school, Eastside College Preparatory School in East Palo Alto. (Jeremy Raff/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“They stay in school longer, they do better in school, they go to emergency room less. They self-report better self-regulation and capacity,” says Briscoe. “[It’s] healthy development of children. We know what healthy development is, we know how to support it. It happens in rich communities every day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The problem is there are long waitlists for therapists in Oakland public schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lee Weathersby’s school, Alliance Academy, shares a campus with another middle school. In the 2013-14 school year, there were three therapists there, for about 700 students. Clinical case manager Jasmine Gonzalez says each of them saw about 10 to 15 students on a weekly basis, in addition to family outreach and crisis calls. After the first week of grief counseling after Lee died, his friend Diamond Allen never started regular therapy at school. He relied on talks with the school’s restorative justice coordinator and his parents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cdiv class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__shortcodes__shortcodeWrapper'>\n \u003ciframe width='”100%”' height='”166″'\n scrolling='no' frameborder='no'\n src='https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/203149186″&visual=true&”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false”'\n title='”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/203149186″'>\n \u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/div>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Diamond’s father and mother, Jesus and Nicole Rodriguez, have known their own share of violence and trauma. They’re doing their best to make life better for their own kids and other kids in Oakland. Not long before Lee’s death, Diamond’s parents had already decided to move to a different neighborhood. They found one with fewer homicides, one they hope will be safer for his little brothers and sisters. They sent Diamond away to a boarding school for high school, \u003ca href=\"http://www.eastside.org/\">Eastside College Preparatory Academy\u003c/a> in East Palo Alto. The school is focused on getting first-generation students into college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Diamond’s old friends still live over near 98th Avenue. One of them was recently robbed at gunpoint. Diamond’s parents still feel connected to those kids. So does Diamond. The family is trying hard to stay in touch with them all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10505792\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 477px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/IMG_6412.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10505792\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/IMG_6412-400x267.jpg\" alt=\"Diamond Allen, pictured in his dorm room at his new school, Eastside College Preparatory College. (Jeremy Raff/KQED)\" width=\"477\" height=\"319\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/IMG_6412-400x267.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/IMG_6412-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/IMG_6412-1440x960.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/IMG_6412-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/IMG_6412-960x640.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 477px) 100vw, 477px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diamond Allen, pictured in his dorm room at his new school, Eastside College Preparatory Academy. (Jeremy Raff/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After Lee’s death, Diamond’s parents raised money to buy a van to be able to pick all of Diamond’s friends up and take them to church or to come spend weekends at their house. They have dreams to one day open a restaurant that can double as a community center where young people can feel safe and build relationships with mentors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I want them to live,” says Diamond’s dad, Jesus Rodriguez. “I want them to be successful. I want them to reach 18, and further on. I don’t want them to slip through the cracks in society. There’s so many cracks to slip in, it’s almost like they’re walking around on eggshells, just waiting to crack something, you know? I just want them to make it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In their kitchen, Diamond’s mom, Nicole Rodriguez, pulls up a video on the family’s computer. It shows Lee and Diamond and a bunch of their friends, girls and boys, playing leapfrog in a park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They don’t even look like this anymore,” says Rodriguez. “That’s Lee with the red shirt.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the video, the kids are laughing and clapping. Diamond turns away from the screen. He puts his head down on the kitchen table.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Later, in his bedroom, he reaches into the closet and pulls out a white T-shirt, covered with scribbles, the kind middle-schoolers give to their friends to write on at the end of the year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He wrote, ‘Lee Weathersby. Diamond, I will miss you, brother,'” he reads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pain is still there. Diamond’s just learning to live with it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is the second story in our \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/tag/booksandbullets\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">“Books and Bullets” \u003c/a>series about how chronic violence in some neighborhoods puts some kids at a disadvantage in school, even before they walk in the door.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This report was produced in collaboration with \u003ca href=\"http://renjournalism.org/educational-opportunity-reporting-project/\">Renaissance Journalism’s Equity Reporting Project: Restoring the Promise of Education\u003c/a>, with funding from the Ford Foundation. With additional help from the \u003ca href=\"http://www.mesarefuge.org/\">Mesa Refuge\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "struggling-with-english-from-kindergarten-to-high-school-graduation",
"title": "Struggling With English, From Kindergarten to High School Graduation",
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"headTitle": "Struggling With English, From Kindergarten to High School Graduation | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>A few weeks before high school graduation, Oakland senior Deyri Rabadan still isn’t sure if she’ll get her diploma.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Honestly, I have thought of dropping out before,” says 17-year-old Deyri, a student at \u003ca href=\"http://www.ousd.k12.ca.us/ccpa\">Coliseum College Prep Academy\u003c/a>. “And that is because, I mean, I don’t really know my English really well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Deyri is waiting on the results of her last California High School Exit Exam. She’s taken it seven times. Each time before, she’s failed the English-language arts portion. And every year since kindergarten, she’s had to retake the English proficiency test, too, because she still doesn’t meet the standards to be considered fluent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/206733869″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It makes me feel really mad, angry, sad,” says Deyri. “To be honest, I feel stupid, because I’m taking the same test over and over and over. It’s simple questions, but it’s just that my reading comprehension, it’s not really good. And my essay portion, also. I know the format of writing an essay, but it’s just that I don’t use a strong vocabulary.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Deyri isn’t a newcomer. She moved to the United States from Mexico when she was 2½ years old. And she’s been in public school here since kindergarten. In fact, almost three out of four English learners in California middle and high schools have been here for most of their school years. Yet English-language learners are \u003ca href=\"http://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/cohortrates/CRByProgram.aspx?cds=00000000000000&TheYear=2013-14&Agg=T&Topic=Graduates&RC=State&SubGroup=Ethnic/Racial\">less likely to graduate than almost any other group\u003c/a>: less than two-thirds of them make it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So what’s going on? Well, for one, kids like Deyri are missing out on opportunities to practice English in an academic setting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel like if I speak up in class or I try to participate in class, other students are going to be like, ‘What is she talking about?’ ” says Deyri. She’s felt like that for years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10533743\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15235_IMG_20150420_144604-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10533743\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15235_IMG_20150420_144604-qut-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Deyri Rabadan has been in school in Oakland since kindergarten, but has struggled to pass the English proficiency exam and the high school exit exam.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15235_IMG_20150420_144604-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15235_IMG_20150420_144604-qut-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15235_IMG_20150420_144604-qut-1440x1080.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15235_IMG_20150420_144604-qut-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15235_IMG_20150420_144604-qut-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15235_IMG_20150420_144604-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Deyri Rabadan has been in school in Oakland since kindergarten, but has struggled to pass the English proficiency exam and the high school exit exam. \u003ccite>(Zaidee Stavely/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Not only do kids like Deyri often lack the confidence to speak up; they’re also frequently in schools with few fluent speakers of English, so they pick up mistakes from each other that are hard to shake off years down the road.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>English learners are supposed to get 30 minutes of help in English-language development every day, but many don’t.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not knowing English well makes it harder to learn things like science and history. Some kids get frustrated and drop out. Others, like Deyri, keep trying but have big gaps in their learning. Meanwhile, they often think they’re fluent in English, because they get along socially.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have students who for years haven’t been successful in school and don’t really know why. And no one else really knows why,” explains Nina Portugal. She teaches a class designed especially for these “long-term English learners” at Castlemont High School in Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It frustrated me a lot when I first came to Oakland,” says Portugal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10533740\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15234_IMG_20150420_124016-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10533740\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15234_IMG_20150420_124016-qut-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Long-term English Learners in sixth through eighth grade at Coliseum College Prep Academy set goals to become proficient in the language. Teachers say it's empowering.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15234_IMG_20150420_124016-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15234_IMG_20150420_124016-qut-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15234_IMG_20150420_124016-qut-1440x1080.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15234_IMG_20150420_124016-qut-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15234_IMG_20150420_124016-qut-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15234_IMG_20150420_124016-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Long-term English learners in sixth through eighth grade at Coliseum College Prep Academy set goals to become proficient in the language. Teachers say it’s empowering. \u003ccite>(Zaidee Stavely/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“People would say, ‘Oh, they’re not an English learner.’ And I would say, ‘But they are! They’re reading five, six grade levels below, they think in Spanish, and when you talk to them, they don’t know what was going on in your class.’ And the teachers would be like, ‘Oh! I guess I never realized.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Only recently did the state start realizing. Last school year, it started tracking kids in every school who have been English learners for more than six years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In part that was because of momentum sparked by\u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CB8QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.californianstogether.org%2Fdocs%2Fdownload.aspx%3FfileId%3D227&ei=ofJdVf-aNdKpogSZx4HoBg&usg=AFQjCNFU0tZuzZZMCTTjPiFRnKUwBqGlYg&sig2=gDH3_JeBtLA0-lTq37BpBA&bvm=bv.93990622,d.cGU\"> research published by Laurie Olsen\u003c/a> of Californians Together. It was called “Reparable Harm” because Olsen believes strongly this is a problem that can be prevented.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If a student has been in our schools for five, six, 10, 11 years, we certainly should have been able to get them to English proficiency and mastering the academic content,” says Olsen. “It really starts right from the first day they enter school. Right from the start we should have them actively involved, engaged in rich language, falling in love with language. We should be developing their home language along with English! That’s where they have a knowledge base.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Teachers and districts around the state have come up with new approaches to turn things around for the kids who have already been in school for longer than six years and still aren’t English-proficient.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A big part of Oakland Unified’s strategy is to explain to students why they’re struggling and what they need to work on. Teachers say it’s empowering students to improve. Olsen agrees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That is just wonderfully powerful to students who have been confused year after year of, ‘Why am I struggling?’ Putting power in their hands, engaging them in charting their path, is one of the aspects that is making a difference in some districts,” says Olsen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10533741\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15232_IMG_20150420_124132-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10533741\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15232_IMG_20150420_124132-qut-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Mariko White teaches long-term English learners at Coliseum College Prep Academy.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15232_IMG_20150420_124132-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15232_IMG_20150420_124132-qut-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15232_IMG_20150420_124132-qut-1440x1080.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15232_IMG_20150420_124132-qut-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15232_IMG_20150420_124132-qut-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15232_IMG_20150420_124132-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mariko White teaches long-term English learners at Coliseum College Prep Academy. \u003ccite>(Zaidee Stavely/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>There’s a class just for these students at Deyri Rabadan’s sixth-through-12th grade school, Coliseum College Prep Academy, but it’s only for middle schoolers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One morning, two sixth-graders are timing each other to see how many words they can read in one minute. Another group is taking vocabulary quizzes on computers. And a group of three is digging deep into a passage from Anne Frank’s “Diary of a Young Girl” to help them stay up to speed as they study the book in their regular English class. Teacher Mariko White is going over a metaphor with them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So what is happening, is she literally seeing these clouds coming?” asks teacher Mariko White.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No, they see the Nazis getting closer and closer,” says one boy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In her mind she sees it,” adds another.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So how can we say that, in your mind?”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">California school districts now receive more money based on how many English learners are enrolled. But how are they using that money? It’s apparently anyone’s guess, according to \u003ca href=\"http://www.ciclt.net/ul/calto/AReportonYearOneLCAPs_2015-04-22.pdf\">a new report from Californians Together and Loyola Marymount University\u003c/a>.The study looked at Local Control Accountability Plans for 29 districts in the state, including those with the highest numbers and highest concentrations of English-language learners.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“She imagines … ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>White says using the text from their regular English class has made a big difference for kids to be able to understand concepts and participate in academic discussions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve been in their classes and a kid will look at me and go, ‘Ah! Oh yeah, we did this!’ And they’ve been able to participate,” says White.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The approach seems to be paying off: More than three times as many high school English learners in Oakland met the requirements this year to be reclassified as English-proficient as in previous years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This kind of class was never available for Deyri Rabadan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But she just got some good news. On her seventh try, Deyri finally passed the high school exit exam. She’s planning to go to college in the fall. The reading will be a challenge, she says, but it’s one she wants to take on, because she wants to forge a path for her two younger sisters to follow.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A few weeks before high school graduation, Oakland senior Deyri Rabadan still isn’t sure if she’ll get her diploma.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Honestly, I have thought of dropping out before,” says 17-year-old Deyri, a student at \u003ca href=\"http://www.ousd.k12.ca.us/ccpa\">Coliseum College Prep Academy\u003c/a>. “And that is because, I mean, I don’t really know my English really well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Deyri is waiting on the results of her last California High School Exit Exam. She’s taken it seven times. Each time before, she’s failed the English-language arts portion. And every year since kindergarten, she’s had to retake the English proficiency test, too, because she still doesn’t meet the standards to be considered fluent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cdiv class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__shortcodes__shortcodeWrapper'>\n \u003ciframe width='”100%”' height='”166″'\n scrolling='no' frameborder='no'\n src='https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/206733869″&visual=true&”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false”'\n title='”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/206733869″'>\n \u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/div>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It makes me feel really mad, angry, sad,” says Deyri. “To be honest, I feel stupid, because I’m taking the same test over and over and over. It’s simple questions, but it’s just that my reading comprehension, it’s not really good. And my essay portion, also. I know the format of writing an essay, but it’s just that I don’t use a strong vocabulary.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Deyri isn’t a newcomer. She moved to the United States from Mexico when she was 2½ years old. And she’s been in public school here since kindergarten. In fact, almost three out of four English learners in California middle and high schools have been here for most of their school years. Yet English-language learners are \u003ca href=\"http://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/cohortrates/CRByProgram.aspx?cds=00000000000000&TheYear=2013-14&Agg=T&Topic=Graduates&RC=State&SubGroup=Ethnic/Racial\">less likely to graduate than almost any other group\u003c/a>: less than two-thirds of them make it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So what’s going on? Well, for one, kids like Deyri are missing out on opportunities to practice English in an academic setting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel like if I speak up in class or I try to participate in class, other students are going to be like, ‘What is she talking about?’ ” says Deyri. She’s felt like that for years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10533743\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15235_IMG_20150420_144604-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10533743\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15235_IMG_20150420_144604-qut-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Deyri Rabadan has been in school in Oakland since kindergarten, but has struggled to pass the English proficiency exam and the high school exit exam.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15235_IMG_20150420_144604-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15235_IMG_20150420_144604-qut-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15235_IMG_20150420_144604-qut-1440x1080.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15235_IMG_20150420_144604-qut-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15235_IMG_20150420_144604-qut-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15235_IMG_20150420_144604-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Deyri Rabadan has been in school in Oakland since kindergarten, but has struggled to pass the English proficiency exam and the high school exit exam. \u003ccite>(Zaidee Stavely/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Not only do kids like Deyri often lack the confidence to speak up; they’re also frequently in schools with few fluent speakers of English, so they pick up mistakes from each other that are hard to shake off years down the road.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>English learners are supposed to get 30 minutes of help in English-language development every day, but many don’t.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not knowing English well makes it harder to learn things like science and history. Some kids get frustrated and drop out. Others, like Deyri, keep trying but have big gaps in their learning. Meanwhile, they often think they’re fluent in English, because they get along socially.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have students who for years haven’t been successful in school and don’t really know why. And no one else really knows why,” explains Nina Portugal. She teaches a class designed especially for these “long-term English learners” at Castlemont High School in Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It frustrated me a lot when I first came to Oakland,” says Portugal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10533740\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15234_IMG_20150420_124016-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10533740\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15234_IMG_20150420_124016-qut-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Long-term English Learners in sixth through eighth grade at Coliseum College Prep Academy set goals to become proficient in the language. Teachers say it's empowering.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15234_IMG_20150420_124016-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15234_IMG_20150420_124016-qut-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15234_IMG_20150420_124016-qut-1440x1080.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15234_IMG_20150420_124016-qut-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15234_IMG_20150420_124016-qut-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15234_IMG_20150420_124016-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Long-term English learners in sixth through eighth grade at Coliseum College Prep Academy set goals to become proficient in the language. Teachers say it’s empowering. \u003ccite>(Zaidee Stavely/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“People would say, ‘Oh, they’re not an English learner.’ And I would say, ‘But they are! They’re reading five, six grade levels below, they think in Spanish, and when you talk to them, they don’t know what was going on in your class.’ And the teachers would be like, ‘Oh! I guess I never realized.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Only recently did the state start realizing. Last school year, it started tracking kids in every school who have been English learners for more than six years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In part that was because of momentum sparked by\u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CB8QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.californianstogether.org%2Fdocs%2Fdownload.aspx%3FfileId%3D227&ei=ofJdVf-aNdKpogSZx4HoBg&usg=AFQjCNFU0tZuzZZMCTTjPiFRnKUwBqGlYg&sig2=gDH3_JeBtLA0-lTq37BpBA&bvm=bv.93990622,d.cGU\"> research published by Laurie Olsen\u003c/a> of Californians Together. It was called “Reparable Harm” because Olsen believes strongly this is a problem that can be prevented.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If a student has been in our schools for five, six, 10, 11 years, we certainly should have been able to get them to English proficiency and mastering the academic content,” says Olsen. “It really starts right from the first day they enter school. Right from the start we should have them actively involved, engaged in rich language, falling in love with language. We should be developing their home language along with English! That’s where they have a knowledge base.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Teachers and districts around the state have come up with new approaches to turn things around for the kids who have already been in school for longer than six years and still aren’t English-proficient.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A big part of Oakland Unified’s strategy is to explain to students why they’re struggling and what they need to work on. Teachers say it’s empowering students to improve. Olsen agrees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That is just wonderfully powerful to students who have been confused year after year of, ‘Why am I struggling?’ Putting power in their hands, engaging them in charting their path, is one of the aspects that is making a difference in some districts,” says Olsen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10533741\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15232_IMG_20150420_124132-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10533741\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15232_IMG_20150420_124132-qut-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Mariko White teaches long-term English learners at Coliseum College Prep Academy.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15232_IMG_20150420_124132-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15232_IMG_20150420_124132-qut-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15232_IMG_20150420_124132-qut-1440x1080.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15232_IMG_20150420_124132-qut-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15232_IMG_20150420_124132-qut-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/RS15232_IMG_20150420_124132-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mariko White teaches long-term English learners at Coliseum College Prep Academy. \u003ccite>(Zaidee Stavely/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>There’s a class just for these students at Deyri Rabadan’s sixth-through-12th grade school, Coliseum College Prep Academy, but it’s only for middle schoolers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One morning, two sixth-graders are timing each other to see how many words they can read in one minute. Another group is taking vocabulary quizzes on computers. And a group of three is digging deep into a passage from Anne Frank’s “Diary of a Young Girl” to help them stay up to speed as they study the book in their regular English class. Teacher Mariko White is going over a metaphor with them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So what is happening, is she literally seeing these clouds coming?” asks teacher Mariko White.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No, they see the Nazis getting closer and closer,” says one boy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In her mind she sees it,” adds another.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So how can we say that, in your mind?”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">California school districts now receive more money based on how many English learners are enrolled. But how are they using that money? It’s apparently anyone’s guess, according to \u003ca href=\"http://www.ciclt.net/ul/calto/AReportonYearOneLCAPs_2015-04-22.pdf\">a new report from Californians Together and Loyola Marymount University\u003c/a>.The study looked at Local Control Accountability Plans for 29 districts in the state, including those with the highest numbers and highest concentrations of English-language learners.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“She imagines … ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>White says using the text from their regular English class has made a big difference for kids to be able to understand concepts and participate in academic discussions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve been in their classes and a kid will look at me and go, ‘Ah! Oh yeah, we did this!’ And they’ve been able to participate,” says White.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The approach seems to be paying off: More than three times as many high school English learners in Oakland met the requirements this year to be reclassified as English-proficient as in previous years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This kind of class was never available for Deyri Rabadan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But she just got some good news. On her seventh try, Deyri finally passed the high school exit exam. She’s planning to go to college in the fall. The reading will be a challenge, she says, but it’s one she wants to take on, because she wants to forge a path for her two younger sisters to follow.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "What Can San Francisco Learn About School Diversity From Other Cities?",
