Buenas tardes tigres,

An early Happy Lunar New Year to everyone, and thanks to the families who shared their Lunar New Year traditions in our classrooms!

Last weekend, the historic final minute of Benito's bilingual superbowl show had a profound impact on many of our students, staff, and families. As we saw flags from across the Americas waiving on the screen, we were courageously reminded that "the only thing more powerful than hate is love"--a lesson that the Civil Rights movement taught our nation, and that this generation will have relearn. At OA, our resistance looks like daily linguistic liberation, bilingual curriculum that centers and celebrates Black and Brown brilliance, funding for tutoring and clubs that prioritize closing achievement gaps, family carpools to ensure every child comes to school, OCC's generous support of families in crisis, and hundreds of invisible acts of kindness that may never make it to this newsletter. All these things (and more) drove one of our students watching Benito's finale to say, "that's how Oyster-Adams makes me feel every day."

As I shared with staff, it's our collective responsibility to make that statement true for each child. We have made tremendous progress towards that goal in the last 18 months. Our average growth and achievement metrics have made significant strides in the right direction. Last year's OSSE CAPE data makes us the highest achieving PreK-8th school in the city, the highest achieving bilingual school, and the second highest achieving middle school (by less than a 2% margin). But in full honesty, our subgroup gaps continue to keep me up at night. Relative to last year's mid-year Math and Literacy data, we see much stronger gains for students with IEP's, progress for English Language Learners, but for students furthest from economic opportunities, the proficiency gaps range from 33-52% points in all subjects (albeit smaller than a year ago).

Ethically, this is where we are all called to commit. In grades where our academic subgroup gaps are the largest, our student sense of belonging is also the lowest. Equity gaps psychologically affect all students--not just those furthest from opportunity. Conversely, in grades where we've made success possible for all students, student sense of safety and belonging is actually stronger for ALL kids. Weeks ago, I quoted Dr. King saying: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justic everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” Our data proves his quote. All children benefit from being in an ecosystem where the bar is never lowered, where we create conditions for universal success, and we ALL work towards that goal together. If you're interested in hearing more about this MOY data, and supporting this effort come to our OCC meeting this Thursday, where I'll also share some next steps for the remainder of the school year (link in our Family Leadership Section)!

This week, I also want to send a special thank you to more than 80 different families who gave their time to:

• Shovel rock hard snow to make recess happen this week on BOTH campuses
• Chaperoned/volunteered for the Middle School Dance
• Made the Somos Amigos carnival possible at Oyster
• Have been working for weeks to set up the Black History Month celebration
• Came to cheer for our MS Girls Basketball Team at the State Championship Semifinals!

Your presence is a public testimony of love, not just for your children, but for the collective experience of all our tigers. Thank you for taking care of one another, and making joy a reality--regardless of whatever obstacles come our way. Your next volunteer opportunity is at the Black History Month Celebration this Friday! The event still needs many hands to be fully staffed and supported. Please check out the link in the Family Leadership section.

And last but certainly not least, we have so many student shout-outs this week!

• On Wednesday, our 3 spelling champions competed against other schools at the intermediate spelling bee. Zander (8th grade) finished in the top 5. Maeve (7th grade), and Jumana (5th grade), lasted several rounds before elimination, resulting in all of our competitors landing in the Top 10 in the Bee! Zander will be eligible to compete in the District Spelling Bee, competing on camera at a local TV news station on March 14.
• Our girls basketball team qualified for the DCSAA State Tournament for the first time ever and on Saturday, they went on to valiantly face Washington Latin. They played with incredible heart, intensity, and dedication. While they didn't advance further in the tournament, they deserve incredible applause for having made OA history on that court. We were so proud to see Oyster students and families come out to support, even if their kids were not playing on the court! Bravo tigresas 🐯!

Un abrazo fuerte,

Carolina Brito