Greetings!
This month Oregon legislators gathered for a short session.
Although time was limited, many bills were presented and heard in committee,
including a few bills on the topic of teacher effectiveness.
With new policies on the horizon and a lot of buzz around
Race to the Top, we thought we would help clarify the state-level teacher
effectiveness policies and programs that were recently put in place in Oregon.
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 The Oregon Mentoring Program is in its second year and
serves over 720 new teachers and administrators. The program is run through the
Oregon Department of Education and provides grants to as many district
applicants as funding will allow. Many districts have created consortiums to
more efficiently serve a wider population of new teachers and administrators.
The current project partnerships are:
· Beaverton, Banks, Gaston, Vernonia, St. Helens Consortium
· Clackamas Consortium
· David Douglas School District
· Forest Grove/Hillsboro School Districts
· Lincoln County School District
· Salem-Keizer School District
· Southern Oregon ESD Consortium
· Willamette ESD/Linn Benton Lincoln ESD
Together, these
partnerships serve 107 of Oregon's 198 school districts.
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Oregon Coalition for
Quality Teaching and Learning
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State member of the National Coalition for Teaching and America's Future
 The Oregon NCTAF coalition was formed to address issues of
quality teaching and learning to assure that every student
has access to 21st century teaching. The coalition will focus on
strengthening the professional practice of teachers. Members of the coalition include representatives from the
Chalkboard Project, OEA, OSBA, COSA, Stand for Children, ODE, Higher Education,
OBA, TSPC and others.
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Professional Development Clearinghouse
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Senate Bill 443, 2009 Session
The bill funds an easy-access, web-based resource listing of
standards-based, high-quality professional development programs for teachers
and other common-sense approaches to improve the professional practice of
teaching. The bill appoints a commission to oversee the development and
implementation of the clearinghouse. Current commission members are: Sen. Rick Metsger
Rep. Arnie Roblan
Colleen Mileham of the Department of Education
Bill Beck of the Teacher Standards and Practices Commission
Debbi Egan and Jim Mabbot representing educational service districts Serena St. Clair representing community colleges
Randy Hitz representing the higher education community
Linda Samek representing the private higher education community
Margie Lowe of the Governor's Office
Trevor White of the Oregon School Employees Association
Parkrose Superintendent Karen Gray
Teachers Jeff Hellman of Eugene and Karen Hoffman of Beaverton
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Professional Development Standards
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In 2008, the Oregon State Board of Education adopted
professional development standards based on the National Staff Development
Council's standards. The NSDC standards can be seen at: http://www.nsdc.org/standards/
These standards set context, process, and content principles
around professional development in order to best meet teacher and student
needs.
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Task Force on
Education Career Preparation and Development
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House Bill 3619, 2010 February Session
The goal of the Task Force is to improve the
 effectiveness of education professionals by building stronger connections
between teacher education institutions and employers of education professionals.
To that end, the Task Force is charged with: reviewing current practices
for teachers' professional development, including career preparation;
identifying the strengths in and needs for preparation, recruitment, and
retention of education professionals; and identifying gaps between
institutions of preparation and employers in the practices and procedures used
to prepare, recruit, and retain education professionals.
The Task Force is required to submit findings and their
system proposal to legislative interim education committees no later than
December 2, 2010. The Task Force takes immediate effect and is disbanded at
convening of next regular biennial legislative session. The Task
Force membership is jointly appointed by the Oregon University System
Chancellor, the Executive Director of Teacher Standards and Practices
Commission, and the Superintendent of Public Instruction.
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Visit
www.chalkboardproject.org
for information on all of our initiatives
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