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"content": "\u003cp>There are ways to diversify schools — and other American cities have found those ways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in San Francisco, one of the most diverse cities in the country, a third of elementary schools are segregated, with at least 60 percent of students from the same race. It’s the byproduct of housing patterns and a student assignment system that emphasizes parental choice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of the city’s 72 elementary schools, 24 have an enrollment that’s at least 60 percent of one race or ethnicity: 10 schools are predominantly Asian, two mostly African-American and 12 Latino. That degree of segregation is a problem, according to academic experts, and decades of data from local, state and federal research.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Racially isolated schools often have fewer effective teachers, higher teacher turnover rates, less rigorous curricular resources (e.g., college preparatory courses), and inferior facilities and other educational resources,” concluded a memo issued by the federal Justice and Education departments in 2011 regarding racial isolation in schools and legal issues related to desegregation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Diversity in San Francisco Schools, 2013-14\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv style=\"display: inline-block; width: 100%;\">\n\u003cdiv style=\"position: relative; padding-bottom: 100%; padding-top:25px; height: 0;\">\n\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"//sf-schools-map.silk.co/s/embed/map/collection/final-schools-data-for-online-graphics/column/neighborhood/column/racially-isolated/column/percent-of-students-living-in-poverty/column/hispanic-or-latino/column/asian/column/african-american/column/white/column/other-or-not-reported/location/address/suggestion/filter/equals/racially-isolated\" style=\"border:0;position: absolute; top:0; left:0; width: 100%;height:100%;\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:12px;color:gray;\">Data from \u003ca href=\"http://sf-schools-map.silk.co\">sf-schools-map.silk.co\u003c/a>\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Court-ordered desegregation efforts in the 1960s and 1970s were successful at reducing segregation in schools, said Sarah Reber, an associate professor of public policy at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs, who has studied desegregation successes and failures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But across the country, as in San Francisco, court decisions have made it difficult for school districts to force desegregation. Consequently, many desegregation plans have fallen away in favor of choice-based programs — such as magnet schools and language programs — designed to attract students from diverse backgrounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In San Francisco, the school board has relied on a school assignment system to try to diversify schools. First preference is given to younger siblings of children enrolled in a school, second to families living in census tracts where students score lowest on standardized tests and third to students living in the neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it hasn’t worked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we see is when we have choice, people self-segregate by race,” school board member Sandra Fewer said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet school board members unanimously said they don’t want to give up on desegregating schools. Examples of desegregation efforts across the country — including magnet schools and creative school boundaries and assignment systems — suggest they don’t have to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://vimeo.com/127318902\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Impact of Choice\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In San Francisco’s Excelsior neighborhood, parental choice at one school shows how choice can lead to diversity in a school’s makeup.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monroe Elementary is one of the most diverse — half Hispanic, a third Asian, 7 percent white and 3 percent black.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The school has a Spanish-immersion program that draws both Spanish- and English-speaking families, a Chinese bilingual program for students who want to maintain the language while learning English, and a traditional general education program — programs placed at the school years ago to address the language needs of students in the surrounding community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the district didn’t set out to create a diverse school, the three programs lure a wide range of families from the neighborhood and from across the city. With 500 students with parents who speak three different languages, it’s a juggling act, but worthwhile, Monroe Principal José Montaño said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a tall order to have all this in one school,” he said. “But language pathways make a huge impact in a school’s racial makeup. ... Language is a big part of race.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=\"zJ29drxbOky1XxuiX8o4DjcReM8dgXFX\"]In the Monroe library, “Goodnight Moon 1, 2, 3” is displayed next to the book “Te lo regalo!” while “The Three Little Tamales” is displayed alongside “My Friend Jamal,” with two smiling boys on the cover, one black and one white. Books in Chinese are on a nearby shelf.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In one third-grade Chinese bilingual classroom, the students are all Asian. Next door, the Spanish-immersion third-graders are mostly a mix of Latino and white. Just down the stairs, in the general education third-grade classroom, Asian, white, Latino and black faces glance up when a visitor walks in the door.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While 80 percent of the students are from low-income families and two-thirds of them are English learners, the school overall exceeded the state’s benchmark of 800 points on the 1,000-point Academic Performance Index, based primarily on standardized tests. But more importantly, students across all subgroups exceeded the district average for each category. That means Asian, white and Latino students, English learners and poor students all posted higher test scores than their peers across San Francisco schools. Subgroup test scores were not available for African-American students because the number tested at Monroe was too small.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There is no magic fix to segregation, Montaño said. What’s happening at Monroe is a good start, he said, but just a start.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“On paper, we look pretty diverse,” Montaño said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The playground, however, offered another picture. At recess, the Latino children play soccer. The Asian youngsters play basketball. A group of white girls huddle on a bench.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can’t force them to hang out,” Montaño said. “You can’t force them to like each other.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Unintended Benefit\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco has other magnet programs that lure families to a school or a neighborhood they might not otherwise consider. In many cases, including the placement of language programs at Monroe, diversity was an unintentional positive result rather than a deliberate attempt to reduce segregation by district officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before adding a Mandarin-immersion program at Starr King Elementary in 2006, the school, located next to a public housing project on Potrero Hill, was predominantly black and Latino and under-enrolled in the school’s traditional general education program. With the Chinese-language program in place, the school has doubled enrollment and is more diverse: 27 percent Asian, 19 percent white, 18 percent Latino and 17 percent African-American.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With so many empty classrooms, it was in danger of being closed, said board member Shamann Walton. It is now full and has become the most diverse school in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A quality program did make that school change,” he said. “Just imagine if we did some of the same things with schools in the Bayview.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Magnet Programs\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several districts across the country have taken the idea a step further, using a regional approach to magnet programs to make schools more diverse across city and suburban lines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Schools in the St. Louis area are among them. There, 4,500 students from the city, where students are predominantly African-American, take buses into the suburbs for school in a voluntary transfer program. A much smaller number of students, 130, bus from the suburbs to 24 specialty magnet schools in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the racial makeup of suburban schools varies, the program’s results are not uniform. Enrollment in Rockwood School District, in St. Louis’ western suburbs, for example, is now about 10 percent African-American, compared with the 2 percent that might have been enrolled without the voluntary transfer program, said David Glaser, the chief executive officer of the Voluntary Interdistrict Choice Corp., which oversees the desegregation program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10530503\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/002_Schools0518-e1431982646197.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-10530503\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/002_Schools0518-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"Spanish-immersion second-graders Deven Finnemore and Lia Palma read together at Monroe Elementary School in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, April 29, 2015.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Spanish-immersion second-graders Deven Finnemore and Lia Palma read together at Monroe Elementary School in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, April 29, 2015. \u003ccite>(San Francisco Chronicle)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It’s substantially more integrated. Is it as diverse as the overall population in the world? In some districts, it is and in some districts, not as much,” Glaser said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After a Connecticut Supreme Court ruling in 1996, Hartford created a system that allows students in the city and the outlying suburbs to transfer to one another’s schools. The students are lured to schools far from home, thanks to a big state investment in regional, high-quality, subject-specific magnet schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of them, the Academy of Aerospace and Engineering, was rated the 15th-best high school in the country last year by U.S. News and World Report. Other magnet schools specialize in early reading, science and technology, environmentalism, performing arts, journalism and medicine. Seats are awarded through a lottery system, and some busing is provided.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2013, the state reported that half of Hartford students were attending integrated schools, meaning less than three-quarters of a school’s population are minorities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Berkeley, the district takes another approach. In response to the 1996 passage of Proposition 209, which prohibits public institutions from considering race in education and hiring decisions, Berkeley Unified now divides the city into three broad attendance zones. Within those, the city is further divvied up into areas of four to eight blocks apiece, each of which is given a diversity rating depending on its racial makeup, income and education levels. The diversity scores range from 1 (more disadvantaged) to 3 (more advantaged).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Families can choose which elementary school to send their child to as long as each school’s percentage of category 1, 2 and 3 students is close to those percentages for the whole attendance zone. If a school’s diversity mix is askew, open seats are given to students who would help achieve balance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district’s 11 elementary schools are diverse, closely mirroring the district’s overall racial demographics. None of them has 50 percent or more of any one race.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For decades in San Francisco, education officials have relied almost exclusively on the student assignment system in one way or another to diversify schools, but success stories like Monroe and Starr King show that it needs a closer look at alternatives, school board members said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Bolder Action Urged\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district needs to be bolder, they said, noting they need to take a harder look at putting programs in schools — language programs, music programs, art programs — to draw families to segregated or unpopular schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The board has also considered giving “golden tickets” to entice families to choose certain schools — perhaps first choice in enrollment at city high schools, which they offered as an enrollment incentive at the new Willie Brown Middle School in the city’s less popular Bayview neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am interested in us looking more to those strategies,” board member Jill Wynns said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A school in Lower Pacific Heights is already on the school board’s radar as a possible option for a new magnet program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cobb Elementary now occupies a newly renovated building painted a deep schoolhouse red with bright white window frames. The school is 63 percent black and Latino and severely under-enrolled with 180 students. There is room for up to 170 more, despite its centralized location.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Superintendent Richard Carranza said the school could accommodate a new program to diversify and increase enrollment. One suggestion is to relocate Clarendon Elementary’s Japanese Bilingual Bicultural Program to Cobb, which would also increase the number of neighborhood seats at Clarendon, which are in high demand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clarendon families in the Japanese program are already pushing back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think we’re satisfied with the idea that some schools are not that attractive for some people,” said school board member Matt Haney. “It’s a huge disparity in our district, and the choice patterns are often by race. We don’t make efforts to try to disrupt that in ways that are positive choices that people might make.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Jill Tucker, Heather Knight and Greta Kaul are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. E-mail: jtucker@sfchronicle.com, hknight@sfchronicle.com, gkaul@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jilltucker, @hknightsf, @gretakaul\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>There are ways to diversify schools — and other American cities have found those ways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in San Francisco, one of the most diverse cities in the country, a third of elementary schools are segregated, with at least 60 percent of students from the same race. It’s the byproduct of housing patterns and a student assignment system that emphasizes parental choice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of the city’s 72 elementary schools, 24 have an enrollment that’s at least 60 percent of one race or ethnicity: 10 schools are predominantly Asian, two mostly African-American and 12 Latino. That degree of segregation is a problem, according to academic experts, and decades of data from local, state and federal research.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Racially isolated schools often have fewer effective teachers, higher teacher turnover rates, less rigorous curricular resources (e.g., college preparatory courses), and inferior facilities and other educational resources,” concluded a memo issued by the federal Justice and Education departments in 2011 regarding racial isolation in schools and legal issues related to desegregation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Diversity in San Francisco Schools, 2013-14\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv style=\"display: inline-block; width: 100%;\">\n\u003cdiv style=\"position: relative; padding-bottom: 100%; padding-top:25px; height: 0;\">\n\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"//sf-schools-map.silk.co/s/embed/map/collection/final-schools-data-for-online-graphics/column/neighborhood/column/racially-isolated/column/percent-of-students-living-in-poverty/column/hispanic-or-latino/column/asian/column/african-american/column/white/column/other-or-not-reported/location/address/suggestion/filter/equals/racially-isolated\" style=\"border:0;position: absolute; top:0; left:0; width: 100%;height:100%;\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:12px;color:gray;\">Data from \u003ca href=\"http://sf-schools-map.silk.co\">sf-schools-map.silk.co\u003c/a>\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Court-ordered desegregation efforts in the 1960s and 1970s were successful at reducing segregation in schools, said Sarah Reber, an associate professor of public policy at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs, who has studied desegregation successes and failures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But across the country, as in San Francisco, court decisions have made it difficult for school districts to force desegregation. Consequently, many desegregation plans have fallen away in favor of choice-based programs — such as magnet schools and language programs — designed to attract students from diverse backgrounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In San Francisco, the school board has relied on a school assignment system to try to diversify schools. First preference is given to younger siblings of children enrolled in a school, second to families living in census tracts where students score lowest on standardized tests and third to students living in the neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it hasn’t worked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we see is when we have choice, people self-segregate by race,” school board member Sandra Fewer said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet school board members unanimously said they don’t want to give up on desegregating schools. Examples of desegregation efforts across the country — including magnet schools and creative school boundaries and assignment systems — suggest they don’t have to.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Impact of Choice\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In San Francisco’s Excelsior neighborhood, parental choice at one school shows how choice can lead to diversity in a school’s makeup.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monroe Elementary is one of the most diverse — half Hispanic, a third Asian, 7 percent white and 3 percent black.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The school has a Spanish-immersion program that draws both Spanish- and English-speaking families, a Chinese bilingual program for students who want to maintain the language while learning English, and a traditional general education program — programs placed at the school years ago to address the language needs of students in the surrounding community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the district didn’t set out to create a diverse school, the three programs lure a wide range of families from the neighborhood and from across the city. With 500 students with parents who speak three different languages, it’s a juggling act, but worthwhile, Monroe Principal José Montaño said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a tall order to have all this in one school,” he said. “But language pathways make a huge impact in a school’s racial makeup. ... Language is a big part of race.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>In the Monroe library, “Goodnight Moon 1, 2, 3” is displayed next to the book “Te lo regalo!” while “The Three Little Tamales” is displayed alongside “My Friend Jamal,” with two smiling boys on the cover, one black and one white. Books in Chinese are on a nearby shelf.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In one third-grade Chinese bilingual classroom, the students are all Asian. Next door, the Spanish-immersion third-graders are mostly a mix of Latino and white. Just down the stairs, in the general education third-grade classroom, Asian, white, Latino and black faces glance up when a visitor walks in the door.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While 80 percent of the students are from low-income families and two-thirds of them are English learners, the school overall exceeded the state’s benchmark of 800 points on the 1,000-point Academic Performance Index, based primarily on standardized tests. But more importantly, students across all subgroups exceeded the district average for each category. That means Asian, white and Latino students, English learners and poor students all posted higher test scores than their peers across San Francisco schools. Subgroup test scores were not available for African-American students because the number tested at Monroe was too small.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There is no magic fix to segregation, Montaño said. What’s happening at Monroe is a good start, he said, but just a start.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“On paper, we look pretty diverse,” Montaño said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The playground, however, offered another picture. At recess, the Latino children play soccer. The Asian youngsters play basketball. A group of white girls huddle on a bench.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can’t force them to hang out,” Montaño said. “You can’t force them to like each other.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Unintended Benefit\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco has other magnet programs that lure families to a school or a neighborhood they might not otherwise consider. In many cases, including the placement of language programs at Monroe, diversity was an unintentional positive result rather than a deliberate attempt to reduce segregation by district officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before adding a Mandarin-immersion program at Starr King Elementary in 2006, the school, located next to a public housing project on Potrero Hill, was predominantly black and Latino and under-enrolled in the school’s traditional general education program. With the Chinese-language program in place, the school has doubled enrollment and is more diverse: 27 percent Asian, 19 percent white, 18 percent Latino and 17 percent African-American.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With so many empty classrooms, it was in danger of being closed, said board member Shamann Walton. It is now full and has become the most diverse school in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A quality program did make that school change,” he said. “Just imagine if we did some of the same things with schools in the Bayview.