When I took over as principal in 2000, it was the worst middle school in Oakland.

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Rather than drag Wang to Detroit, Charlene found her a slot at the pricey College Preparatory School in Oakland, California.

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As a high school social worker in Oakland, California, Alvarez was frustrated by the number of boys of color he saw dropping out of school or falling into the criminal justice system.

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At Piedmont High School in the Oakland Hills, there are 14 students in this first-year Mandarin class, a mixture of Asian, white, African-American and Indian.

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Jerry Brown, the mayor of Oakland, is an increasingly radical supporter of school choice.

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Pilot projects on the Edmonton model have already been launched by school boards in Colorado Springs, Oakland and New York City.

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Bernie received his Bachelor of Arts in economics from Oakland University and a Juris Doctor from the University of Michigan Law School.

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Anthony Cody, who taught middle-school science for 18 years and now mentors new teachers in the Oakland, Calif.

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When Sally Moss, a retired high school Latin teacher, recently moved her mobile home a kilometer to another plot of land in Oakland, Oregon, she asked US West for a new phone line.

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Nelson is a professor of environmental policy in the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland and a senior fellow with The Independent Institute, Oakland, CA ( www.independent.org).

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