Board of Education Hon. Tara M. Desautels Presiding Judge Alameda County Superior Court

Oakland Unified School District’s public comments regarding Castlemont High School's misuse of APEX and other grade recovery programs misled the public about the severe academic and ethical breakdowns that occurred at the school. District Response to

Oakland Unified School District’s weak internal policies, inadequate training, and lack of oversight enabled some Castlemont High School teachers of onsite make-up courses and credit recovery tutorials to run roughshod over academic integrity and best practices.

Oakland Unified School District’s policies on administration of APEX Learning online credit recovery courses were inadequate to ensure consistent and appropriate application of APEX and allowed abuse by a small number of teachers and counselors at Castlemont High School.

APEX teachers received little or no training in the proper use and administration of APEX courses and of the grading of students in those courses. District Response to Findings 20-2, 20-3, and 20-4: The District partially disagrees with each of these findings. As noted previously, the District has initiated an external evaluation of online credit recovery courses within OUSD due to the variation in the use of APEX by students and teachers. The evaluation is focused on whether OUSD needed to: ● implement additional employee training regarding the use of online credit recovery programs; ● revise its guidelines and grading rubrics for online credit recovery programs; and/or ● incorporate additional checks and balances prior to issuance of credits through an online credit recovery program. The District will review and implement the

Extraordinarily high truancy rates at Castlemont High School and insufficient administrator intervention made it impossible for habitually truant students to receive the required educational experience. District Response to

Some long-standing OUSD students arrive at Castlemont High School unprepared for high school level work due to being repeatedly promoted in earlier grades without meeting the district’s requirements for promotion. District Response to