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Magnet Programs\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several districts across the country have taken the idea a step further, using a regional approach to magnet programs to make schools more diverse across city and suburban lines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Schools in the St. Louis area are among them. There, 4,500 students from the city, where students are predominantly African-American, take buses into the suburbs for school in a voluntary transfer program. A much smaller number of students, 130, bus from the suburbs to 24 specialty magnet schools in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the racial makeup of suburban schools varies, the program’s results are not uniform. Enrollment in Rockwood School District, in St. Louis’ western suburbs, for example, is now about 10 percent African-American, compared with the 2 percent that might have been enrolled without the voluntary transfer program, said David Glaser, the chief executive officer of the Voluntary Interdistrict Choice Corp., which oversees the desegregation program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10530503\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/002_Schools0518-e1431982646197.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-10530503\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/002_Schools0518-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"Spanish-immersion second-graders Deven Finnemore and Lia Palma read together at Monroe Elementary School in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, April 29, 2015.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Spanish-immersion second-graders Deven Finnemore and Lia Palma read together at Monroe Elementary School in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, April 29, 2015. \u003ccite>(San Francisco Chronicle)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It’s substantially more integrated. Is it as diverse as the overall population in the world? In some districts, it is and in some districts, not as much,” Glaser said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After a Connecticut Supreme Court ruling in 1996, Hartford created a system that allows students in the city and the outlying suburbs to transfer to one another’s schools. The students are lured to schools far from home, thanks to a big state investment in regional, high-quality, subject-specific magnet schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of them, the Academy of Aerospace and Engineering, was rated the 15th-best high school in the country last year by U.S. News and World Report. Other magnet schools specialize in early reading, science and technology, environmentalism, performing arts, journalism and medicine. Seats are awarded through a lottery system, and some busing is provided.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2013, the state reported that half of Hartford students were attending integrated schools, meaning less than three-quarters of a school’s population are minorities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Berkeley, the district takes another approach. In response to the 1996 passage of Proposition 209, which prohibits public institutions from considering race in education and hiring decisions, Berkeley Unified now divides the city into three broad attendance zones. Within those, the city is further divvied up into areas of four to eight blocks apiece, each of which is given a diversity rating depending on its racial makeup, income and education levels. The diversity scores range from 1 (more disadvantaged) to 3 (more advantaged).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Families can choose which elementary school to send their child to as long as each school’s percentage of category 1, 2 and 3 students is close to those percentages for the whole attendance zone. If a school’s diversity mix is askew, open seats are given to students who would help achieve balance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district’s 11 elementary schools are diverse, closely mirroring the district’s overall racial demographics. None of them has 50 percent or more of any one race.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For decades in San Francisco, education officials have relied almost exclusively on the student assignment system in one way or another to diversify schools, but success stories like Monroe and Starr King show that it needs a closer look at alternatives, school board members said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Bolder Action Urged\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district needs to be bolder, they said, noting they need to take a harder look at putting programs in schools — language programs, music programs, art programs — to draw families to segregated or unpopular schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The board has also considered giving “golden tickets” to entice families to choose certain schools — perhaps first choice in enrollment at city high schools, which they offered as an enrollment incentive at the new Willie Brown Middle School in the city’s less popular Bayview neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am interested in us looking more to those strategies,” board member Jill Wynns said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A school in Lower Pacific Heights is already on the school board’s radar as a possible option for a new magnet program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cobb Elementary now occupies a newly renovated building painted a deep schoolhouse red with bright white window frames. The school is 63 percent black and Latino and severely under-enrolled with 180 students. There is room for up to 170 more, despite its centralized location.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Superintendent Richard Carranza said the school could accommodate a new program to diversify and increase enrollment. One suggestion is to relocate Clarendon Elementary’s Japanese Bilingual Bicultural Program to Cobb, which would also increase the number of neighborhood seats at Clarendon, which are in high demand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clarendon families in the Japanese program are already pushing back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think we’re satisfied with the idea that some schools are not that attractive for some people,” said school board member Matt Haney. “It’s a huge disparity in our district, and the choice patterns are often by race. We don’t make efforts to try to disrupt that in ways that are positive choices that people might make.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Jill Tucker, Heather Knight and Greta Kaul are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. E-mail: jtucker@sfchronicle.com, hknight@sfchronicle.com, gkaul@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jilltucker, @hknightsf, @gretakaul\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "The Resegregation of San Francisco's Public Schools",
"title": "The Resegregation of San Francisco's Public Schools",
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"content": "\u003cp>Tables representing each of San Francisco’s public schools stretched throughout John O’Connell High School in the Mission one morning last fall. Thousands of parents quizzed principals and teachers to determine where their children should go to school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This was the school district’s annual Public School Enrollment Fair. Despite the heaving crowds, Mark Sanchez was downright lonely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every year, the tables for the city’s 106 public schools are arranged alphabetically. And every year Sanchez, principal of the mostly Latino Cleveland Elementary, sits for hours with hardly anybody approaching him. To his left, white and Asian parents swarm the table for the coveted Clarendon Elementary, a school that is harder to get into than Harvard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every year, it’s the same thing. Every year,” Sanchez said. “Our teachers are just as good as Clarendon’s. ... I call it the un-fair.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The two schools’ tables demonstrate an alarming fact about the district as a whole: Now that parents have more say in their children’s education than they have in decades, San Francisco’s public schools are increasingly segregated. A months-long Chronicle review found that the district, which for decades has tried to ensure that homogeneous neighborhoods don’t lead to homogeneous schools, is failing to create schools that are racially mixed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like most public school districts around the country, San Francisco Unified has shifted away from a student assignment system that tries to ensure racially mixed schools and toward one that lets parents choose where to send their children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv style=\"display: inline-block; width: 100%;\">\n\u003cdiv style=\"position: relative; padding-bottom: 100%; padding-top:25px; height: 0;\">\n\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"//sfschools.silk.co/s/embed/stackchart/collection/final-schools-data-for-online-graphics/numeric/hispanic-or-latino/numeric/asian/numeric/african-american/numeric/white/numeric/other-or-not-reported\" style=\"border:0;position: absolute; top:0; left:0; width: 100%;height:100%;\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:12px;color:gray;\">Data from \u003ca href=\"http://sfschools.silk.co\">sfschools.silk.co\u003c/a>\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>But in one of the nation’s most liberal cities, where people say they prize diversity, parents mostly choose schools where the other children look like their own. That has led to one-third of the district’s elementary schools becoming racially isolated, composed of at least 60 percent students of one race.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But perhaps the biggest surprise is that most people in this progressive bastion — district officials, principals and parents — seem resigned to resegregation as the new reality.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The public schools and the nerve-wracking lottery system — in which parents list their preferred schools in order and computer-generated assignments are mailed two months later\u003cstrong> — \u003c/strong>are often blamed for helping to drive families out of San Francisco. Just 13.4 percent of the city’s residents are younger than 18, the smallest percentage of any major city in the country. And San Francisco’s wealth and longtime Catholic tradition mean that about 30 percent of children who do live in the city attend private and parochial schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Diversity and integration are rarely cited as top factors in choosing a public school. Instead, district surveys of parents show the safety of a school’s neighborhood, the quality of its staff and its reputation are paramount.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 1954 U.S. Supreme Court case Brown vs. Board of Education outlawed segregated public schools, saying separate was inherently unequal. But many children in San Francisco’s public schools are once again being educated separately — though not because of any official decree. The question is whether they’re being educated equally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A look inside Cleveland and Clarendon — 4 miles, yet a world, apart — shows the schools have some important qualities in common: mostly happy parents and children, good teachers, strong principals and a focus on academic achievement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there are also many stark differences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://player.vimeo.com/video/127318085\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Poverty and Language\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cleveland’s students are almost entirely poor enough to qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, Latino and learning English. They mostly live in the school’s Excelsior neighborhood. Few of their parents went to college, and they mostly work in blue-collar jobs or stay home to raise their children. They are unable to contribute much money to their children’s education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clarendon’s students are far more likely to be white or Asian, and far less likely to be poor or learning English. They come from around the city, and many of their parents drive them miles to the school on the west side of Twin Peaks. The parents are mostly professionals, and they \u003cu>raise\u003c/u> $400,000 a year to supplement their children’s already premier education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Academic Performance Index is no longer used by the state to signify school achievement, but many parents still use it to determine which schools are best. In 2013, Clarendon scored 956 on a scale of 1 to 1,000, with 800 considered excellent. Cleveland reached 708.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>School board member Rachel Norton said this kind of division makes her “incredibly sad,” but that it’s the natural result of parental choice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t know how as a policymaker to encourage people to make different choices,” she said. “That is what is going to have to happen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Satisfied Parents\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sanchez doesn’t bother scheduling tours of Cleveland Elementary anymore. Like his table at the annual enrollment fair, nobody ever comes. But with 360 students, his school is full of families who want to be there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eighty-three percent of those students are Latino, and there is a smattering of Asian and black students, and two white children. Ninety-five percent of Cleveland’s students are poor enough to qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Seventy-three percent of Cleveland’s students are learning English.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Almost every Cleveland parent The Chronicle asked said he or she requested Cleveland because it’s close to home. Many said they didn’t bother touring other schools, attending the enrollment fair or giving much thought to the annual lottery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sanchez said the lack of diversity at Cleveland actually makes his job easier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The more homogenous your population is, the easier it is to run it — the expectations of the families are very similar,” he said, noting there aren’t many discipline problems at his school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s a far different attitude than the one Sanchez had 10 years ago as a leftie firebrand on the school board. At the time, the seven members were grappling with how to remake the student assignment system, and Sanchez wanted to use race as a tiebreaker when two students were vying for the same spot and to give public housing residents priority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He didn’t succeed — and he has long abandoned that fight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve raised the white flag, so to speak,” he said. “There’s a patina of people wanting diversity, but when the rubber hits the road, they’re going to make the best decisions for their family. I don’t think most families actually want it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Families Flee\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sanchez’s thinking is now fairly common among San Francisco school officials, who know the district began hemorrhaging students when it required them to mix with children of other races.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the late 1960s, there were more than 90,000 students in San Francisco public schools. In 1969, a black father named David Johnson sued the district for creating a racially segregated system in which black students totaled more than 65 percent at 20 elementary schools and nearly the entire enrollment at 10 of those. Back then, 24.4 percent of city residents were younger than 18 — nearly twice the percentage now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A federal judge ordered desegregation, and in 1971 San Francisco put children on buses that crisscrossed the city so they could be in multiracial schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plan almost immediately ended racial isolation — but it also helped drive families out of the district and into the suburbs or into private schools. Many Chinese families resisted integration, boycotting district public schools and creating their own private “freedom schools” for their children instead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From the 1960s to 1983, the school district enrollment had plunged by 32,000 students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vying factions of parents filed lawsuits, and the district tried several different school assignment methods. A federal judge oversaw those efforts from 1983 to 2005, but eventually gave up and called the district’s attempts at diversification a failure. This handed control of the assignment system back to the school district.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The current system, which gives some priority to students if they live near a school, started in 2011. The result: 61 percent got their top choice for this fall’s enrollment, and 85 percent got one of the choices on their list. Last year, those figures were 59 and 82 percent, respectively.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are now 53,700 students enrolled in the city’s public schools, not including the 3,300 enrolled in charter schools — the figure has held fairly steady for the past few years after decades of dropping enrollment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the schools are — once again — segregating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>A Top Draw\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clarendon Elementary is considered such a must-see by San Francisco families that it runs nine tours, and online reservations are required. About 100 parents — nearly all white and Asian — join each tour.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">KQED speaks with the Chronicle's education reporter Jill Tucker about the series.\u003cbr>[soundcloud url=\"https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/206126771\" params=\"color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" iframe=\"true\" /]\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>In December, Jocelyn Porquez was already touring schools with her bubbly daughter, Fiona, despite the 2-year-old having just started preschool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t know if we’re very early or just doing our research,” Porquez said. “With your first kid, you have no idea. ... I want her to thrive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clarendon has 569 students split into two programs: the Japanese Bilingual Bicultural Program and Second Community, which offers Italian-language instruction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clarendon is more diverse than Cleveland: 31 percent of students are white, 33 percent are Asian, 11 percent are Latino and 6 percent are black. It’s also much wealthier than most San Francisco public schools: A fifth of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and just 16 percent are learning English.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By comparison, San Francisco itself is 41 percent white, 34 percent Asian, 15 percent Latino and 6 percent black, according to the U.S. Census. About 13 percent of San Franciscans live in poverty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clarendon’s principal, Peter Van Court, said he loves the school-tour season and encourages all families who visit to apply despite the incredibly long odds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People do get in,” he said. “We’ve got a whole school full of people who got in.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the school lottery for the 2015-16 academic year, Clarendon was by far the most requested elementary school — 1,575 families listed it on their applications. Once siblings were placed — they get priority and filled nearly two-thirds of kindergarten seats — there were just 16 openings and 97 families vying for each of those, according to the district.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Harvard, 17 high school seniors apply for each available seat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Is it worth the hype? I think so,” Van Court said. “Every school that has a school culture that supports teachers and students is worth talking about. We just happen to be at the front of it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Interestingly, the demographics of Clarendon haven’t changed much since the district’s shift toward neighborhood schools. Cleveland, however, has become even more racially isolated. In 2011, Latinos made up 77 percent of the school, whereas they make up 86 percent now. Back in 1999, they made up 50 percent of Cleveland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the lottery, parents with students entering kindergarten, sixth and ninth grades can tour schools throughout the fall and winter and submit a list of schools in order of preference. Assignments are sent in March, and families can keep trying in four subsequent rounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district has found that white and Asian families are more likely to participate in the lottery’s first round than Latino and African-American families, meaning the latter are more likely to be assigned to the less popular schools that have available seats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>College Cheer\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every morning at Cleveland starts the same way. The students gather on the blacktop beneath murals of Nelson Mandela, Thurgood Marshall and Dolores Huerta.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sanchez or another staff member calls into a microphone, “Where are you going one day?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“College!” the kids shout back before scurrying off to their classrooms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every Tuesday morning, there is another playground routine: About 80 Cleveland moms form a line to pick up free food from the San Francisco Food Bank. A loud and brash mother, Ana Hodgson, oversees the food distribution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She takes charge in just about any Cleveland meeting — such as one in March to plan the fifth-grade graduation ceremony. About 20 Latina mothers told the school’s family liaison, a district official assigned to Cleveland to work with families, what they want at the ceremony.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hodgson did almost all of the talking — and soon, the family liaison was persuaded to find a caterer, gifts for the teachers, caps and gowns, a photographer, balloons, an inspirational speaker, decorations and diplomas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hodgson said she learned to speak up through training at Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth, a nonprofit that encourages parents and students to become school leaders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They teach us how to speak up, go to the district and talk,” she said. “We have to if we want to know what’s going on.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that wasn’t Hodgson’s attitude when she was looking for a kindergarten for her son, Roy, who’s now in fifth grade. She didn’t bother touring schools or devising a strategy for the lottery. Her nieces and nephews, whom she helped raise in exchange for housing from her sisters, had all gone to Cleveland, so Roy did, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is my neighborhood,” she said, shrugging. “This is the school my family goes to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But now that Hodgson has found her voice, she’s done with the public schools\u003cstrong>. \u003c/strong>Roy is participating in Smart, a private program that recruits academically promising low-income fourth-graders for intensive summer programs and helps them apply to private middle and high schools. The goal is to get them into college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roy will finish fifth grade at Cleveland at the end of May and has been admitted to the San Francisco School, a private middle school, with a scholarship.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hodgson said she’s glad Roy’s world will soon expand. She said she’s told him he can go to any high school, any college and enter any career he wants to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I told him if he goes to the moon, I’ll go with him,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cultural Crossroads\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Clarendon on a February morning, students in the Japanese Bilingual Bicultural Program were celebrating the spring festival known as \u003cem>Setsubun\u003c/em>. It’s about cleansing evil from the past year to welcome in the new year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A group of Japanese mothers prepared little paper cups filled with roasted soybeans — called fortune beans — to toss at a couple of fathers wearing \u003cem>Oni\u003c/em> masks and pretending to be monsters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rei Kobayashi-McGrath, the program coordinator, instructed the children to go easy on the dads. The beans were to be tossed gently, not hurled at their faces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Do we want to hurt them?” she asked the children sitting rapt on the blacktop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No!” they responded before tossing the beans as parents filmed the festivities on their smartphones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a flash, the Japanese mothers were sweeping up the tossed beans. They then went to work in Clarendon’s large storage room, giggling and chatting in Japanese as they made cucumber sushi rolls for every student.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mai Miyaoka was one of the mothers. Her son, Heiichiro, attends second grade at Clarendon, but only after a lot of stress. He was first assigned to Cesar Chavez Elementary in the Mission, which Miyaoka diplomatically called “a nice school,” but too far from her home near Clarendon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Miyaoka, who moved from Japan four years ago so her husband could work as a postdoctoral researcher in molecular biology at UCSF, persevered through four more lottery rounds before scoring a spot at Clarendon three days before school started.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I couldn’t understand the system so I talked with counselors at SFUSD, and they were very helpful for me,” she said, adding she’s thankful the sibling preference means her preschooler and baby will get in, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She spends a lot of her free time at the school volunteering, an expectation that other parents set at the start of the school tours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everybody works together — it’s very active,” Miyaoka said of Clarendon parents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>State Funding\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cleveland receives $360,000 more than Clarendon from the state each year — $1,000 per student — because its students are so poor and so many of them don’t speak English. The idea is to direct more resources to the neediest schools, but Clarendon more than offsets that through avid parent fundraising and donations from the Japanese and Italian consulates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sanchez uses the extra state money for basic support, including separate Spanish and English literacy coaches, a technology teacher, tablet computers and laptops. He said he gets an adequate amount to run Cleveland, though he’d appreciate more funding for supplies and a poster-making machine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At wealthier schools, those simple requests would be easily met by the Parent Teacher Association, but it doesn’t work that way at Cleveland. The school’s PTA has only 15 members and meets erratically. Maria Gonzalez has a kindergartner at the school and is PTA president. She’s trying to raise more money than last year’s $5,000 — about $14 per child — through a candy drive, a household-goods catalog drive and a spring carnival.