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Greetings!

We have said it too many times to count and we'll say it again: the teacher has the most significant impact on student achievement in the classroom. Now you can hear directly from educators about what it means to put that research into action and see results from two CLASS districts: www.educators4reform.org.
Chalkboard Receives Federal TIF Grant
Yesterday, Chalkboard learned that it had been awarded $13.2 million dollars from the federal Teacher Incentive Fund to continue working with Oregon districts to locally design and implement career and compensation reforms.

The grant will support the work of the CLASS Project in seven districts: Albany, Bend- La Pine, Crook County, Lebanon, Oregon City, Redmond, and Salem-Keizer.

This is an exciting moment for Chalkboard and for education in Oregon!

Read the full press release to learn more.
CLASS Districts See Outstanding Results
We are thrilled to highlight results from the second year of CLASS Project implementation.
 
Since the implementation of the CLASS Project, both Sherwood and Tillamook are showing at least double the growth of comparator districts in the share of students in secondary grades meeting or exceeding benchmarks on the state assessments in math and reading.
 
Additionally, the share of Tillamook students meeting or exceeding the state math benchmark has increased nearly three times the increase for the state as a whole and 3.5 times the increase for a group of demographically similar comparison districts. The increase in Tillamook students meeting or exceeding the reading benchmark was nearly three times the increase for the state and more than four times the increase for the comparison districts.
 
In the 2009-10 school year, Sherwood students met or exceeded the state benchmark in math and reading at higher rates than the statewide average in every grade tested. Sherwood's meet/exceed rates were between six and 17 percentage points higher than the state average, depending on grade and subject
 
For more detailed results and charts go to http://educators4reform.org/see-the-results/
 
Read the press release at: http://www.chalkboardproject.org/news/press-releases/2010-09-14.php
CLASS Website Launches

Last week we launched a new website dedicated to the work of the CLASS Project: www.educators4reform.org
 
You can now hear directly from educators in Sherwood, Tillamook and Forest Grove about what the CLASS Project is and how expanded career, relevant professional development, effective performance evaluations and new compensation models will impact teaching and learning in their districts.
Open Books Project
How much does your school district spend on buses, buildings, and food compared to similar districts? How many years of experience does the average teacher have in your district?  What percentage of eight graders in your district met benchmark on the state math test?
 
Find the answers to these questions and more on the Open Books Project (www.openbooksproject.org) website. Check back often with updates posted as official data is released.
 
We have also invited districts to answer a few questions about how the continued budget cuts are affecting their staff and students. Go to http://www.openbooksproject.org/indexBudgetCuts.aspxto see how Beaverton, Eugene, Salem-Keizer, Sherwood, and Springfield are managing the cuts. 

Our Voices, Our Schools
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This month we interviewed Karen Stiner. Karen spent 2007-2009 in Washington, D.C. as an Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow. She currently teaches middle-school math in the Bend- La Pine School District.
 
You spent two years as an Einstein Fellow in Washington, D.C. How does that experience affect your day-to-day teaching in the classroom?
 
Our students have the capacity to compete with the best and the brightest young minds across the world in mathematics, technology, sciences and engineering-the STEM disciplines. I am deeply dedicated to being part of the nationwide effort to strategically address STEM education initiatives during the middle grades and beyond. I am passionate about meeting the need for mathematics curricula and instructional practices that are consistent with the latest and best cognitive research about how girls and boys most effectively learn complex scientific and mathematical concepts. Presently, by eighth grade and throughout high school, we continue to see a hemorrhaging of some of our best intellectual talent as young women and men opt out of science and math curricula. This does not need to happen. As a teacher, and researcher, I believe that I can contribute to the development of stronger, more effective STEM instructional strategies for students that will 'reach them and teach them' so that they can pursue scientific and technological careers which provide personal fulfillment while simultaneously contributing to our national well-being as we compete in a global economy.

In recent years there has been an increased focus on STEM education. From your perspective, are more students interested and excelling in science and math classes now than they were 3-4 years ago?

