The Oakland Community School aimed at providing to its students a culturally relevant, experience-based curriculum that encouraged students to engage in discussion, critique, and critical thinking skills. 

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- Overarching Pedagogy
- View on Grade Levels
- Universal Design
- Standardized and IQ Testing

The Oakland Community School's Pedagogy

Schalk, Sami. Black Disability Politics, New York, USA: Duke University Press, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781478027003

Black Disability Politics

Overarching Pedagogy of the Oakland Community School

Oakland Community School did not have traditional age based grade levels and rather grouped students based on their academic performance, this allowed the school to tailor each of their 50-150 student's academic curriculum to their specific needs and learning styles in classes including math, science, Spanish, English, history, art, physical education, choir, and environmental studies. 

Oakland Community School's View on Grade Levels

The Oakland Community School did use test to assess students struggling with reading, but the Oakland Community School did not use standardized testing with the exception of using it to prepare students for transitioning to public schools for middle school. The Oakland Community School did not use IQ testing. During this time period IQ testing was widely used by public schools to lump disabled children, nondisabled Black children, and children with English as a second language into overcrowded and underfunded special education classrooms. 

Oakland Community School's View on Standardized and IQ testing

While the framework of Universal Design as an anti-ableist educational framework wouldn't be developed until the 1990s a lot of the Oakland Community School's pedagogy. Children with reading and cognitive difficulties were assessed by a special education consultant who would visit the school and the results of those assessments were used to adjust their individual learning plans and their instructor's teaching strategy. Every child, as previously mentioned had an individual learning plan. This approach mirrors Universal Design's emphasis on flexible, multimodal learning environments and supporting various learning and communication styles.

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