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said she knows it’s not much, but that’s the way it is for Cleveland families. Her husband cooks in a restaurant, and she works as an in-home health aide for her elderly, wheelchair-bound mother.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For us, anything we raise is good,” she said, adding she’d like to buy more art supplies and that poster machine Sanchez wants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Clarendon, the parent groups raise about $400,000 — around $680 per child — each year through fundraisers, including the annual live auctions for each program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Japanese program’s auction costs $50 a ticket, and the catalog featured 699 donated prizes including summer camps, yoga classes and ballroom dancing lessons. The Second Community auction featured Champagne, an oyster bar, live jazz and top hats, feather boas and a few pearl necklaces for sale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Together, the programs’ fundraising pays for enrichment programs, including taiko drumming, computer science and Italian classes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clarendon Principal Van Court agrees with Sanchez on what’s most important: that every school provides a good education for every student and that families are happy with the experience. Whether that is at a wealthy, fairly diverse school like Clarendon or a poor, racially isolated school like Cleveland isn’t as important, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If the school reflects the community, it’s not necessarily a problem,” he said. “It’s absolutely about every student being successful at every school.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sanchez and Van Court are not alone. Even the African-American community, the force behind the historical desegregation efforts, has fallen silent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We really don’t have any public demand for this,” state Board of Education President Mike Kirst said about desegregation. “The courts, of course, have largely retreated in this area. And I feel no bottom-up demand for this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But just because everybody’s OK with the status quo doesn’t mean it’s right, said Gary Orfield, co-director of the Civil Rights Project at UCLA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With a few exceptions, schools with low-income students who are predominantly Latino or African-American do poorly academically. Typically, those schools have the highest teacher turnover and the lowest rates of parental involvement. (Cleveland somewhat breaks that general rule since it has a fairly stable teaching staff and its teachers have an average of nine years of experience, a year more than the average at Clarendon.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as courts around the country have ruled against mandated desegregation plans that take race into account, districts have largely given up. This has been exacerbated by dwindling funds to pay for the buses that take students to different neighborhoods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Desegregation didn’t fail,” Orfield said. “There’s a lot of evidence to show that, on average, it improved conditions for students of color, did not harm students who are white and improved race relations. What’s happened is that people have given up in many places because barriers to doing it have been raised, and the help to do it has been eliminated.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s very sad,” he said. “We have never had separate but equal schools in any city on any scale in U.S. history.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Bucking the Pattern\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some San Francisco families are quietly but determinedly bucking the pattern of choosing schools where the children look like their own. On a February afternoon at Clarendon, children were playing on the yard, but one girl was more interested in the stranger with a reporter’s notebook.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hello!” she said, thrusting her hand out. “I’m Zhariyah Aiyana Lynda Shepard-Dorsey and I am 5, and it is very nice to meet you.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The precocious little African-American girl lives in Bayview-Hunters Point and her mother, Keana Shepard-Gardner, 24, listed only Clarendon when she applied to kindergarten last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I went on Google and put in ‘best schools in San Francisco’ and this one just kept popping up,” she said matter-of-factly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She hadn’t toured it and didn’t know anything about the preference for students living in low-performing census tracts, although that’s clearly how she scored a spot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shepard-Gardner and her daughter live with Gardner’s mother across the street from the Hunters View public housing projects in Hunters Point. Shepard-Gardner, her mother or a friend often drive Zhariyah to or from school, but sometimes they get there on a Muni bus ride, with Zhariyah sometimes falling asleep on the 45-minute trip.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Single mother Shepard-Gardner’s life is especially busy with raising her daughter, attending City College and working for a catering company. But the long haul to Clarendon is worth it, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She’s only been here since August, and she already speaks Japanese!” Shepard-Gardner exclaimed. “She practices on the bus. That’s pretty awesome.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To prove it, Zhariyah counted to 26 in Japanese. “That was counting in ones,” she explained, having just counted to 110 by tens in English.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Group of Two\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If Zhariyah Shepard-Dorsey is swimming against the tide at Clarendon, Dexter Dryg is definitely doing so at Cleveland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 6-year-old is one of two white children in the school. His mother, Jennifer, works as the director of creative services at Sephora cosmetics, and his father, Jason, works at an Internet radio station and as an artist. They bought their first home in the Excelsior three years ago and soon, it was time for the school lottery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jennifer Dryg said she heard a lot about it from her friends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They were all like really getting wrapped up in it. ‘We’ve got to tour as many schools as possible! We’ve got to get our child into Clarendon!’ ” she recalled. “The pressure is so intense.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Drygs entered the lottery and received one of their lower choices, Cleveland. They had toured it and liked Sanchez, the school’s pristine condition and that it was two blocks from home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They were less wild about the lack of diversity and a strong PTA. Jason said they waffled between accepting the assignment or going through more rounds in hopes of scoring another school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We decided if we weren’t part of the solution, we’ll just continue to be part of the problem,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every morning, Dexter and his dad walk to school. Recently, Jason Dryg started a before-school Drawing Club in the cafeteria and provides the pencils, pens and paper for the dozen kids who join in. They’re all Latino except for Dexter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jennifer Dryg laughed that when Dexter is at a party or restaurant, he’ll sometimes exclaim, “Look, another blond kid!” He gets along well with his classmates, but hasn’t formed strong enough friendships for out-of-school playdates, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jason Dryg attended a PTA meeting, but felt bad that an interpreter had to be there for his sake and said “there was a lot of eye-rolling” from other parents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But still, they’re glad to be at Cleveland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our ideal world would be that all kids go to their neighborhood school, and all schools have the same opportunity for kids to learn,” Jennifer Dryg said. “Families are just trying to do the best for their kids.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle staff writers Jill Tucker and Greta Kaul contributed to this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Heather Knight is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: hknight@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hknightsf\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Tables representing each of San Francisco’s public schools stretched throughout John O’Connell High School in the Mission one morning last fall. Thousands of parents quizzed principals and teachers to determine where their children should go to school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This was the school district’s annual Public School Enrollment Fair. Despite the heaving crowds, Mark Sanchez was downright lonely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every year, the tables for the city’s 106 public schools are arranged alphabetically. And every year Sanchez, principal of the mostly Latino Cleveland Elementary, sits for hours with hardly anybody approaching him. To his left, white and Asian parents swarm the table for the coveted Clarendon Elementary, a school that is harder to get into than Harvard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every year, it’s the same thing. Every year,” Sanchez said. “Our teachers are just as good as Clarendon’s. ... I call it the un-fair.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The two schools’ tables demonstrate an alarming fact about the district as a whole: Now that parents have more say in their children’s education than they have in decades, San Francisco’s public schools are increasingly segregated. A months-long Chronicle review found that the district, which for decades has tried to ensure that homogeneous neighborhoods don’t lead to homogeneous schools, is failing to create schools that are racially mixed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like most public school districts around the country, San Francisco Unified has shifted away from a student assignment system that tries to ensure racially mixed schools and toward one that lets parents choose where to send their children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv style=\"display: inline-block; width: 100%;\">\n\u003cdiv style=\"position: relative; padding-bottom: 100%; padding-top:25px; height: 0;\">\n\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"//sfschools.silk.co/s/embed/stackchart/collection/final-schools-data-for-online-graphics/numeric/hispanic-or-latino/numeric/asian/numeric/african-american/numeric/white/numeric/other-or-not-reported\" style=\"border:0;position: absolute; top:0; left:0; width: 100%;height:100%;\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:12px;color:gray;\">Data from \u003ca href=\"http://sfschools.silk.co\">sfschools.silk.co\u003c/a>\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>But in one of the nation’s most liberal cities, where people say they prize diversity, parents mostly choose schools where the other children look like their own. That has led to one-third of the district’s elementary schools becoming racially isolated, composed of at least 60 percent students of one race.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But perhaps the biggest surprise is that most people in this progressive bastion — district officials, principals and parents — seem resigned to resegregation as the new reality.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The public schools and the nerve-wracking lottery system — in which parents list their preferred schools in order and computer-generated assignments are mailed two months later\u003cstrong> — \u003c/strong>are often blamed for helping to drive families out of San Francisco. Just 13.4 percent of the city’s residents are younger than 18, the smallest percentage of any major city in the country. And San Francisco’s wealth and longtime Catholic tradition mean that about 30 percent of children who do live in the city attend private and parochial schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Diversity and integration are rarely cited as top factors in choosing a public school. Instead, district surveys of parents show the safety of a school’s neighborhood, the quality of its staff and its reputation are paramount.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 1954 U.S. Supreme Court case Brown vs. Board of Education outlawed segregated public schools, saying separate was inherently unequal. But many children in San Francisco’s public schools are once again being educated separately — though not because of any official decree. The question is whether they’re being educated equally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A look inside Cleveland and Clarendon — 4 miles, yet a world, apart — shows the schools have some important qualities in common: mostly happy parents and children, good teachers, strong principals and a focus on academic achievement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there are also many stark differences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://player.vimeo.com/video/127318085\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Poverty and Language\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cleveland’s students are almost entirely poor enough to qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, Latino and learning English. They mostly live in the school’s Excelsior neighborhood. Few of their parents went to college, and they mostly work in blue-collar jobs or stay home to raise their children. They are unable to contribute much money to their children’s education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clarendon’s students are far more likely to be white or Asian, and far less likely to be poor or learning English. They come from around the city, and many of their parents drive them miles to the school on the west side of Twin Peaks. The parents are mostly professionals, and they \u003cu>raise\u003c/u> $400,000 a year to supplement their children’s already premier education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Academic Performance Index is no longer used by the state to signify school achievement, but many parents still use it to determine which schools are best. In 2013, Clarendon scored 956 on a scale of 1 to 1,000, with 800 considered excellent. Cleveland reached 708.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>School board member Rachel Norton said this kind of division makes her “incredibly sad,” but that it’s the natural result of parental choice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t know how as a policymaker to encourage people to make different choices,” she said. “That is what is going to have to happen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Satisfied Parents\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sanchez doesn’t bother scheduling tours of Cleveland Elementary anymore. Like his table at the annual enrollment fair, nobody ever comes. But with 360 students, his school is full of families who want to be there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eighty-three percent of those students are Latino, and there is a smattering of Asian and black students, and two white children. Ninety-five percent of Cleveland’s students are poor enough to qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Seventy-three percent of Cleveland’s students are learning English.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Almost every Cleveland parent The Chronicle asked said he or she requested Cleveland because it’s close to home. Many said they didn’t bother touring other schools, attending the enrollment fair or giving much thought to the annual lottery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sanchez said the lack of diversity at Cleveland actually makes his job easier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The more homogenous your population is, the easier it is to run it — the expectations of the families are very similar,” he said, noting there aren’t many discipline problems at his school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s a far different attitude than the one Sanchez had 10 years ago as a leftie firebrand on the school board. At the time, the seven members were grappling with how to remake the student assignment system, and Sanchez wanted to use race as a tiebreaker when two students were vying for the same spot and to give public housing residents priority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He didn’t succeed — and he has long abandoned that fight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve raised the white flag, so to speak,” he said. “There’s a patina of people wanting diversity, but when the rubber hits the road, they’re going to make the best decisions for their family. I don’t think most families actually want it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Families Flee\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sanchez’s thinking is now fairly common among San Francisco school officials, who know the district began hemorrhaging students when it required them to mix with children of other races.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the late 1960s, there were more than 90,000 students in San Francisco public schools. In 1969, a black father named David Johnson sued the district for creating a racially segregated system in which black students totaled more than 65 percent at 20 elementary schools and nearly the entire enrollment at 10 of those. Back then, 24.4 percent of city residents were younger than 18 — nearly twice the percentage now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A federal judge ordered desegregation, and in 1971 San Francisco put children on buses that crisscrossed the city so they could be in multiracial schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plan almost immediately ended racial isolation — but it also helped drive families out of the district and into the suburbs or into private schools. Many Chinese families resisted integration, boycotting district public schools and creating their own private “freedom schools” for their children instead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From the 1960s to 1983, the school district enrollment had plunged by 32,000 students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vying factions of parents filed lawsuits, and the district tried several different school assignment methods. A federal judge oversaw those efforts from 1983 to 2005, but eventually gave up and called the district’s attempts at diversification a failure. This handed control of the assignment system back to the school district.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The current system, which gives some priority to students if they live near a school, started in 2011. The result: 61 percent got their top choice for this fall’s enrollment, and 85 percent got one of the choices on their list. Last year, those figures were 59 and 82 percent, respectively.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are now 53,700 students enrolled in the city’s public schools, not including the 3,300 enrolled in charter schools — the figure has held fairly steady for the past few years after decades of dropping enrollment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the schools are — once again — segregating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>A Top Draw\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clarendon Elementary is considered such a must-see by San Francisco families that it runs nine tours, and online reservations are required. About 100 parents — nearly all white and Asian — join each tour.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">KQED speaks with the Chronicle's education reporter Jill Tucker about the series.\u003cbr>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cdiv class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__shortcodes__shortcodeWrapper'>\n \u003ciframe width='100%' height='166'\n scrolling='no' frameborder='no'\n src='https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/206126771&visual=true&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false'\n title='https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/206126771'>\n \u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/div>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>In December, Jocelyn Porquez was already touring schools with her bubbly daughter, Fiona, despite the 2-year-old having just started preschool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t know if we’re very early or just doing our research,” Porquez said. “With your first kid, you have no idea. ... I want her to thrive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clarendon has 569 students split into two programs: the Japanese Bilingual Bicultural Program and Second Community, which offers Italian-language instruction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clarendon is more diverse than Cleveland: 31 percent of students are white, 33 percent are Asian, 11 percent are Latino and 6 percent are black. It’s also much wealthier than most San Francisco public schools: A fifth of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and just 16 percent are learning English.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By comparison, San Francisco itself is 41 percent white, 34 percent Asian, 15 percent Latino and 6 percent black, according to the U.S. Census. About 13 percent of San Franciscans live in poverty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clarendon’s principal, Peter Van Court, said he loves the school-tour season and encourages all families who visit to apply despite the incredibly long odds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People do get in,” he said. “We’ve got a whole school full of people who got in.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the school lottery for the 2015-16 academic year, Clarendon was by far the most requested elementary school — 1,575 families listed it on their applications. Once siblings were placed — they get priority and filled nearly two-thirds of kindergarten seats — there were just 16 openings and 97 families vying for each of those, according to the district.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Harvard, 17 high school seniors apply for each available seat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Is it worth the hype? I think so,” Van Court said. “Every school that has a school culture that supports teachers and students is worth talking about. We just happen to be at the front of it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Interestingly, the demographics of Clarendon haven’t changed much since the district’s shift toward neighborhood schools. Cleveland, however, has become even more racially isolated. In 2011, Latinos made up 77 percent of the school, whereas they make up 86 percent now. Back in 1999, they made up 50 percent of Cleveland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the lottery, parents with students entering kindergarten, sixth and ninth grades can tour schools throughout the fall and winter and submit a list of schools in order of preference. Assignments are sent in March, and families can keep trying in four subsequent rounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district has found that white and Asian families are more likely to participate in the lottery’s first round than Latino and African-American families, meaning the latter are more likely to be assigned to the less popular schools that have available seats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>College Cheer\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every morning at Cleveland starts the same way. The students gather on the blacktop beneath murals of Nelson Mandela, Thurgood Marshall and Dolores Huerta.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sanchez or another staff member calls into a microphone, “Where are you going one day?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“College!” the kids shout back before scurrying off to their classrooms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every Tuesday morning, there is another playground routine: About 80 Cleveland moms form a line to pick up free food from the San Francisco Food Bank. A loud and brash mother, Ana Hodgson, oversees the food distribution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She takes charge in just about any Cleveland meeting — such as one in March to plan the fifth-grade graduation ceremony. About 20 Latina mothers told the school’s family liaison, a district official assigned to Cleveland to work with families, what they want at the ceremony.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hodgson did almost all of the talking — and soon, the family liaison was persuaded to find a caterer, gifts for the teachers, caps and gowns, a photographer, balloons, an inspirational speaker, decorations and diplomas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hodgson said she learned to speak up through training at Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth, a nonprofit that encourages parents and students to become school leaders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They teach us how to speak up, go to the district and talk,” she said. “We have to if we want to know what’s going on.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that wasn’t Hodgson’s attitude when she was looking for a kindergarten for her son, Roy, who’s now in fifth grade. She didn’t bother touring schools or devising a strategy for the lottery. Her nieces and nephews, whom she helped raise in exchange for housing from her sisters, had all gone to Cleveland, so Roy did, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is my neighborhood,” she said, shrugging. “This is the school my family goes to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But now that Hodgson has found her voice, she’s done with the public schools\u003cstrong>. \u003c/strong>Roy is participating in Smart, a private program that recruits academically promising low-income fourth-graders for intensive summer programs and helps them apply to private middle and high schools. The goal is to get them into college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roy will finish fifth grade at Cleveland at the end of May and has been admitted to the San Francisco School, a private middle school, with a scholarship.