Greetings!
As teachers stock their classrooms and students fill their backpacks, the anticipation of a new school year is upon us. This is an exciting time for education reform and for Oregon. Chalkboard just announced CLASS design grants for an additional nine districts. This means that a total of 18% of Oregon teachers will now belong to districts that are participating in the CLASS Project! These districts are demonstrating that in Oregon teacher-driven reform can lead the way to higher student achievement.
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CLASS Grows to Twelve School Districts
 With the expansion of the CLASS Project™, almost one out of every six students will belong to a district where important conversations are happening about high quality teaching and learning. The nine new districts, Salem-Keizer, Bend-LaPine, Redmond, Sisters, Crook County, High Desert ESD, Lebanon, Oregon City and Vernonia, will receive grants to begin their planning this fall. You can be sure we will keep you updated as these projects move forward.
Sherwood, Tillamook, and Forest Grove school districts will begin their second year of CLASS Project implementation in the fall, providing their teachers and staff with more opportunities to lead the way to student success. Scorecard data demonstrating the links between the CLASS Project and key indicators of success, such as student achievement, college preparedness and teacher recruitment/retention, will be released this fall.
If you haven't already done so, listen to the City Club presentation, "Standing at the Head of the Class: Promoting Great Teaching in Oregon" by clicking the Friday Forum link or by visiting www.pdxcityclub.org.
Learn more on the CLASS Project Web page.
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Tag, you're it...
Ed Dennis is the Deputy Superintendent at the Oregon Department of Education. ODE is helping lead the state conversation around how best to invest federal stimulus dollars to raise student achievement. We asked Ed to share his thoughts on the changing landscape of education policy in Oregon.
1) The US Dept. of Education has allocated $ 4.3 billion dollars for innovation in public schools with the Race to the Top Fund. How does Oregon stack up against the other states who are competing for this money?
It is hard to say precisely.
What is clear is that Oregon has built in advantages in two areas, we have one of the best assessment and data systems in the nation. We have promising practices like our Credit for Proficiency that could put us in a great position. Our recent innovative work on CLASS and mentoring may be key to our proposal.
If Oregon can stay the course with our diploma implementation then that will be a big boost to our application.
2) What role can NGOs and nonprofits play to better position the
state for federal funds?
In Oregon they are doing it already. The CLASS Project is a perfect example of that. Stand For Children and Chalkboard have convinced the legislature to keep mentoring on track in Oregon. Foundations can continue to invest in Chalkboard and stay focused on research based practices in schools that support student achievement.
We need your help making the case for change to our policy makers and public. Most people do not understand how hard the rest of the world and the rest of the country are working to raise the education levels of all of their students. People do not realize that Oregon could fall behind if we do not move fast.
The most important thing we can all do is work together quickly to get a high-quality Race to the Top proposal together that we can begin to advocate for.
3) How do you see the Obama Administration's infusion of resources in public education affecting the national education landscape?
It is too early to tell. If they are clear about what they want for the money then it could have a huge impact on driving instruction based educational improvements.
We are having conversations now that are more focused. Who needs the help? What can we do to get the help to them?
The effort to raise the bar on standards could have lasting impact if successful. Most people do not realize how diverse expectations are from state to state. In a state like Massachusetts they expect, and achieve, higher levels of educational attainment than the rest of the nation. School districts like Montgomery County (in Maryland) are raising the bar for all kids and getting results.
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Chalkboard Welcomes Back a Familiar Face
Aimee Craig returns to the Chalkboard Project this month as the new Communications Manager. Aimee was formally Chalkboard's Information and Outreach Director before she left the organization last August to get married, move to Chicago and earn a Masters Degree. She is looking forward to jumping back in and spreading the word about Chalkboard's work across Oregon.
Welcome back Aimee!
We would also like to thank Merry Ann Moore for all of her excellent communications work over the last five months. She will continue to provide valuable insight and strategy to the Chalkboard team as we move forward.
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Ready, Set, Teach! Adds Another Voice
As Mollie Dickson begins her first year as a full-time 7th grade Language Arts teacher in Oregon she will be joined on the Ready, Set, Teach Blog by Melissa Mullineaux, our summer CLASS intern and last month's Tag guest. Melissa will be teaching 6th grade Language Arts, but she will be doing so from a classroom in Washington, DC. Readers will get the chance to see how similar or different the experiences of two first-year teachers can be. Look for new posts starting in September. In the meantime, catch up on Mollie's experiences on Ready, Set, Teach!
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Bringing Research-Based Practices Back-to-School
As educators return to school amidst the buzz around Federal stimulus dollars and Obama Administration priorities, they may be looking for some concrete example of what these priorities would look like in a classroom. Recently, Chalkboard's Teachers' Lounge resource center highlighted two useful links for teachers.
The What Works Clearinghouse is a great resource for educators interested in finding out which programs have been backed by research and which have not. Sponsored by the Department of Education and the Institute of Educational Sciences, the What Works Clearinghouse includes information on programs in seven topic areas, including beginning reading and dropout prevention. The partner Web site, Doing What Works, give educators concrete examples of how to implement research-driven practices in their classrooms.
When teachers and students go back to school this year, we want to make sure they have the resources they need to be successful. If you know of other resources we should be sharing with teachers, please let us know at info@chalkboardproject.org.
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Social Media, Here We Come!
Chalkboard is now on Facebook and Twitter. Connect with us on-line and help spread the word about how to make Oregon's public schools among the nation's best.
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Chalkboard is hiring a CLASS Project Assistant
Check out the CLASS Web page to read the job description or contact Kylie Grunow for more information and to submit your application materials.
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What's Next for Chalkboard...
August 19 - Community Partners Briefing on Hispanic-White Achievement Gap Report
September 3 - REAP (Reaching out and Empowering All People) Challenge Camp presentation
September 17 - Foundations for a Better Oregon Board Meeting
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