Greetings!
The last few months have been busy ones for Chalkboard, as we navigated through our first-ever legislative session with an ambitious, research-based agenda for improving the quality, accountability and funding of our schools. By the time the Legislature adjourned June 27, six of nine initiatives important to Chalkboard were fully or partially approved, and a seventh kept moving through formation of an interim legislative study. Most of all, we helped change the tone of the conversation in Salem this year; there was plenty of talk about money, as always, but much more talk about how that money will be used to help students improve their achievement and how we will better hold schools accountable for your tax dollars. Thanks to all of you who helped advocate for these important school reforms – your support made a difference!
We’ll spend the next few months reviewing our progress, continuing our outreach to Oregonians and making plans for future legislative work. The goal remains clear: taking the public’s agenda forward to elevate our schools to among the nation’s best. We are well aware that comprehensive education reform takes time. You can be assured we will be back in Salem in the years to come building on this year’s successes and continuing to push for the reforms needed to move our schools from “average” to “excellent.” In the meantime, we’ll also keep working on a number of initiatives to better connect parents and other citizens with schools, provide new leadership and compensation options for teachers, and provide useful information about school spending through our Open Book$ project.
Our sincere thanks for your continuing support and advocacy,
Charlie Walker
Chairman of the BoardSue Hildick
President2007 Legislature gets an “incomplete” grade for K-12 work
Lawmakers take a few steps forward on school quality and accountability, but more important work remainsChalkboard posted a number of full and partial wins in the just completed legislative session, but there are still important research-based reforms that await future legislative action.
Here is a summary of the bills passed that were strongly supported by Chalkboard and represent key achievements for Oregon’s K-12 public schools by this year’s Legislature:
All new Oregon teachers, principals and superintendents will receive two years of high-quality mentoring, thanks to a new law that phases in this assistance over the next four years.
The state’s first-ever comprehensive rainy day fund was created and the corporate kicker (about $300 million) was redirected for one biennium to help fill it.
The Oregon Department of Education will undertake a study of the school transportation system and how it can be operated more efficiently.
A system was established to conduct performance reviews of school district business operations by the Secretary of State’s office.
An interim legislative study will be conducted on making the transitions among pre-school, K-12 and higher education more seamless, and likely will consider a transition to budgeting based on per-student spending.
All of these initiatives were Chalkboard priorities, based on significant “best practices” research and extensive input from Oregonians.
Did the Legislature go far enough? No. That’s why they get an “incomplete” grade. We would have liked to have seen a small portion of K-12’s $6.25 billion budget targeted specifically to early learning initiatives that make a real difference for kids, such as lowering K-1 class sizes and providing more K-3 reading tutors. We would like to see the performance reviews of school district business practices approved by legislators become mandatory, instead of voluntary. We also were disappointed legislators failed to approve a statewide professional development system to coordinate the approximately $50 million our school districts spend on ongoing training for K-12 educators each year, and to ensure the quality and relevance of that training to student achievement goals.
But the gains made are a good first step, and we thank legislators for their hard work in coupling more money with the beginnings of a reform agenda for our schools. Chalkboard looks forward to coming back in future legislative sessions to continue this important work to raise student achievement throughout the state and restore Oregonians' confidence in schools' use of tax dollars.
Read more details about the accomplishments of the 2007 legislative session, and the work left to do
Read Chalkboard’s post-legislative session news release
Chalkboard partners with school business leaders to find “best practices”
Chalkboard is funding a new effort to create a statewide set of “best business practices” that school districts can share and learn from. Earlier this month, Chalkboard announced it will partner with the Oregon Association of School Business Officials to review central business expenses in five school districts around the state, the first step to creating a toolkit of “best practices” districts can use to run their business operations as efficiently as possible. The Beaverton School District has volunteered for the first review. Chalkboard has granted OASBO $87,500 to coordinate the reviews.
Read the news release announcing the grant
Open Book$ to add updated data
Chalkboard’s Open Book$ online tool is entering year two, and will soon add data for the 2005-06 school year. We are redesigning the Web site to make it even more user friendly, and adding information the public has asked for, such as demographic data, school funding sources and average class sizes. We are currently testing the updated site with school districts and the Oregon Department of Education to ensure data accuracy, and will launch the improved site within the next few weeks.