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hodgson said she’s glad Roy’s world will soon expand. She said she’s told him he can go to any high school, any college and enter any career he wants to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I told him if he goes to the moon, I’ll go with him,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cultural Crossroads\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Clarendon on a February morning, students in the Japanese Bilingual Bicultural Program were celebrating the spring festival known as \u003cem>Setsubun\u003c/em>. It’s about cleansing evil from the past year to welcome in the new year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A group of Japanese mothers prepared little paper cups filled with roasted soybeans — called fortune beans — to toss at a couple of fathers wearing \u003cem>Oni\u003c/em> masks and pretending to be monsters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rei Kobayashi-McGrath, the program coordinator, instructed the children to go easy on the dads. The beans were to be tossed gently, not hurled at their faces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Do we want to hurt them?” she asked the children sitting rapt on the blacktop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No!” they responded before tossing the beans as parents filmed the festivities on their smartphones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a flash, the Japanese mothers were sweeping up the tossed beans. They then went to work in Clarendon’s large storage room, giggling and chatting in Japanese as they made cucumber sushi rolls for every student.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mai Miyaoka was one of the mothers. Her son, Heiichiro, attends second grade at Clarendon, but only after a lot of stress. He was first assigned to Cesar Chavez Elementary in the Mission, which Miyaoka diplomatically called “a nice school,” but too far from her home near Clarendon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Miyaoka, who moved from Japan four years ago so her husband could work as a postdoctoral researcher in molecular biology at UCSF, persevered through four more lottery rounds before scoring a spot at Clarendon three days before school started.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I couldn’t understand the system so I talked with counselors at SFUSD, and they were very helpful for me,” she said, adding she’s thankful the sibling preference means her preschooler and baby will get in, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She spends a lot of her free time at the school volunteering, an expectation that other parents set at the start of the school tours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everybody works together — it’s very active,” Miyaoka said of Clarendon parents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>State Funding\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cleveland receives $360,000 more than Clarendon from the state each year — $1,000 per student — because its students are so poor and so many of them don’t speak English. The idea is to direct more resources to the neediest schools, but Clarendon more than offsets that through avid parent fundraising and donations from the Japanese and Italian consulates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sanchez uses the extra state money for basic support, including separate Spanish and English literacy coaches, a technology teacher, tablet computers and laptops. He said he gets an adequate amount to run Cleveland, though he’d appreciate more funding for supplies and a poster-making machine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At wealthier schools, those simple requests would be easily met by the Parent Teacher Association, but it doesn’t work that way at Cleveland. The school’s PTA has only 15 members and meets erratically. Maria Gonzalez has a kindergartner at the school and is PTA president. She’s trying to raise more money than last year’s $5,000 — about $14 per child — through a candy drive, a household-goods catalog drive and a spring carnival.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said she knows it’s not much, but that’s the way it is for Cleveland families. Her husband cooks in a restaurant, and she works as an in-home health aide for her elderly, wheelchair-bound mother.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For us, anything we raise is good,” she said, adding she’d like to buy more art supplies and that poster machine Sanchez wants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Clarendon, the parent groups raise about $400,000 — around $680 per child — each year through fundraisers, including the annual live auctions for each program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Japanese program’s auction costs $50 a ticket, and the catalog featured 699 donated prizes including summer camps, yoga classes and ballroom dancing lessons. The Second Community auction featured Champagne, an oyster bar, live jazz and top hats, feather boas and a few pearl necklaces for sale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Together, the programs’ fundraising pays for enrichment programs, including taiko drumming, computer science and Italian classes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clarendon Principal Van Court agrees with Sanchez on what’s most important: that every school provides a good education for every student and that families are happy with the experience. Whether that is at a wealthy, fairly diverse school like Clarendon or a poor, racially isolated school like Cleveland isn’t as important, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If the school reflects the community, it’s not necessarily a problem,” he said. “It’s absolutely about every student being successful at every school.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sanchez and Van Court are not alone. Even the African-American community, the force behind the historical desegregation efforts, has fallen silent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We really don’t have any public demand for this,” state Board of Education President Mike Kirst said about desegregation. “The courts, of course, have largely retreated in this area. And I feel no bottom-up demand for this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But just because everybody’s OK with the status quo doesn’t mean it’s right, said Gary Orfield, co-director of the Civil Rights Project at UCLA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With a few exceptions, schools with low-income students who are predominantly Latino or African-American do poorly academically. Typically, those schools have the highest teacher turnover and the lowest rates of parental involvement. (Cleveland somewhat breaks that general rule since it has a fairly stable teaching staff and its teachers have an average of nine years of experience, a year more than the average at Clarendon.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as courts around the country have ruled against mandated desegregation plans that take race into account, districts have largely given up. This has been exacerbated by dwindling funds to pay for the buses that take students to different neighborhoods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Desegregation didn’t fail,” Orfield said. “There’s a lot of evidence to show that, on average, it improved conditions for students of color, did not harm students who are white and improved race relations. What’s happened is that people have given up in many places because barriers to doing it have been raised, and the help to do it has been eliminated.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s very sad,” he said. “We have never had separate but equal schools in any city on any scale in U.S. history.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Bucking the Pattern\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some San Francisco families are quietly but determinedly bucking the pattern of choosing schools where the children look like their own. On a February afternoon at Clarendon, children were playing on the yard, but one girl was more interested in the stranger with a reporter’s notebook.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hello!” she said, thrusting her hand out. “I’m Zhariyah Aiyana Lynda Shepard-Dorsey and I am 5, and it is very nice to meet you.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The precocious little African-American girl lives in Bayview-Hunters Point and her mother, Keana Shepard-Gardner, 24, listed only Clarendon when she applied to kindergarten last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I went on Google and put in ‘best schools in San Francisco’ and this one just kept popping up,” she said matter-of-factly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She hadn’t toured it and didn’t know anything about the preference for students living in low-performing census tracts, although that’s clearly how she scored a spot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shepard-Gardner and her daughter live with Gardner’s mother across the street from the Hunters View public housing projects in Hunters Point. Shepard-Gardner, her mother or a friend often drive Zhariyah to or from school, but sometimes they get there on a Muni bus ride, with Zhariyah sometimes falling asleep on the 45-minute trip.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Single mother Shepard-Gardner’s life is especially busy with raising her daughter, attending City College and working for a catering company. But the long haul to Clarendon is worth it, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She’s only been here since August, and she already speaks Japanese!” Shepard-Gardner exclaimed. “She practices on the bus. That’s pretty awesome.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To prove it, Zhariyah counted to 26 in Japanese. “That was counting in ones,” she explained, having just counted to 110 by tens in English.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Group of Two\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If Zhariyah Shepard-Dorsey is swimming against the tide at Clarendon, Dexter Dryg is definitely doing so at Cleveland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 6-year-old is one of two white children in the school. His mother, Jennifer, works as the director of creative services at Sephora cosmetics, and his father, Jason, works at an Internet radio station and as an artist. They bought their first home in the Excelsior three years ago and soon, it was time for the school lottery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jennifer Dryg said she heard a lot about it from her friends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They were all like really getting wrapped up in it. ‘We’ve got to tour as many schools as possible! We’ve got to get our child into Clarendon!’ ” she recalled. “The pressure is so intense.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Drygs entered the lottery and received one of their lower choices, Cleveland. They had toured it and liked Sanchez, the school’s pristine condition and that it was two blocks from home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They were less wild about the lack of diversity and a strong PTA. Jason said they waffled between accepting the assignment or going through more rounds in hopes of scoring another school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We decided if we weren’t part of the solution, we’ll just continue to be part of the problem,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every morning, Dexter and his dad walk to school. Recently, Jason Dryg started a before-school Drawing Club in the cafeteria and provides the pencils, pens and paper for the dozen kids who join in. They’re all Latino except for Dexter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jennifer Dryg laughed that when Dexter is at a party or restaurant, he’ll sometimes exclaim, “Look, another blond kid!” He gets along well with his classmates, but hasn’t formed strong enough friendships for out-of-school playdates, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jason Dryg attended a PTA meeting, but felt bad that an interpreter had to be there for his sake and said “there was a lot of eye-rolling” from other parents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But still, they’re glad to be at Cleveland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our ideal world would be that all kids go to their neighborhood school, and all schools have the same opportunity for kids to learn,” Jennifer Dryg said. “Families are just trying to do the best for their kids.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle staff writers Jill Tucker and Greta Kaul contributed to this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Heather Knight is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: hknight@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hknightsf\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Gov. Brown Steers Money Toward Schools, Universities, Tax Credit for Poor",
"title": "Gov. Brown Steers Money Toward Schools, Universities, Tax Credit for Poor",
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"content": "\u003cp>California's rebounding economy will pump $6.7 billion more than expected into state coffers next fiscal year, Gov. Jerry Brown announced Thursday -- a windfall that will mostly benefit K-12 schools and community colleges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in a $115.3 billion revised budget plan unveiled Thursday, Brown also proposed an earned income tax credit for the state's working poor and announced a deal with University of California President Janet Napolitano to hold tuition at the public university flat for another two years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[soundcloud url=\"https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/205529290\" params=\"color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" iframe=\"true\" /]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown and Napolitano\u003ca href=\"http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/brown-napolitano-clash-over-proposed-tuition-hike-at-the-university-of-california/2015/01/22/93506c88-a28a-11e4-9f89-561284a573f8_story.html\"> sparred earlier this year\u003c/a> over her insistence that the state provide hundreds of millions more dollars to the UC system if lawmakers wanted to see student fees stay put. After a series of one-on-one meetings through the winter and early spring, Brown said the duo agreed on a plan that will put nearly $450 million in state money over the next three years toward paying down a portion of UC's billions in unfunded pension debt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In return, the university will agree to hold tuition flat for the next two school years and will lower its cap on pensionable earnings by UC employees.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">'The state is definitely on the rebound from just a few years ago, when the state was mired in red ink.' \u003ccite>Gov. Jerry Brown\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>In unveiling \u003ca href=\"http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/FullBudgetSummary.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">the revised spending plan\u003c/a>, Brown was largely upbeat, noting that the state faced a $26 billion deficit when he was elected five years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I can say very simply that the state is definitely on the rebound from just a few years ago, when the state was mired in red ink,\" he said. \"The finances have stabilized, we are balancing our budget, and just since January several billion have come into state coffers.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the additional revenue, under the state constitution, is earmarked for schools: a total of $5.5 billion in new money, raising overall general fund spending to $49.7 in the fiscal year that begins on July 1. Some of that will go toward paying down debt the state owed to schools because of previous years of dismal revenues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown's spending plan also sets aside more money for a rainy day fund authorized by voters last fall through Proposition 2. The revised budget adds $633 million in stashed-away funds through the Prop. 2 mandate, and pays down $633 million in existing state debts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in a nod to legislative Democrats, Brown is also pushing several spending initiatives aimed at helping the millions of Californians who live in poverty. Both Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) and Senate President pro Tem Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles) have made clear that their priorities include restoring deep cuts made during the recession to programs that benefit California's poorest residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">'I couldn’t be happier with the earned income tax proposal. ... I don’t think anybody who works a full-time job should be in poverty in California.' \u003ccite>Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Brown wants to establish, for the first time ever, a state equivalent of the federal earned income tax credit. His proposal calls for a slightly less generous tax break, set at 85 percent of the federal credit. It would apply to households on the bottom of the income ladder -- for example, a couple without kids that makes just $6,580 a year. On average, according to the governor's office, the tax credit would put about $460 a year back into the pockets of an estimated 825,000 families. The credit would cost the state about $380 million a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the federal credit was established in 1975, when he was first governor, and that it was a program he \"always liked.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Given the tremendous growth in income on the part of higher-income people, I thought it would be reasonable to establish this program in California,\" he said. \"I have always liked the earned income tax credit because it doesn't have any particular bureaucracy, or complexity. It's just a straight deliverance of funding to people who are working very hard and who are earning very little money.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The governor is also proposing expanding Medi-Cal benefits to undocumented immigrants eligible for permanent residency under a executive order signed by President Obama in November. That order is being \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/2015/02/17/386863032/judge-temporarily-blocks-obamas-executive-action-on-immigration\">challenged in court\u003c/a>, but Brown said that if it's upheld, state health care costs will rise $62 million next fiscal year and $200 million annually in the following years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the governor said he will push an amnesty program \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/04/08/california-poor-subject-to-fines-fees-like-in-ferguson-says-report\" target=\"_blank\">for the estimated 4 million Californians \u003c/a>who have lost their driver's licenses and other privileges because they owe money for unpaid traffic tickets or other minor offenses. On Thursday, he called the spiraling debt related to such infractions a \"hellhole of desperation\" for the state's poor, and said the program would allow people to pay half of what they owe and get their licenses reinstated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Democratic lawmakers have proposed more far-reaching plans, including expanding Medi-Cal to all undocumented immigrants, increasing reimbursement rates for doctors who take Medi-Cal patients, hiking state spending on early childhood education programs, and a\u003ca href=\"http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml;jsessionid=457ab925ef4ba551130faff901cc\" target=\"_blank\">n earned income tax credit that matches the federal one\u003c/a>. While Brown's budget falls short of those proposals, Atkins said it's a good starting place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"My general takeaway of the governor’s May revision is positive,\" she said in an interview. \"The governor has focused on one of our key priorities, poverty. I couldn't be happier with the earned income tax proposal. We have been working on that for quite a time in the Assembly -- I don't think anybody who works a full-time job should be in poverty in California.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">'The continued investment in schools is really important, but it's only as good as how well the kids are clothed and fed and the living environment they have before they get to school.'\u003ccite>Mike Herald, Western Center on Law and Poverty\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Atkins also praised Brown's willingness to \"reinvest\" in the UC and California State University systems, though she said there's still work to do in that area, particularly around ensuring CSU is funded as well as UC, and prioritizing in-state students for enrollment and financial aid at both systems. And she noted that the budget includes no new spending on child care and early childhood education, a key priority for both her and de León.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We know we are not going to get everything we want in this process,\" she said. \"But I think we feel good that this year's budget, and the framework and architecture of it, is gonna help us be successful and make some progress in some key priority areas.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But advocates for the poor, including Mike Herald, said they are disappointed that Brown isn't addressing many of the state's \"deep poverty issues.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Herald, from the Western Center on Law and Poverty, said the tax credit is a \"good first step.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But it really doesn't address some of the deep poverty issues we’re concerned about -- many families aren't earning money from work and they aren't going to benefit from a tax credit,\" he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the state needs to consider restoring deep cuts made to public assistance programs for the blind, aging and disabled, and should repeal a decades-old law that \u003ca href=\"http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article10966202.html\" target=\"_blank\">caps the amount of welfare a family can receive if they have more kids\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The continued investment in schools is really important, but it's only as good as how well the kids are clothed and fed and the living environment they have before they get to school,\" he said. \"We think sometimes we are not looking at that side of the equation enough.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Legislature has until June 15 to negotiate and pass a budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>California's rebounding economy will pump $6.7 billion more than expected into state coffers next fiscal year, Gov. Jerry Brown announced Thursday -- a windfall that will mostly benefit K-12 schools and community colleges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in a $115.3 billion revised budget plan unveiled Thursday, Brown also proposed an earned income tax credit for the state's working poor and announced a deal with University of California President Janet Napolitano to hold tuition at the public university flat for another two years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cdiv class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__shortcodes__shortcodeWrapper'>\n \u003ciframe width='100%' height='166'\n scrolling='no' frameborder='no'\n src='https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/205529290&visual=true&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false'\n title='https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/205529290'>\n \u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/div>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown and Napolitano\u003ca href=\"http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/brown-napolitano-clash-over-proposed-tuition-hike-at-the-university-of-california/2015/01/22/93506c88-a28a-11e4-9f89-561284a573f8_story.html\"> sparred earlier this year\u003c/a> over her insistence that the state provide hundreds of millions more dollars to the UC system if lawmakers wanted to see student fees stay put. After a series of one-on-one meetings through the winter and early spring, Brown said the duo agreed on a plan that will put nearly $450 million in state money over the next three years toward paying down a portion of UC's billions in unfunded pension debt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In return, the university will agree to hold tuition flat for the next two school years and will lower its cap on pensionable earnings by UC employees.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">'The state is definitely on the rebound from just a few years ago, when the state was mired in red ink.' \u003ccite>Gov. Jerry Brown\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>In unveiling \u003ca href=\"http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/FullBudgetSummary.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">the revised spending plan\u003c/a>, Brown was largely upbeat, noting that the state faced a $26 billion deficit when he was elected five years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I can say very simply that the state is definitely on the rebound from just a few years ago, when the state was mired in red ink,\" he said. \"The finances have stabilized, we are balancing our budget, and just since January several billion have come into state coffers.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the additional revenue, under the state constitution, is earmarked for schools: a total of $5.5 billion in new money, raising overall general fund spending to $49.7 in the fiscal year that begins on July 1. Some of that will go toward paying down debt the state owed to schools because of previous years of dismal revenues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown's spending plan also sets aside more money for a rainy day fund authorized by voters last fall through Proposition 2. The revised budget adds $633 million in stashed-away funds through the Prop. 2 mandate, and pays down $633 million in existing state debts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in a nod to legislative Democrats, Brown is also pushing several spending initiatives aimed at helping the millions of Californians who live in poverty. Both Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) and Senate President pro Tem Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles) have made clear that their priorities include restoring deep cuts made during the recession to programs that benefit California's poorest residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">'I couldn’t be happier with the earned income tax proposal. ... I don’t think anybody who works a full-time job should be in poverty in California.' \u003ccite>Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Brown wants to establish, for the first time ever, a state equivalent of the federal earned income tax credit. His proposal calls for a slightly less generous tax break, set at 85 percent of the federal credit. It would apply to households on the bottom of the income ladder -- for example, a couple without kids that makes just $6,580 a year. On average, according to the governor's office, the tax credit would put about $460 a year back into the pockets of an estimated 825,000 families. The credit would cost the state about $380 million a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the federal credit was established in 1975, when he was first governor, and that it was a program he \"always liked.