Greetings!First hearings scheduled on Chalkboard K-12 improvement legislation
Bills cover range of investment, savings prioritiesThe House Subcommittee on Education Innovation will hold its first round of hearings Feb. 22 and Feb. 27 on four bills introduced by a bipartisan group of legislators to tackle key Chalkboard Project priorities in the 2007 Oregon legislative session.
Chief sponsors of all four bills are Sens. Betsy Johnson and Bruce Starr, and Reps. Arnie Roblan and Linda Flores, all members of Chalkboard’s legislative point team. Sen. Richard Devlin is an additional chief sponsor of House Bill 2614, which enhances professional development for educators.
A summary of the bills and their additional sponsors:
House Bill 2612, targets grants to districts to invest in K-1 class size reductions and K-3 reading tutors
Sponsors: Sens. Ginny Burdick, Avel Gordly, Jeff Kruse and Frank Morse, and Reps. Terry Beyer, Peter Buckley, Brian Clem, John Dallum, Betty Komp, Karen Minnis, Susan Morgan and Gene WhisnantHouse Bill 2613, establishes best financial management practices for districts and requires mandatory reviews, begins restructure of school transportation funding formula, phases out permanent early retirement programs
Sponsors: Sens. Burdick, Gordly, Kruse and Morse, and Reps. Buckley, Clem, Dallum, Mitch, Greenlick, Komp, Minnis, Morgan and WhisnantHouse Bill 2614, creates statewide network to deliver rigorous professional development programs for educators and set quality standards
Sponsors: Sens. Burdick, Gordly, Kruse and Morse, and Reps. Beyer, Buckley, Clem, Dallum, Komp, Minnis, Morgan and WhisnantHouse Bill 2615, establishes per-student funding guarantee that creates a floor of state spending on K-12 education
Sponsors: Sens. Burdick, Kruse and Morse, and Reps. Beyer, Buckley, Clem, Dallum, Komp, Minnis and WhisnantChalkboard also is partnering with Stand for Children on a teacher and principal mentoring bill – House Bill 2574. Stand is planning a noon rally February 19 at the state Capitol to promote several K-12 initiatives.
Read the news release announcing the introduction of Chalkboard legislation
Read more about Chalkboard's 2007 legislative proposals and long-term action plan
Citizens visit Salem to talk Chalkboard
Two dozen members of Chalkboard’s statewide citizens’ corps met with Oregon legislators on February 1 to promote research-based education reforms, as part of Chalkboard’s first Leadership Day in Salem. Citizens from the Portland metro area, Willamette Valley, southern Oregon, Oregon coast and eastern Oregon all took part in the event, designed to highlight the Chalkboard-backed bills now beginning their journey through the Legislature.
Citizens’ corps members promote key K-12 initiativesCheck out the members of Chalkboard's statewide citizens' corps
A new take on professional development
Chalkboard offers statewide approach to maintaining excellent educatorsOne of Chalkboard’s key initiatives this legislative session is House Bill 2614, which will create a statewide network – the Oregon Collaborative for Educational Excellence – to identify and coordinate top-notch professional development programs for K-12 teachers and administrators. This partnership among the education, business and foundation communities will fill a need for more support for the ongoing training educators need to raise student achievement, and guidance on what constitutes “quality” professional development.
Chalkboard’s new education policy specialist, Kate Dickson, describes the proposed teacher and administrator learning network in more detail:
Q: Why a statewide collaborative for professional development?
A: Oregon spends more than $50 million a year on K-12 professional development activities for teachers and administrators. Yet we have no statewide system for quality assurance and no standard practice of linking professional development activities to raising student achievement. Oregon needs a research-based, sustainable system of high-quality professional development for Oregon teachers and administrators.
Read more about the statewide professional development network
Visit our In The News section to read recent reports from around the state.
