Superintendent Says Reform of Oakland Schools Requires Community Involvement

The Bay Citizen (CA)

In his five-year plan to turn around the lowest-performing schools in the Oakland Unified School District, Superintendent Tony Smith does not mention teachers, textbooks or test scores. Instead, Smith said his students most urgently needed social and health services, engaged parents and activities outside the classroom. Whether Smith can overhaul the schools in Oakland is a subject of intense interest among Bay Area educators. Oakland Unified has lost $122 million in financing in the latest cuts to California's embattled public schools. The city's endemic problems, particularly poverty and crime, have had a dramatic effect in the classroom.

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