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Given the tremendous growth in income on the part of higher-income people, I thought it would be reasonable to establish this program in California,\" he said. \"I have always liked the earned income tax credit because it doesn't have any particular bureaucracy, or complexity. It's just a straight deliverance of funding to people who are working very hard and who are earning very little money.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The governor is also proposing expanding Medi-Cal benefits to undocumented immigrants eligible for permanent residency under a executive order signed by President Obama in November. That order is being \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/2015/02/17/386863032/judge-temporarily-blocks-obamas-executive-action-on-immigration\">challenged in court\u003c/a>, but Brown said that if it's upheld, state health care costs will rise $62 million next fiscal year and $200 million annually in the following years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the governor said he will push an amnesty program \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/04/08/california-poor-subject-to-fines-fees-like-in-ferguson-says-report\" target=\"_blank\">for the estimated 4 million Californians \u003c/a>who have lost their driver's licenses and other privileges because they owe money for unpaid traffic tickets or other minor offenses. On Thursday, he called the spiraling debt related to such infractions a \"hellhole of desperation\" for the state's poor, and said the program would allow people to pay half of what they owe and get their licenses reinstated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Democratic lawmakers have proposed more far-reaching plans, including expanding Medi-Cal to all undocumented immigrants, increasing reimbursement rates for doctors who take Medi-Cal patients, hiking state spending on early childhood education programs, and a\u003ca href=\"http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml;jsessionid=457ab925ef4ba551130faff901cc\" target=\"_blank\">n earned income tax credit that matches the federal one\u003c/a>. While Brown's budget falls short of those proposals, Atkins said it's a good starting place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"My general takeaway of the governor’s May revision is positive,\" she said in an interview. \"The governor has focused on one of our key priorities, poverty. I couldn't be happier with the earned income tax proposal. We have been working on that for quite a time in the Assembly -- I don't think anybody who works a full-time job should be in poverty in California.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">'The continued investment in schools is really important, but it's only as good as how well the kids are clothed and fed and the living environment they have before they get to school.'\u003ccite>Mike Herald, Western Center on Law and Poverty\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Atkins also praised Brown's willingness to \"reinvest\" in the UC and California State University systems, though she said there's still work to do in that area, particularly around ensuring CSU is funded as well as UC, and prioritizing in-state students for enrollment and financial aid at both systems. And she noted that the budget includes no new spending on child care and early childhood education, a key priority for both her and de León.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We know we are not going to get everything we want in this process,\" she said. \"But I think we feel good that this year's budget, and the framework and architecture of it, is gonna help us be successful and make some progress in some key priority areas.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But advocates for the poor, including Mike Herald, said they are disappointed that Brown isn't addressing many of the state's \"deep poverty issues.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Herald, from the Western Center on Law and Poverty, said the tax credit is a \"good first step.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But it really doesn't address some of the deep poverty issues we’re concerned about -- many families aren't earning money from work and they aren't going to benefit from a tax credit,\" he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the state needs to consider restoring deep cuts made to public assistance programs for the blind, aging and disabled, and should repeal a decades-old law that \u003ca href=\"http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article10966202.html\" target=\"_blank\">caps the amount of welfare a family can receive if they have more kids\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The continued investment in schools is really important, but it's only as good as how well the kids are clothed and fed and the living environment they have before they get to school,\" he said. \"We think sometimes we are not looking at that side of the equation enough.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Legislature has until June 15 to negotiate and pass a budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "an-oakland-9-year-old-shot-and-paralyzed-struggles-to-return-to-school",
"title": "An Oakland 9-Year-Old, Shot and Paralyzed, Struggles to Return to School",
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"headTitle": "An Oakland 9-Year-Old, Shot and Paralyzed, Struggles to Return to School | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">T\u003c/span>wo days before her ninth birthday last May, Jacqueline Funes was in her front yard, on 66th Avenue in East Oakland, playing with her little brother, Jonathan. A van stopped just down the street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inside their home, Jacqueline’s mom, Silvia Funes, heard gunfire. Jonathan went racing inside to his mom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Where’s Jackie?” she asked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Outside, Jacqueline lay on the ground. She had been shot in the neck as two assailants from the van opened fire on a man walking nearby.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The shooting not only transformed the lives of Jacqueline and her family, but also those of her friends, her classmates and her teachers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She’ll probably never walk again,” says Liz Torres, who was Jacqueline’s second-grade teacher two years ago at Cox Academy, a charter school in East Oakland. “She’ll probably never use her hands, be able to take care of herself, hold a book again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Torres gets teary when she says this. There’s something about this shooting she can’t get over. For months after the Jacqueline was wounded, Torres found herself stopping by to visit, first in an Oakland hospital and later at her home.\u003cbr>\n\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://player.vimeo.com/video/126156795\" width=\"768\" height=\"432\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">O\u003c/span>ne afternoon in December, Jacqueline is lying in bed at home, a colorful blanket pulled up to her chest, when Torres arrives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far, almost two months after getting out of the hospital, no one from the Oakland Unified School District has come to Jacqueline’s house to help her with her schooling. Torres has been stopping by to bring her books.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Have you been reading?” Torres asks her. She wants to make sure that Jacqueline, who’s a bookworm, keeps up that habit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Timidly, Jacqueline answers, “Yes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What?” Torres teases. “What have you been reading?”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignleft\">\n\u003ch2>\u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/booksandbullets\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Books and Bullets\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This story is Part 1 in a three-part series.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/04/28/an-oakland-9-year-old-shot-and-paralyzed-struggles-to-return-to-school\">An Oakland 9-Year-Old, Shot and Paralyzed, Struggles to Return to School\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/04/29/violence-causes-ripple-effects-for-thousands-of-oakland-students\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Violence Causes Ripple Effect for Thousands of Oakland Students\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/04/30/mom-seeks-to-make-schools-better-for-kids-traumatized-by-violence\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mom Seeks to Make Schools Better for Kids Traumatized by Violence\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Jacqueline smiles and banters right back. “How old are you, Ms. Torres?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, Jacqueline speaks softly to Torres.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I dreamed something sad,” Jacqueline says. “That I can’t stand up, and then when I wake up, I start crying.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Torres leans in closer to hear her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Why did they have to stop at my house?” Jacqueline asks. “Who were those guys, anyway?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t know,” Torres answers. “It wasn’t fair, Jackie.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the shooting, Jacqueline has been able to move only her head and one arm, but not her fingers. Now, she looks toward the windowsill, where six Disney princess figurines are lined up next to a music box. She asks her teacher to wind it up and open it. They sit still together for a few minutes, listening to a passage from “The Nutcracker.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Good I’m alive,” says Jacqueline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Yes, it’s really good you’re alive,” Torres answers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jacqueline has lost months of schooling. After she was shot, she went through five and a half months of rehabilitation at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10504566\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 400px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/silvia_-jackies-mom.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-10504566\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/silvia_-jackies-mom-400x241.jpg\" alt=\"Sylvia Funes was frustrated by how long it took the school district to send a teacher for in-home instruction. \" width=\"400\" height=\"241\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/silvia_-jackies-mom-400x241.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/silvia_-jackies-mom-800x482.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/silvia_-jackies-mom-1440x868.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/silvia_-jackies-mom-1180x711.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/silvia_-jackies-mom-960x579.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Silvia Funes was frustrated by how long it took the school district to send a teacher for in-home instruction. \u003ccite>(Adam Grossberg/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When she was released in October, the hospital sent an assessment to the school district. \u003ca href=\"http://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/eo/hh/hhprogramsummary.asp\">By law, the district had 10 working days to send a teacher\u003c/a> to her home, and \u003ca href=\"http://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/se/lr/\">15 days to begin assessments\u003c/a> to figure out what she would need to go back to school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The family waited for two months. During that time, her mom, Silvia Funes, kept asking for help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The district hadn’t moved at all,” says Silvia Funes, in her native language, Spanish. “I think maybe they thought that she was just in recuperation, because they didn’t tell me anything. I went to the school, and they asked if a teacher had come. I said no, no one has come.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland district spokesman Troy Flint admits the district took too long and cites several reasons for the delay. He says the hospital did not give the district much advance notice that Jacqueline would be released. Then, he says there was some confusion within the district over whether to send a special education teacher. And on top of that, the district teachers assigned to deliver instruction to students at home had full caseloads in the fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Silvia Funes was frustrated because, without a teacher, Jacqueline was desperately bored at a time when schoolwork could have boosted her spirits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She can’t move her body,” Funes says. “But her mind is fine. She can read, she can yell, she can speak.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10504565\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 400px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/jackie-and-bullet.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-10504565\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/jackie-and-bullet-400x241.jpg\" alt=\"Jacquelyn Funes, 9, on her front porch. A bullet hole can be seen in the wall behind her. \" width=\"400\" height=\"241\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/jackie-and-bullet-400x241.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/jackie-and-bullet-800x481.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/jackie-and-bullet-1440x866.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/jackie-and-bullet-1180x709.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/jackie-and-bullet-960x577.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jacqueline Funes, 9, on her front porch. A bullet hole can be seen in the wall behind her. \u003ccite>(Adam Grossberg/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">J\u003c/span>acqueline Funes is just one of hundreds of Oakland children whose lives have been drastically altered by violence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, 7 children under 18 were killed, and 88 children were wounded in shootings in the city, the Police Department says. In the previous nine years, 980 kids in Oakland visited emergency rooms for gunshot wounds, according to data from the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, this kind of trauma inflicts a wide range of psychic wounds on family and friends of those who have been shot. But it also exacts a heavy price on the educational lives of the victims and their schoolmates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We know how many months Jacqueline is behind. But what about the impact on her little brother in second grade? On her neighbors and classmates? How does the fallout from this cumulative violence manifest itself in schools?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jacqueline’s former teacher, Liz Torres, says she’s haunted by the hidden costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How do you provide mental health services to hundreds and hundreds of kids? It’s the undetected ones that I’m worried about,” Torres says. “It’s the cousins of Jacqueline, it’s the best friend of Jacqueline, who is now just totally traumatized. It’s the kids that just heard about it, and now are susceptible, because they have all this anger.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most shootings in Oakland occur in the flatlands of East and West Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jacqueline attended third grade at \u003ca href=\"http://www.ousd.k12.ca.us/communityunited\">Community United Elementary\u003c/a>. The school is in a neighborhood where shootings are so commonplace that it was locked down several times last year. One of the lockdowns this year was particularly bad, says Marisa Morales, Jacqueline’s third-grade teacher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was a drive-by. It was a semiautomatic or something. There were multiple shots,” Morales says. “At 3 o’clock, we had just dismissed our students. We had students everywhere, and families, and kids, little kids. And everybody was just running, trying to get inside the building, trying to shut all the doors. That was a bad one. Most of the time, the lockdowns are so routine, the kids don’t even blink.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" src=\"https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/202953712&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Morales says there was a lot of fear and confusion in her classroom after Jacqueline was shot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Students were not really sure what had happened,” Morales says. “There were a lot of questions. They thought she might be dead. They didn’t really understand what it would mean that she was paralyzed. That was probably the hardest, explaining to them what that meant, that she was alive, but she couldn’t move.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Students in safer neighorhoods just don’t have this burden.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘Most of the time, the lockdowns are so routine, the kids don’t even blink.’\u003ccite>Marisa Morales, third-grade teacher in Oakland\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Nobody knows this better than Jacqueline’s second-grade teacher, Liz Torres. She now teaches at \u003ca href=\"http://www.montclairschool.com/\">Montclair Elementary\u003c/a>. It’s a school in the more affluent Oakland hills. The neighborhood doesn’t even register on the Police Department’s \u003ca href=\"http://ec2-54-235-79-104.compute-1.amazonaws.com/oak/groups/police/documents/webcontent/oak050934.pdf\">map of shootings\u003c/a> in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Torres says students like Jacqueline and her classmates are at a major disadvantage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’ve got so much more work to do than most of my students that walk through my door today at Montclair Elementary, ready to learn, full belly,” Torres says. “They didn’t just walk through a place where their mom was scared they might get shot. They didn’t have that experience.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Torres is acutely aware her students at Montclair are getting an entirely different education from those on 66th Avenue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re in the same city. It’s the same tax dollars. It’s so inequitable,” Torres says. “It’s just, the distribution of support and resources is set up for this to happen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">B\u003c/span>y this spring, Torres had stopped visiting Jacqueline as often as she had last year. It was an emotional strain for her. And she knew that in January, the school district had finally sent a teacher to Jacqueline’s home to teach her two hours a day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jacqueline’s mom, Silvia Funes, wanted a full day of instruction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10504571\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 400px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/jacqueline-school-bubbles.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-10504571\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/jacqueline-school-bubbles-400x305.jpg\" alt=\"Jacquelyn Funes was eager to return to her old school, even if it meant she was the only student in a wheelchair.\" width=\"400\" height=\"305\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/jacqueline-school-bubbles-400x305.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/jacqueline-school-bubbles-800x609.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/jacqueline-school-bubbles-1440x1097.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/jacqueline-school-bubbles-1180x899.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/jacqueline-school-bubbles-960x731.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/jacqueline-school-bubbles.jpg 1791w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jacqueline Funes was eager to return to her old school, even if it meant she was the only student in a wheelchair. \u003ccite>(Zaidee Stavely/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“She doesn’t have schoolwork to do here,” says Funes. “That’s what I don’t understand. Why do they give her two hours of class, and count it for a whole day? I know that’s not enough, and it’s not right.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland schools spokesman Troy Flint said the two hours of instruction each day allowed the district to compensate for its earlier delays providing a teacher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Normally one hour a day of home instruction is the standard,” Flint says. “… In total now, she’s actually received more instruction in terms of total number of hours than if she’d just been receiving the normal complement all along. We have made up the missed time in terms of instruction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those two hours a day motivated Jacqueline to get out of bed. She also had nurses coming every day of the week. She was learning how to operate a wheelchair with her head and play games on an iPad with a pointer she held in her mouth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Silvia Funes says that, more than anything, Jacqueline wanted to return to school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She says she wants to go to the same school, because that’s where all her classmates are, and she loves her teacher, and her teacher loves her,” says Funes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district initially recommended Jacqueline go to a special school with other kids in wheelchairs and staff to help her. Jacqueline didn’t care for that idea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She said, ‘If I am in a wheelchair and there are no other kids in wheelchairs at my school, I don’t care,’ ” says Silvia Funes. “She doesn’t let anything stop her.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Funes asked for another meeting to negotiate. And this time, the district agreed to have her return to Community United.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">E\u003c/span>arlier this month, almost a full year after she was shot, Jacqueline was back at school, in the fourth grade. She started by going a few hours a day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10504572\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/jacqueline-school.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10504572\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/jacqueline-school-800x549.jpg\" alt=\"Chris Beatty, assistive technology professional for Oakland's schools, shows Jacquelyn Funes how to operate a laptop with a sensor mounted on her forehead.\" width=\"800\" height=\"549\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/jacqueline-school-800x549.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/jacqueline-school-400x274.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/jacqueline-school-1440x988.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/jacqueline-school-1180x810.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/jacqueline-school-960x659.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chris Beatty, assistive technology professional for Oakland’s schools, shows Jacqueline Funes how to operate a laptop with a sensor mounted on her forehead. \u003ccite>(Zaidee Stavely/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The other kids and teacher are glad to see her, greeting her joyfully on the playground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It won’t be easy for Jacqueline. She has months of schooling to make up. In class, she sits at a table in the back, her nurse by her side at all times. To do math, the nurse straps a pencil onto the one hand Jacqueline can move, and guides it over the paper to finish equations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Later, in the library, a technology professional sticks a tiny silver circle to her forehead that allows her to turn pages with a cursor on the computer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One thing is certain: Jacqueline is determined to learn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She tells her mom, “Once I can move my fingers, I’m going to do whatever it takes to grab a pencil.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"aligncenter\">\n\u003cp>If you would like to give to the Funes family, you can send a check to:\u003cbr>\n Silvia Funes, c/o Veronica Carrillo, Community United Elementary School, 6701 International Blvd, Oakland, CA 94621.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you would like to donate to an Oakland school like the one Jacqueline Funes attends, you can do so through the fiscal sponsor \u003ca href=\"https://osf.secure.nonprofitsoapbox.com/school-donation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Oakland Public Education Fund\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can find \u003ca href=\"http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/search.html?state=CA&community=1751:3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Donors Choose\u003c/a> projects started by teachers at Oakland schools for supplies they need for their classrooms here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can also give to \u003ca href=\"http://www.childrenshospitaloakland.org/main/giving.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Children’s Hospital\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is the first part in our series about how chronic violence in some neighborhoods puts some kids at a disadvantage in school, even before they walk in the door.\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>\u003cbr>\nThis report was produced in collaboration with \u003ca href=\"http://renjournalism.org/educational-opportunity-reporting-project/\">Renaissance Journalism’s Equity Reporting Project: Restoring the Promise of Education\u003c/a>, with funding from the Ford Foundation. Additional help from the \u003ca href=\"http://www.mesarefuge.org/\">Mesa Refuge\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Zaidee Stavely produjo un reportaje en español sobre Jacqueline Funes para Radio Bilingüe. Lo puedes leer y escuchar \u003ca href=\"http://radiobilingue.org/ultimas-noticias/nina-de-nueve-anos-paralizada-por-una-bala-perdida-lucha-para-seguir-estudiando/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">aquí\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Beyond medical challenges, Oakland girl has faced obstacles, including a slow response from the school district. ",