I am not certain. Nationally and statewide we seem uncoordinated and unfocused on this critical area of the curriculum. I see in the current issue of Education Week this statement: "Far too many of our brightest students, and students with the most potential for future achievement in STEM, are overlooked and underdeveloped beginning at the early stages of their academic careers."
 
Your school district is participating in CLASS Project, how do you envision the project impacting your teaching career in the years to come?

This is one of the most exciting and promising professional endeavors currently underway in our district and at the state level. We still have much work to do. The identification and use of appropriate value added metrics in arriving at teacher performance evaluations is a special challenge. In order for a value-added system to be a powerful engine of school improvement, it should be used to evaluate effectiveness of instructional practices, programs, and policies; be embedded within a framework of data-informed decision making; and be aligned with school, district, and state policies, practices, and governance procedures. You can see why this is such an important issue for CLASS to address.
September 2010
In This Issue
Chalkboard Receives Federal TIF Grant
CLASS Districts See Outstanding Results
CLASS Website Launches
Open Books
Our Voices, Our Schools
A Thank You to Our TIF Supporters
CPPS Portland Parent Leadership Conference
What's Next for Chalkboard
ChalkBloggers
A Thank You to Our TIF Supporters

Chalkboard would like to extend a heartfelt "thank you" to all of those partners, supporters, and strategic advisors that assisted with our federal TF grant. Your support throughout the process helped us achieve this momentus win for Oregon.
 
Thank you to:

Governor Kulongoski
Superintentent Castillo
Senator Merkley
Senator Wyden
Congressman Schrader
Congressman Walden
Congressman Wu
Chris Dudley
John Kitzhaber
Rep. Deborah Boone
Sen. Peter Courtney
Rep. Brian Clem
Sen. Ted Ferrioli
Sen. Mark Hass
Rep. John Huffman
Rep. George Gilman
Sen. Betsy Johnson
Rep. Bill Kennemer
Rep. Betty Komp

Rep. Arnie Roblan

Sen. Martha Schrader
Rep. Sherrie Sprenger
Sen. Bruce Starr
Sen. Chris Telfer
Sen. Doug Whitsett
Rep. Gene Whisnant
Rep. Matt Wingard
Rep. Brad Witt
Confederation of Oregon School Administrators
Northwest Center for Education Options
Oregon Business Association
Oregon Business Council

Oregon Leadership Network
Oregon School Boards Association
Portland State University Graduate School of Education
Salem-Keizer Coalition for Equaltiy
Stand for Children
Charlotte Danielson
Thomas Carroll and Karen Smith, National Commission on Teaching and America's Future
Stephanie Hirsh, Learning Forward
Matthew Springer, Vanderbilt University, National Center on Performance Incentives
Marc Wallace, Teacher Excellence Through Compensation
CPPS Portland Parent Leadership Conference

Community and Parents for Public Schools Portland is holding their 10th Annual Parent Leadership Conference on October 16th.
 
Attendees can choose from a variety of workshops to learn how to help their student and their school be more successful. 
 
Details:
October 16th
Parkrose High School
12003 NE Shaver St, Portland
Doors open at 8:45
 
Register and learn more at: http://www.cppsportland.org/?page_id=54
What's Next for Chalkboard...

Oct 1-4
Representatives at Harvard Institute on Early Learning

ChalkBloggers

The ChalkBloggers team has continued to post relevant and meaningful commentary on important education issues. Here are a few posts from the last month:

"Teacher Accountability: Too Complex to Tackle?"

Sandy Ludeman

"Where the Opportunities Lie in the LA Times Teacher Rankings"

Ruth Wallin

"Book Thoughts: Outliers"

Heather Penner

"Teacher Collaboration in Action: The Lab Class" Stasia Honnold

"Charter Schools in Oregon: An Overview"

Kaaren Heikes

"The Privitization of Public Education Costs"

Merry Ann Moore 

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