Roses in Concrete Community School

Roses in Concrete Community School is our Ukukura

The Boards of Roses in Concrete Community School and Kia Aroha College have agreed to the two schools becoming Ukukura (schools who are allies, who work together in solidarity).

Roses in Concrete Community School is a Kindergarten to 8th grade (Years 1 to 9) public charter school in Oakland, CA (USA). In the U.S. public education system, a “charter” school is allowed to have defined special character from regular public schools. Roses in Concrete’s special character emphasizes a bilingual/multilingual, critical and community responsive approach that centres on students' cultural identities.  The name of the Roses in Concrete Community School was inspired by the book of poetry based on the writings of Tupac Shakur released in 1999, The Rose That Grew from Concrete.  This vivid image captures the need to celebrate the tenacity and will of the rose that against-all-odds, finds a way to grow in the inhospitable and toxic environment of the concrete.  Instead of designing a model that plucks out individual roses that find their way through cracks in the concrete, we aim to break up the concrete so that entire rose gardens can blossom in our highest need neighborhoods.  In short, we believe that the point of education is not to escape poverty, but to end it.  We aim to do this by cultivating new generations of Warrior-Scholars who understand the importance of returning to vulnerable communities like East Oakland, to invest and serve as community leaders.