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"title": "An Oakland 9-Year-Old, Shot and Paralyzed, Struggles to Return to School | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">T\u003c/span>wo days before her ninth birthday last May, Jacqueline Funes was in her front yard, on 66th Avenue in East Oakland, playing with her little brother, Jonathan. A van stopped just down the street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inside their home, Jacqueline’s mom, Silvia Funes, heard gunfire. Jonathan went racing inside to his mom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Where’s Jackie?” she asked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Outside, Jacqueline lay on the ground. She had been shot in the neck as two assailants from the van opened fire on a man walking nearby.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The shooting not only transformed the lives of Jacqueline and her family, but also those of her friends, her classmates and her teachers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She’ll probably never walk again,” says Liz Torres, who was Jacqueline’s second-grade teacher two years ago at Cox Academy, a charter school in East Oakland. “She’ll probably never use her hands, be able to take care of herself, hold a book again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Torres gets teary when she says this. There’s something about this shooting she can’t get over. For months after the Jacqueline was wounded, Torres found herself stopping by to visit, first in an Oakland hospital and later at her home.\u003cbr>\n\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://player.vimeo.com/video/126156795\" width=\"768\" height=\"432\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">O\u003c/span>ne afternoon in December, Jacqueline is lying in bed at home, a colorful blanket pulled up to her chest, when Torres arrives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far, almost two months after getting out of the hospital, no one from the Oakland Unified School District has come to Jacqueline’s house to help her with her schooling. Torres has been stopping by to bring her books.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Have you been reading?” Torres asks her. She wants to make sure that Jacqueline, who’s a bookworm, keeps up that habit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Timidly, Jacqueline answers, “Yes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What?” Torres teases. “What have you been reading?”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignleft\">\n\u003ch2>\u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/booksandbullets\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Books and Bullets\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This story is Part 1 in a three-part series.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/04/28/an-oakland-9-year-old-shot-and-paralyzed-struggles-to-return-to-school\">An Oakland 9-Year-Old, Shot and Paralyzed, Struggles to Return to School\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/04/29/violence-causes-ripple-effects-for-thousands-of-oakland-students\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Violence Causes Ripple Effect for Thousands of Oakland Students\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/04/30/mom-seeks-to-make-schools-better-for-kids-traumatized-by-violence\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mom Seeks to Make Schools Better for Kids Traumatized by Violence\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Jacqueline smiles and banters right back. “How old are you, Ms. Torres?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, Jacqueline speaks softly to Torres.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I dreamed something sad,” Jacqueline says. “That I can’t stand up, and then when I wake up, I start crying.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Torres leans in closer to hear her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Why did they have to stop at my house?” Jacqueline asks. “Who were those guys, anyway?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t know,” Torres answers. “It wasn’t fair, Jackie.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the shooting, Jacqueline has been able to move only her head and one arm, but not her fingers. Now, she looks toward the windowsill, where six Disney princess figurines are lined up next to a music box. She asks her teacher to wind it up and open it. They sit still together for a few minutes, listening to a passage from “The Nutcracker.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Good I’m alive,” says Jacqueline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Yes, it’s really good you’re alive,” Torres answers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jacqueline has lost months of schooling. After she was shot, she went through five and a half months of rehabilitation at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10504566\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 400px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/silvia_-jackies-mom.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-10504566\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/silvia_-jackies-mom-400x241.jpg\" alt=\"Sylvia Funes was frustrated by how long it took the school district to send a teacher for in-home instruction. \" width=\"400\" height=\"241\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/silvia_-jackies-mom-400x241.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/silvia_-jackies-mom-800x482.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/silvia_-jackies-mom-1440x868.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/silvia_-jackies-mom-1180x711.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/silvia_-jackies-mom-960x579.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Silvia Funes was frustrated by how long it took the school district to send a teacher for in-home instruction. \u003ccite>(Adam Grossberg/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When she was released in October, the hospital sent an assessment to the school district. \u003ca href=\"http://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/eo/hh/hhprogramsummary.asp\">By law, the district had 10 working days to send a teacher\u003c/a> to her home, and \u003ca href=\"http://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/se/lr/\">15 days to begin assessments\u003c/a> to figure out what she would need to go back to school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The family waited for two months. During that time, her mom, Silvia Funes, kept asking for help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The district hadn’t moved at all,” says Silvia Funes, in her native language, Spanish. “I think maybe they thought that she was just in recuperation, because they didn’t tell me anything. I went to the school, and they asked if a teacher had come. I said no, no one has come.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland district spokesman Troy Flint admits the district took too long and cites several reasons for the delay. He says the hospital did not give the district much advance notice that Jacqueline would be released. Then, he says there was some confusion within the district over whether to send a special education teacher. And on top of that, the district teachers assigned to deliver instruction to students at home had full caseloads in the fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Silvia Funes was frustrated because, without a teacher, Jacqueline was desperately bored at a time when schoolwork could have boosted her spirits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She can’t move her body,” Funes says. “But her mind is fine. She can read, she can yell, she can speak.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10504565\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 400px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/jackie-and-bullet.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-10504565\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/jackie-and-bullet-400x241.jpg\" alt=\"Jacquelyn Funes, 9, on her front porch. A bullet hole can be seen in the wall behind her. \" width=\"400\" height=\"241\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/jackie-and-bullet-400x241.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/jackie-and-bullet-800x481.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/jackie-and-bullet-1440x866.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/jackie-and-bullet-1180x709.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/jackie-and-bullet-960x577.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jacqueline Funes, 9, on her front porch. A bullet hole can be seen in the wall behind her. \u003ccite>(Adam Grossberg/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">J\u003c/span>acqueline Funes is just one of hundreds of Oakland children whose lives have been drastically altered by violence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, 7 children under 18 were killed, and 88 children were wounded in shootings in the city, the Police Department says. In the previous nine years, 980 kids in Oakland visited emergency rooms for gunshot wounds, according to data from the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, this kind of trauma inflicts a wide range of psychic wounds on family and friends of those who have been shot. But it also exacts a heavy price on the educational lives of the victims and their schoolmates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We know how many months Jacqueline is behind. But what about the impact on her little brother in second grade? On her neighbors and classmates? How does the fallout from this cumulative violence manifest itself in schools?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jacqueline’s former teacher, Liz Torres, says she’s haunted by the hidden costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How do you provide mental health services to hundreds and hundreds of kids? It’s the undetected ones that I’m worried about,” Torres says. “It’s the cousins of Jacqueline, it’s the best friend of Jacqueline, who is now just totally traumatized. It’s the kids that just heard about it, and now are susceptible, because they have all this anger.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most shootings in Oakland occur in the flatlands of East and West Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jacqueline attended third grade at \u003ca href=\"http://www.ousd.k12.ca.us/communityunited\">Community United Elementary\u003c/a>. The school is in a neighborhood where shootings are so commonplace that it was locked down several times last year. One of the lockdowns this year was particularly bad, says Marisa Morales, Jacqueline’s third-grade teacher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was a drive-by. It was a semiautomatic or something. There were multiple shots,” Morales says. “At 3 o’clock, we had just dismissed our students. We had students everywhere, and families, and kids, little kids. And everybody was just running, trying to get inside the building, trying to shut all the doors. That was a bad one. Most of the time, the lockdowns are so routine, the kids don’t even blink.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" src=\"https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/202953712&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Morales says there was a lot of fear and confusion in her classroom after Jacqueline was shot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Students were not really sure what had happened,” Morales says. “There were a lot of questions. They thought she might be dead. They didn’t really understand what it would mean that she was paralyzed. That was probably the hardest, explaining to them what that meant, that she was alive, but she couldn’t move.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Students in safer neighorhoods just don’t have this burden.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘Most of the time, the lockdowns are so routine, the kids don’t even blink.’\u003ccite>Marisa Morales, third-grade teacher in Oakland\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Nobody knows this better than Jacqueline’s second-grade teacher, Liz Torres. She now teaches at \u003ca href=\"http://www.montclairschool.com/\">Montclair Elementary\u003c/a>. It’s a school in the more affluent Oakland hills. The neighborhood doesn’t even register on the Police Department’s \u003ca href=\"http://ec2-54-235-79-104.compute-1.amazonaws.com/oak/groups/police/documents/webcontent/oak050934.pdf\">map of shootings\u003c/a> in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Torres says students like Jacqueline and her classmates are at a major disadvantage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’ve got so much more work to do than most of my students that walk through my door today at Montclair Elementary, ready to learn, full belly,” Torres says. “They didn’t just walk through a place where their mom was scared they might get shot. They didn’t have that experience.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Torres is acutely aware her students at Montclair are getting an entirely different education from those on 66th Avenue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re in the same city. It’s the same tax dollars. It’s so inequitable,” Torres says. “It’s just, the distribution of support and resources is set up for this to happen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">B\u003c/span>y this spring, Torres had stopped visiting Jacqueline as often as she had last year. It was an emotional strain for her. And she knew that in January, the school district had finally sent a teacher to Jacqueline’s home to teach her two hours a day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jacqueline’s mom, Silvia Funes, wanted a full day of instruction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10504571\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 400px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/jacqueline-school-bubbles.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-10504571\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/jacqueline-school-bubbles-400x305.jpg\" alt=\"Jacquelyn Funes was eager to return to her old school, even if it meant she was the only student in a wheelchair.\" width=\"400\" height=\"305\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/jacqueline-school-bubbles-400x305.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/jacqueline-school-bubbles-800x609.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/jacqueline-school-bubbles-1440x1097.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/jacqueline-school-bubbles-1180x899.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/jacqueline-school-bubbles-960x731.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/jacqueline-school-bubbles.jpg 1791w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jacqueline Funes was eager to return to her old school, even if it meant she was the only student in a wheelchair. \u003ccite>(Zaidee Stavely/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“She doesn’t have schoolwork to do here,” says Funes. “That’s what I don’t understand. Why do they give her two hours of class, and count it for a whole day? I know that’s not enough, and it’s not right.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland schools spokesman Troy Flint said the two hours of instruction each day allowed the district to compensate for its earlier delays providing a teacher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Normally one hour a day of home instruction is the standard,” Flint says. “… In total now, she’s actually received more instruction in terms of total number of hours than if she’d just been receiving the normal complement all along. We have made up the missed time in terms of instruction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those two hours a day motivated Jacqueline to get out of bed. She also had nurses coming every day of the week. She was learning how to operate a wheelchair with her head and play games on an iPad with a pointer she held in her mouth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Silvia Funes says that, more than anything, Jacqueline wanted to return to school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She says she wants to go to the same school, because that’s where all her classmates are, and she loves her teacher, and her teacher loves her,” says Funes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district initially recommended Jacqueline go to a special school with other kids in wheelchairs and staff to help her. Jacqueline didn’t care for that idea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She said, ‘If I am in a wheelchair and there are no other kids in wheelchairs at my school, I don’t care,’ ” says Silvia Funes. “She doesn’t let anything stop her.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Funes asked for another meeting to negotiate. And this time, the district agreed to have her return to Community United.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">E\u003c/span>arlier this month, almost a full year after she was shot, Jacqueline was back at school, in the fourth grade. She started by going a few hours a day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10504572\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/jacqueline-school.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10504572\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/jacqueline-school-800x549.jpg\" alt=\"Chris Beatty, assistive technology professional for Oakland's schools, shows Jacquelyn Funes how to operate a laptop with a sensor mounted on her forehead.\" width=\"800\" height=\"549\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/jacqueline-school-800x549.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/jacqueline-school-400x274.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/jacqueline-school-1440x988.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/jacqueline-school-1180x810.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/jacqueline-school-960x659.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chris Beatty, assistive technology professional for Oakland’s schools, shows Jacqueline Funes how to operate a laptop with a sensor mounted on her forehead. \u003ccite>(Zaidee Stavely/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The other kids and teacher are glad to see her, greeting her joyfully on the playground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It won’t be easy for Jacqueline. She has months of schooling to make up. In class, she sits at a table in the back, her nurse by her side at all times. To do math, the nurse straps a pencil onto the one hand Jacqueline can move, and guides it over the paper to finish equations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Later, in the library, a technology professional sticks a tiny silver circle to her forehead that allows her to turn pages with a cursor on the computer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One thing is certain: Jacqueline is determined to learn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She tells her mom, “Once I can move my fingers, I’m going to do whatever it takes to grab a pencil.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"aligncenter\">\n\u003cp>If you would like to give to the Funes family, you can send a check to:\u003cbr>\n Silvia Funes, c/o Veronica Carrillo, Community United Elementary School, 6701 International Blvd, Oakland, CA 94621.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you would like to donate to an Oakland school like the one Jacqueline Funes attends, you can do so through the fiscal sponsor \u003ca href=\"https://osf.secure.nonprofitsoapbox.com/school-donation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Oakland Public Education Fund\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can find \u003ca href=\"http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/search.html?state=CA&community=1751:3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Donors Choose\u003c/a> projects started by teachers at Oakland schools for supplies they need for their classrooms here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can also give to \u003ca href=\"http://www.childrenshospitaloakland.org/main/giving.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Children’s Hospital\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is the first part in our series about how chronic violence in some neighborhoods puts some kids at a disadvantage in school, even before they walk in the door.\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>\u003cbr>\nThis report was produced in collaboration with \u003ca href=\"http://renjournalism.org/educational-opportunity-reporting-project/\">Renaissance Journalism’s Equity Reporting Project: Restoring the Promise of Education\u003c/a>, with funding from the Ford Foundation. Additional help from the \u003ca href=\"http://www.mesarefuge.org/\">Mesa Refuge\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Zaidee Stavely produjo un reportaje en español sobre Jacqueline Funes para Radio Bilingüe. Lo puedes leer y escuchar \u003ca href=\"http://radiobilingue.org/ultimas-noticias/nina-de-nueve-anos-paralizada-por-una-bala-perdida-lucha-para-seguir-estudiando/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">aquí\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "With New Funds on the Horizon, It's Back to School for Adult Education",
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"content": "\u003cp>Sarah Motola’s English-as-a-second-language class at \u003ca href=\"http://www.vusd.org/AdultSchool.cfm\">Visalia Adult School\u003c/a> is prioritizing a list of work habits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What’s the most important after ‘comes to work on time?’ ” asks Motola. “Follow instructions,” the class says in unison. “OK, good. So let’s make that No.2,” says Motola.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The students here learn to use the language to navigate a new system -- get a bank account, talk to a doctor or go to work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They come to the Central Valley from all corners of the globe -- Poland, Iran, Puerto Rico, China, India. “Our eldest student is 88 years old, from Argentina, and then we get a lot of people from Mexico,” says Motola.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some have never been in a classroom before, and some have degrees from other countries. Fatemeh Moin, 60, recently emigrated from Iran. She has been here for only two months, but she’s already enrolled in the ESL class. In Iran, she was a pistachio farmer. She wants to try her luck here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I want to start here, the same business I had in Iran, so I thought I need to learn English,” says Moin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[soundcloud url=\"https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/203436771\" params=\"color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" iframe=\"true\" /]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Guadalupe Soto DeHaro came to the United States at age 14 and had five children. Now she’s 37 and she says she finally has time to study English. She wants to better support her children in school. Getting a job was another possibility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think I can’t get a job because I don’t speak too much English,” she says. But she’s a quick study and recently got a job at Taco Bell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In another classroom, students do math to prepare for their GED or high school equivalency exam. Many want to go on to community college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yesenia Jaribay, 28, takes two buses to get here after dropping her kids off at school. She says she left an abusive marriage, and right now she’s just hoping to find work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really hard to get a job when you don’t finish school,” says Jaribay, who wants to be a psychologist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10490311\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/Sarah-Motola-works-with-a-student1.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-10490311 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/Sarah-Motola-works-with-a-student1-800x665.jpg\" alt=\"Student Hilda Sanchez (right) gets help from ESL teacher Sarah Motola.\" width=\"800\" height=\"665\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/Sarah-Motola-works-with-a-student1-800x665.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/Sarah-Motola-works-with-a-student1-400x333.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/Sarah-Motola-works-with-a-student1-1440x1198.jpg 1440w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/Sarah-Motola-works-with-a-student1-1180x982.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/Sarah-Motola-works-with-a-student1-768x639.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/Sarah-Motola-works-with-a-student1-320x266.jpg 320w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/Sarah-Motola-works-with-a-student1.jpg 2046w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Student Hilda Sanchez (right) gets help from ESL teacher Sarah Motola. \u003ccite>(Alice Daniel/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>These students are among the lucky ones. They still have an adult school to attend. In the San Joaquin Valley alone, about half the adult schools closed after K-12 school districts shifted the funds to other programs during the recession. The programs that managed to stay open suffered severe cuts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve got a classroom empty in every building right now because I haven’t been able to re-staff,” says John Werner, an assistant principal at Visalia Adult School.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there’s some good news on the horizon: Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed budget includes a \u003ca href=\"http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CCgQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebudget.ca.gov%2F2015-16%2Fpdf%2FBudgetSummary%2FKthru12Education.pdf&ei=u9QuVe-QAdSoyATAuYGAAw&usg=AFQjCNGet1oNKpsgtkn5DNMthFft7_9Ubw&bvm=bv.90790515,d.aWw\">$500 million block grant \u003c/a>to breathe new life into adult education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I never thought, in my professional career, I’d see dedicated funding come back to adult education,” says Debra Jones, dean of career education practices at the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office. For her, it’s a social justice issue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The students are underrepresented students, they’re immigrant students. Some are undocumented,” she says. “They’re disenfranchised in our society, and it’s a really a conversation about poverty and race.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Werner witnesses that poverty every day. “Our area really is the Appalachia of the West,” he says. Adult schools are imperative for economic development, especially in areas like the Central Valley where poverty is rampant, says Werner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s critical to the health of our communities that we invest heavily in education because it’s going to lift us all together,” he adds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proposed block grant would require school districts, community colleges and other organizations, such as workforce investment boards, to operate in a new way, as local boards or consortia coordinating adult education. These local boards are tasked with assessing community needs and streamlining programs so that nothing is duplicated. These tasks fall under \u003ca href=\"http://ab86.cccco.edu/\">Assembly Bill 86\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Werner says his area is making headway under Sacramento’s orders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s helped us understand who our partners and allies are,” he says. “We’ve been operating in silos to the point that we didn’t know about each other.