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Oakland education community mourns activist Dirk Tillotson
Community members and education leaders in Oakland are reeling from the loss of Dirk Tillotson, a prominent education activist who was killed in his home last week. Tillotson, 52, led an organization called Great School Choices, wrote about education equity in Oakland on his blog Great School Voices, and spent his career helping to start and support schools in Oakland, New York City, New Orleans, and overseas in Qatar. He pushed schools and school leaders to improve educational outcomes, like literacy rates, standardized test scores, and graduation rates, for Black students and students of color. Tillotson was also a lawyer who volunteered as an advocate for families in discipline hearings…