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Teacher Survey
If you are a teacher, please take this short survey so we can gauge your opinions on a number of key issues related to the teaching profession.
Until we set explicit statewide achievement gap goals while overtly and publicly sharing in accountability, we doom our students to continued mediocrity.
Eduardo Angulo
This is an extremely exciting time for Black, Asian, Native American and Latino community leaders throughout Oregon! Historically our children and youth of color and English Language Learners have not been served well by our public education system as the achievement gap remains steady after ten years of the NCLB national law.
The proof is in the thinking
Sandy Ludeman
Let's assume that the purpose of requiring "proof" that colleges of education graduates can improve student learning is to actually improve student learning for complex and meaningful tasks. If that assumption is true (and I, for one, support that purpose), then the way we measure both student and candidate learning also needs to be complex and meaningful.
How CLASS is fostering a culture of continuous improvement in one district
Merry Ann Moore
But with the third year of Sisters School District's CLASS grant under way, a significant culture change is evident. Teachers are operating less in silos, and collaborating across grades and school levels to close gaps in student knowledge. They are more open to being mentored and evaluated by peers, and see these evaluations as valuable tools for improving their instructional practices.
Teacher and administrator standards
Kate Dickson
One strong asset for supporting educator effectiveness statewide and across all districts is to identify performance standards of effective teaching and principal leadership.
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December 2011
Happy Holidays!
It's time to celebrate the past year with friends and family, and prepare to make new memories. We are hopeful that you'll join us in the new year for our first Virtual Brown Bag Lunch conversation. This webinar series will be an opportunity for our Citizens' Corps members to learn more about important education topics and ask questions of local educators and national experts.
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What does great teaching look like and why should we care?
The Chalkboard Project is kicking off a series of digital conversations to help our Citizens' Corps become informed about emerging issues in education. We count on you and members of this active alliance to advocate for meaningful policy change that will address Oregon's education challenges.
Each of these virtual brown bags are designed to provide you with relevant news about education issues and to allow you to listen to first-hand accounts of ongoing developments from local, state and national policy experts and educators.
Join us for this conversation.
TOPIC: Educator Evaluation: How It Drives Student Achievement
WHEN: January 12th, 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
WHERE: Register here
SPEAKERS:
Marsha Moyer, Director, Licensed Personnel & Staff Quality, Salem-Keizer Public Schools
Dan Jamison, Vice President of Education Policy, Chalkboard Project
Karen Stiner and Dan Jones, CLASS Project Coordinators and Teachers, Bend-LaPine Schools
National Expert to be confirmed
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Highlighting Islands of Excellence
The Governor's Office has put together a list of promising education programs as a way to highlight excellence across the state. Here are a few of the programs highlighted:
Beyond Lebanon High School is a dual-enrollment partnership between Lebanon High School and Benton Community College. Now in its seventh year, Beyond LHS enrolls about 170 Lebanon students each year at Linn-Benton, where they earn high school and college credits simultaneously. Many of the students are non-traditional home-school students; a few are returning drop-outs. A coordinating counselor works with students "one at a time" to ensure they have education plans to suit their individual needs. Lebanon High also offers students the opportunity to earn an "expanded high school diploma." This program allows students to bypass Oregon's standard high school graduation requirement of 24 credits, and enroll at LBCC. Students earn the "expanded diploma" after earning 37 credits (13 over the standard 24), while simultaneously earning credits toward a college degree. About 80 students take advantage of the program each year. A high school counselor describes them as students ready to "step outside the four-year box."
Early Kindergarten Transition Program
Two years ago, Portland Public Schools worked with Multnomah County Library, Multnomah County's Schools Uniting Neighborhoods program, and Head Start, to help children with no preschool experience make a successful transition to kindergarten. ln summer 2009, PPS piloted a three-week experience for 40 students at two PPS elementary schools - Woodmere and Whitman. The students attended their neighborhood elementary Monday through Friday for about three hours to begin developing their communication, collaboration and literacy skills. Students were supported by kindergarten teachers, education assistants and interpreters. In addition, parents of these students attended parenting classes for about three hours per day, twice each week, over the three-week period. Parents were immersed in their children's curriculum and built relationships with school educators and each other. Program officials say the experience was radically empowering for children and parents. In the first year, parents were attending school meetings and volunteering in kindergarten classrooms, while students were leaders in their classrooms, modeling appropriate behaviors. In fall 2009, students who participated in the pilot program performed on average 10% higher on literacy assessments than their classmates who did not attend the program, and still averaged 5-8% higher when re-assessed in spring 2010. This past summer the program expanded to five schools and 120 students. The program is associated with Multnomah County's Linkages Project.
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Our Voices, Our Schools
 Joshua Tabshy is a graduate student in the Master of Arts in Teaching program at Concordia University. He is currently completing his student teaching and pursuing his endorsements in Middle School/High School Social Studies and Language Arts. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in history with a minor in Criminal Justice from Portland State University. Josh has spent the last two years as a para-educator for Portland Public Schools, working one-on-one with autistic students. He has a passion for education, history, sports, and theater. He is a strong advocate for developing effective social studies standards and changing the way history is brought to life in the classroom.
You said you are a strong advocate for changing the way history is brought to life in the classroom. What are your thoughts on this?
Going through high school, I was taught history how most of us were, through memorization of dates, names, and events. With the focus on reading, writing, and math; social studies often gets pushed to the side. This is a tragedy. There are valuable lessons to be learned through history. I believe that history is best learned by living it, appealing to all the senses, creating historical environments, and exploring it through the eyes of ALL groups of people.
Do you have any concerns upon graduating from Concordia? What are your specific goals for after graduation?
My biggest concern upon graduating from Concordia is finding a teaching job in the current economy. First, and foremost, I will be looking for a job. I hope to find a position teaching in a Summer School program to get my feet wet. I would like to remain active in advocating for education reform and in the educational community in general.
Can you highlight your experiences working with autistic students?
In a time when we are making efforts towards "full-inclusion" for all students, I feel very fortunate, as a prospective general education teacher, to have had the opportunities I did. I worked one-on-one with high-functioning autistic students in both the seventh and first grades and provided support for students in the learning center and life skills classrooms. I learned so much from these extraordinary students that will carry over to my general education students. Unfortunately, I feel that there is a lack of professional development for teachers that are asked to lead these students in their general education classrooms, often resulting in incompatible learning environments for all students.
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Appreciating the Support!
We'd like to first thank our primary funders, Foundations for a Better Oregon, for their unwavering commitment to strengthening education in Oregon.
The Collins Foundation
The Ford Family Foundation
The James F. & Marion L. Miller Foundation
JELD-WEN Foundation
Meyer Memorial Trust
Oregon Community Foundation
Additionally, we would like to thank the organizations, foundations and individuals that have donated to Chalkboard's efforts over the last few years. The progress made could not have been accomplished without the support of:
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