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, a big chunk of the block grant will continue to fund the adult schools that remain in operation. But eventually, the money is slated to flow through the Community Colleges Chancellor's Office rather than the school districts. Some educators say that will just create more bureaucracy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We would love to see an opportunity to rebuild what was lost. There are so many communities without adult services,” says Karen Arthur, an ESL teacher in Oxnard. But she wants direct funding through the Department of Education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t want our money tied up in the chancellor’s office. Also, we don’t want to create an entirely new bureaucracy to distribute funds when we have pathways that have worked fine. Honestly, there’s no need to reinvent that wheel,” says Arthur, who started the \u003ca href=\"http://www.a4cas.org/\">Alliance for California Adult Schools \u003c/a>to oppose the consolidation. “We’ve seen so much devastation to the adult school system, and we don’t want to be left vulnerable on the other side of this reform.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However the money flows, students like Tommy Juarez will still be signing up for adult school classes. He’s a tree trimmer -- hard labor, he says -- and he knows if he gets hurt on the job, he’ll be out of work with no pay. He dropped out of high school decades ago. Now he’s working on his GED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I talked to my kids, I want to set a good example, let them know they should never give up. So I’m back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back at adult school -- joining others who may also be able to return under the governor’s block grant.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Sarah Motola’s English-as-a-second-language class at \u003ca href=\"http://www.vusd.org/AdultSchool.cfm\">Visalia Adult School\u003c/a> is prioritizing a list of work habits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What’s the most important after ‘comes to work on time?’ ” asks Motola. “Follow instructions,” the class says in unison. “OK, good. So let’s make that No.2,” says Motola.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The students here learn to use the language to navigate a new system -- get a bank account, talk to a doctor or go to work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They come to the Central Valley from all corners of the globe -- Poland, Iran, Puerto Rico, China, India. “Our eldest student is 88 years old, from Argentina, and then we get a lot of people from Mexico,” says Motola.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some have never been in a classroom before, and some have degrees from other countries. Fatemeh Moin, 60, recently emigrated from Iran. She has been here for only two months, but she’s already enrolled in the ESL class. In Iran, she was a pistachio farmer. She wants to try her luck here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I want to start here, the same business I had in Iran, so I thought I need to learn English,” says Moin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cdiv class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__shortcodes__shortcodeWrapper'>\n \u003ciframe width='100%' height='166'\n scrolling='no' frameborder='no'\n src='https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/203436771&visual=true&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false'\n title='https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/203436771'>\n \u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/div>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Guadalupe Soto DeHaro came to the United States at age 14 and had five children. Now she’s 37 and she says she finally has time to study English. She wants to better support her children in school. Getting a job was another possibility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think I can’t get a job because I don’t speak too much English,” she says. But she’s a quick study and recently got a job at Taco Bell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In another classroom, students do math to prepare for their GED or high school equivalency exam. Many want to go on to community college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yesenia Jaribay, 28, takes two buses to get here after dropping her kids off at school. She says she left an abusive marriage, and right now she’s just hoping to find work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really hard to get a job when you don’t finish school,” says Jaribay, who wants to be a psychologist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10490311\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/Sarah-Motola-works-with-a-student1.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-10490311 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/Sarah-Motola-works-with-a-student1-800x665.jpg\" alt=\"Student Hilda Sanchez (right) gets help from ESL teacher Sarah Motola.\" width=\"800\" height=\"665\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/Sarah-Motola-works-with-a-student1-800x665.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/Sarah-Motola-works-with-a-student1-400x333.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/Sarah-Motola-works-with-a-student1-1440x1198.jpg 1440w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/Sarah-Motola-works-with-a-student1-1180x982.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/Sarah-Motola-works-with-a-student1-768x639.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/Sarah-Motola-works-with-a-student1-320x266.jpg 320w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/04/Sarah-Motola-works-with-a-student1.jpg 2046w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Student Hilda Sanchez (right) gets help from ESL teacher Sarah Motola. \u003ccite>(Alice Daniel/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>These students are among the lucky ones. They still have an adult school to attend. In the San Joaquin Valley alone, about half the adult schools closed after K-12 school districts shifted the funds to other programs during the recession. The programs that managed to stay open suffered severe cuts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve got a classroom empty in every building right now because I haven’t been able to re-staff,” says John Werner, an assistant principal at Visalia Adult School.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there’s some good news on the horizon: Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed budget includes a \u003ca href=\"http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CCgQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebudget.ca.gov%2F2015-16%2Fpdf%2FBudgetSummary%2FKthru12Education.pdf&ei=u9QuVe-QAdSoyATAuYGAAw&usg=AFQjCNGet1oNKpsgtkn5DNMthFft7_9Ubw&bvm=bv.90790515,d.aWw\">$500 million block grant \u003c/a>to breathe new life into adult education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I never thought, in my professional career, I’d see dedicated funding come back to adult education,” says Debra Jones, dean of career education practices at the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office. For her, it’s a social justice issue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The students are underrepresented students, they’re immigrant students. Some are undocumented,” she says. “They’re disenfranchised in our society, and it’s a really a conversation about poverty and race.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Werner witnesses that poverty every day. “Our area really is the Appalachia of the West,” he says. Adult schools are imperative for economic development, especially in areas like the Central Valley where poverty is rampant, says Werner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s critical to the health of our communities that we invest heavily in education because it’s going to lift us all together,” he adds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proposed block grant would require school districts, community colleges and other organizations, such as workforce investment boards, to operate in a new way, as local boards or consortia coordinating adult education. These local boards are tasked with assessing community needs and streamlining programs so that nothing is duplicated. These tasks fall under \u003ca href=\"http://ab86.cccco.edu/\">Assembly Bill 86\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Werner says his area is making headway under Sacramento’s orders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s helped us understand who our partners and allies are,” he says. “We’ve been operating in silos to the point that we didn’t know about each other.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, a big chunk of the block grant will continue to fund the adult schools that remain in operation. But eventually, the money is slated to flow through the Community Colleges Chancellor's Office rather than the school districts. Some educators say that will just create more bureaucracy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We would love to see an opportunity to rebuild what was lost. There are so many communities without adult services,” says Karen Arthur, an ESL teacher in Oxnard. But she wants direct funding through the Department of Education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t want our money tied up in the chancellor’s office. Also, we don’t want to create an entirely new bureaucracy to distribute funds when we have pathways that have worked fine. Honestly, there’s no need to reinvent that wheel,” says Arthur, who started the \u003ca href=\"http://www.a4cas.org/\">Alliance for California Adult Schools \u003c/a>to oppose the consolidation. “We’ve seen so much devastation to the adult school system, and we don’t want to be left vulnerable on the other side of this reform.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However the money flows, students like Tommy Juarez will still be signing up for adult school classes. He’s a tree trimmer -- hard labor, he says -- and he knows if he gets hurt on the job, he’ll be out of work with no pay. He dropped out of high school decades ago. Now he’s working on his GED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I talked to my kids, I want to set a good example, let them know they should never give up. So I’m back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back at adult school -- joining others who may also be able to return under the governor’s block grant.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Poll: Californians Willing to Borrow Big in 2016 to Help Schools",
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"headTitle": "Election 2016 | FaultLines | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cp>The times may change, but Californians don't seem to do so when it comes to two things about K-12 public schools: a sense that they need money for construction and renovation, and a willingness to borrow the cash to make that happen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The latest example: A new statewide poll that shows relatively strong support for a 2016 school construction bond, even as the idea continues to be quietly fought in Sacramento by Gov. Jerry Brown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.ppic.org/main/publication.asp?i=1149\" target=\"_blank\">Wednesday night's poll from the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California\u003c/a> finds 55 percent of likely voters support the general concept of a school bond on the November 2016 ballot. Broaden the sample size to all adults, and PPIC finds even more -- 66 percent -- who like the idea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Our polling consistently shows that local school funding is the top priority,\" said Mark Baldassare, PPIC's president and pollster.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The PPIC survey takes the collective California temperature on a number of education-related issues. But the school bond may be the most politically pressing, given the rollicking debate in Sacramento over the issue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a nutshell: The cupboard is bare when it comes to voter-approved state bonds for school construction and modernization projects. Legislators and education groups have been trying to get a new bond on the ballot, but have run smack into an evolving gubernatorial doctrine that calls for an end to statewide bonds for local school needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even so, the idea of a 2016 school bond has some legs, though it comes in just under the historical benchmark (60 percent) that most believe any ballot measure needs at the outset of a campaign if it's to be successful, the belief being that voters tend to lose -- not gain -- interest in propositions as Election Day nears.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given how much talk there's been about how different \"likely voters\" are from the overall public, supporters of a 2016 school bond would certainly hope to grow the electorate; and with a presidential race on next November's ballot, that's certainly a possibility. Using that lens, the PPIC poll shows very few weak spots of support -- mainly more wealthy, white, older Californians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(And yes, they're the ones who traditionally vote more often … hence the lower support among likely voters in the survey.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But what this new snapshot doesn't answer is whether the details matter -- the size of the bond, the kinds of construction and modernization projects. The poll simply asks about support for \"a bond measure on the ballot.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I think these are good numbers,\" said Joe Dixon of the Coalition for Adequate School Housing. And if anyone's watching the polls, it's Dixon and others in his group. They've been waiting for a new school bond. And waiting. And waiting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/01/23/showdown-looms-over-california-school-construction-needs/\" target=\"_blank\">quest for a new statewide school bond has been blocked before at the state Capitol by the governor\u003c/a>, who made it known in 2014 that he didn't want another bond competing alongside Proposition 1 (the $7.5 billion water bond). There was also a sense that too much borrowing -- that is, too much new state debt -- wasn't exactly what Brown wanted on his re-election ballot when he was touting his debt reduction efforts since 2011.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As such, education groups have all but abandoned the Legislature (even though there's \u003ca href=\"http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/15-16/bill/sen/sb_0101-0150/sb_114_bill_20150407_amended_sen_v97.htm\" target=\"_blank\">a bond measure bill that's pending\u003c/a>). They've drafted their own school bond initiative, \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/initiatives/pdfs/15-0005%20%28Education%20Bond%20Act%29.pdf?\" target=\"_blank\">a $9 billion proposal\u003c/a>, and are already gathering signatures to get it on the ballot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It is our go-to plan,\" said Dixon, an assistant superintendent of the Santa Ana Unified School District.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for Brown, his January budget suggested a rethinking of how to pay for school modernization and construction. But since raising the question, there's pretty much been dead silence. The governor largely suggested more reliance on local, not state, measures to boost schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But those local efforts have had a lower success rate. Unlike the simple majority required on all statewide ballot measures, local school bonds require approval by 55 percent of the ballots cast -- a lower threshold than in the years before 2000, but still high enough to make them a harder sell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And that makes the finding in PPIC's new poll -- 53 percent of likely voters would support a local school bond in their area -- not a great option for bond backers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For months, the question has been whether legislators and the governor would get behind a statewide school bond. Now that's a moot point; the political coalition gathering signatures (and it will have \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/12/11/fewest-votes-cast-for-governor-since-1978\" target=\"_blank\">to gather fewer signatures than at any time in more than three decades\u003c/a>) has already ponied up $2.4 million to get it in front of voters next fall. This poll suggests they're starting out with a reasonable shot of getting voters to say yes.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The times may change, but Californians don't seem to do so when it comes to two things about K-12 public schools: a sense that they need money for construction and renovation, and a willingness to borrow the cash to make that happen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The latest example: A new statewide poll that shows relatively strong support for a 2016 school construction bond, even as the idea continues to be quietly fought in Sacramento by Gov. Jerry Brown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.ppic.org/main/publication.asp?i=1149\" target=\"_blank\">Wednesday night's poll from the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California\u003c/a> finds 55 percent of likely voters support the general concept of a school bond on the November 2016 ballot. Broaden the sample size to all adults, and PPIC finds even more -- 66 percent -- who like the idea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Our polling consistently shows that local school funding is the top priority,\" said Mark Baldassare, PPIC's president and pollster.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The PPIC survey takes the collective California temperature on a number of education-related issues. But the school bond may be the most politically pressing, given the rollicking debate in Sacramento over the issue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a nutshell: The cupboard is bare when it comes to voter-approved state bonds for school construction and modernization projects. Legislators and education groups have been trying to get a new bond on the ballot, but have run smack into an evolving gubernatorial doctrine that calls for an end to statewide bonds for local school needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even so, the idea of a 2016 school bond has some legs, though it comes in just under the historical benchmark (60 percent) that most believe any ballot measure needs at the outset of a campaign if it's to be successful, the belief being that voters tend to lose -- not gain -- interest in propositions as Election Day nears.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given how much talk there's been about how different \"likely voters\" are from the overall public, supporters of a 2016 school bond would certainly hope to grow the electorate; and with a presidential race on next November's ballot, that's certainly a possibility. Using that lens, the PPIC poll shows very few weak spots of support -- mainly more wealthy, white, older Californians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(And yes, they're the ones who traditionally vote more often … hence the lower support among likely voters in the survey.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But what this new snapshot doesn't answer is whether the details matter -- the size of the bond, the kinds of construction and modernization projects. The poll simply asks about support for \"a bond measure on the ballot.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I think these are good numbers,\" said Joe Dixon of the Coalition for Adequate School Housing. And if anyone's watching the polls, it's Dixon and others in his group. They've been waiting for a new school bond. And waiting. And waiting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/01/23/showdown-looms-over-california-school-construction-needs/\" target=\"_blank\">quest for a new statewide school bond has been blocked before at the state Capitol by the governor\u003c/a>, who made it known in 2014 that he didn't want another bond competing alongside Proposition 1 (the $7.5 billion water bond). There was also a sense that too much borrowing -- that is, too much new state debt -- wasn't exactly what Brown wanted on his re-election ballot when he was touting his debt reduction efforts since 2011.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As such, education groups have all but abandoned the Legislature (even though there's \u003ca href=\"http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/15-16/bill/sen/sb_0101-0150/sb_114_bill_20150407_amended_sen_v97.htm\" target=\"_blank\">a bond measure bill that's pending\u003c/a>). They've drafted their own school bond initiative, \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/initiatives/pdfs/15-0005%20%28Education%20Bond%20Act%29.pdf?\" target=\"_blank\">a $9 billion proposal\u003c/a>, and are already gathering signatures to get it on the ballot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It is our go-to plan,\" said Dixon, an assistant superintendent of the Santa Ana Unified School District.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for Brown, his January budget suggested a rethinking of how to pay for school modernization and construction. But since raising the question, there's pretty much been dead silence. The governor largely suggested more reliance on local, not state, measures to boost schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But those local efforts have had a lower success rate. Unlike the simple majority required on all statewide ballot measures, local school bonds require approval by 55 percent of the ballots cast -- a lower threshold than in the years before 2000, but still high enough to make them a harder sell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And that makes the finding in PPIC's new poll -- 53 percent of likely voters would support a local school bond in their area -- not a great option for bond backers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For months, the question has been whether legislators and the governor would get behind a statewide school bond. Now that's a moot point; the political coalition gathering signatures (and it will have \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/12/11/fewest-votes-cast-for-governor-since-1978\" target=\"_blank\">to gather fewer signatures than at any time in more than three decades\u003c/a>) has already ponied up $2.4 million to get it in front of voters next fall. This poll suggests they're starting out with a reasonable shot of getting voters to say yes.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"order": 1
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"id": "code-switch-life-kit",
"title": "Code Switch / Life Kit",
"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"meta": {
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
"airtime": "THU 10pm, FRI 1am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"meta": {
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"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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},
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"id": "forum",
"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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"id": "freakonomics-radio",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
"subscribe": {
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
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},
"fresh-air": {
"id": "fresh-air",
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"link": "/radio/program/fresh-air",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510051/podcast.xml"
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},
"hidden-brain": {
"id": "hidden-brain",
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"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
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},
"how-i-built-this": {
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"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/howIBuiltThis.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this",
"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
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"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/3zxy",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"order": 15
},
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},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
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"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
"meta": {
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},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Masters-of-Scale-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
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"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "http://mastersofscale.app.link/",
"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
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"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "On Our Watch from NPR and KQED",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1567098962",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
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"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/show/on-our-watch",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510360/podcast.xml"
}
},
"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm",
"meta": {
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"source": "wnyc"
},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id73330715?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-the-Media-p69/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia"
}
},
"pbs-newshour": {
"id": "pbs-newshour",
"title": "PBS NewsHour",
"info": "Analysis, background reports and updates from the PBS NewsHour putting today's news in context.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PBS-News-Hour-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/",
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"source": "pbs"
},
"link": "/radio/program/pbs-newshour",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pbs-newshour-full-show/id394432287?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/",
"rss": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/feeds/rss/podcasts/show"
}
},
"perspectives": {
"id": "perspectives",
"title": "Perspectives",
"tagline": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991",
"info": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Perspectives_Tile_Final.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Perspectives",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/perspectives/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 14
},
"link": "/perspectives",
"subscribe": {
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"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/432309616/perspectives",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/perspectives/category/perspectives/feed/",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93dzIua3FlZC5vcmcvcGVyc3BlY3RpdmVzL2NhdGVnb3J5L3BlcnNwZWN0aXZlcy9mZWVkLw"
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},
"planet-money": {
"id": "planet-money",
"title": "Planet Money",
"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
"airtime": "SUN 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/planetmoney.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/sections/money/",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/planet-money",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/M4f5",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/planet-money/id290783428?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/Business--Economics-Podcasts/Planet-Money-p164680/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510289/podcast.xml"
}
},
"politicalbreakdown": {
"id": "politicalbreakdown",
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