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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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Our Voices, Our Schools
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.
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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
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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
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What's Next for Chalkboard...
Oct 1-4 Representatives at Harvard Institute on Early Learning
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