1. PPS STUDENT PERFORMANCE How we measure up to other districts, and what they’re doing to get results
2. PPS, Beaverton, and Salem have similar demographics and per-student spending. Each district deals with Oregon’s inadequate, fluctuating school funding.
3. Demographics Portland Public Schools, Salem Public Schools, and Beaverton Public Schools have similar demographics* *African American population is exception District Total Enrollment Non-White American Indian Asian African American Hispanic White Special Ed ESL Free and Reduced Portland 46, 989 44% 1% 9% 13% 16% 56% 14% 10% 45% Salem 40,638 47% 1% 2% 1% 37% 53% 14% 17% 50%+ Beaverton 38,571 46% 1% 13% 3% 22% 54% 12% 14% 38%
4. Funding Portland Public Schools spends the most per pupil overall District Operating Expenditures Per Student Capital Expenditures per Student State of Oregon $9,280 $990 Portland Public Schools $11,589 $444 Salem Keizer Public Schools $9,444 $727 Beaverton Public Schools $8,556 $1,140
5. YET SALEM-KEIZER AND BEAVERTON OUTPERFORM PORTLAND IN GRADUATION RATES FOR EVERY DEMOGRAPHIC.
The point is to have a quality assurance model—to create efficiencies and effectiveness in how we do the business side of the house. Ultimately, their goal is to free up teachers and principals to focus on instruction and not on operation. Principals need to be instructional leaders, not building managers.
Labor Negotiations – The district’s relationship with PAT has been weak and acrimonious. As a recent example, the district settled quickly and made almost no gains in removing barriers to effective teaching. The goal was “labor peace.” As we speak the union is already grieving one of the only two changes lauded as “wins” in the negotiations: a new high school teaching schedule that means weeks of lost instructional time. The School Board is not acting as a governing body. The most recent “review” of superintendent was based off of Milestone progress, but though the Superintendent fell short of all of her goals she received a glowing review. Project Management: the district’s own plans showed that, to afford a comprehensive curriculum for students, we needed to close several high schools. Instead, when community pressure began the district only closed one, and the district is now decreasing instructional time and saying they cannot afford a new science curriculum as planned.
Everything they do in Salem, from bus schedules (are they getting students in on time?) to instruction, is based off of data that can tell them what’s working and what isn’t. Sandy got buy-in on her customer-service orientation by showing student data to staff over and over again and making the case for change. Lane MS is a low-income Portland school lauded for doubling its reading and writing scores in 4 years) In Portland: No Uniform Approach: Schools that don’t have a specific grant for data teams don’t have reliable formative assessment or grade-level teacher team discussion (some principals say that teachers “grieving” this grade-level meeting makes it impossible for them to meet). No proactive communication of progress to goals : Milestones are not broken down by demographic, and school board members at a recent forum grew very defensive when asked questions about Portland’s graduation rate by demographic.
Principals: Aldine also cites its “grow your own” principal programs as key to success, and have in-district training, mentoring, and skill development so prospective principals can hone their skills. Teacher Mentor Programs : Salem-Keizer cites its teacher-mentor grant as a big reason low-income schools like Hammond Elementary in NE Salem now outperform other schools. The money for the program came from a bill Stand and Chalkboard got passed in the legislature but Portland has not applied for In Portland, when individual schools spend time training promising newer teachers, they are often forced to fire them during budget cuts or have them bumped for more senior teachers Professional Development: Broward County, FL requires all staff submit growth plans every year, aligned with the district’s learning goals and professional standards and linked to an array of development opportunities. Broward County is getting very strong results with its low income population– they have Principal Evaluations : Nancy Golden, Superintendent of Springfield started with rigorous principal evaluations based on student learning. If student learning isn’t improving, the principal is out. Teacher Evaluations: Tillamook has shown double the student growth of comparator districts, and a big part of their work comprehensive, goal-oriented teacher evaluations. Layoffs: New York City, which has seen nearly 20-point jump in graduation rates, negotiated a contract with “ mutual consent” teacher hiring in 2005, meaning that all schools can hire and retain the staff that is best for their kids. Regardless of seniority. In Illinois, Stand helped pass statewide legislation that required performance, not seniority, to be the deciding factor in times of cuts
Portland cannot hire or retain teachers based on how effective they are in the classroom. The contract makes it very difficult to fire teachers, so principals often “unassign” teachers instead of firing them. These teachers then bump less senior teachers at other schools. Building Strong Teacher Teams: “Forced placement” of teachers means that schools can’t hire or retain the best teachers. Layoffs: Right now, high schools have to lay 44 teachers, and base this decision solely on seniority. *the district says it is re-writing its teacher evaluation this year, and next year it will start conversations about factoring in student learning.
