Posts from — June 2011
PPS Strategic Plan
Portland has a new strategic plan it is considering. The “plan will guide all that the school district does” for the next five years. It is a disaster.
The proposed plan recommends four strategic areas for action:
Effective educators
We must ensure that all educators are equipped to help our diverse students succeed. That means hiring culturally and racially diverse teachers, aides and administrators and supporting them with mentoring, peer collaboration, skill development and leadership opportunities, while matching their skills to the needs of students in the schools they serve.
Collective responsibility & accountability
Every employee — from classrooms to the superintendent’s office — should be accountable for the achievement of all students. We must track student progress frequently and adjust practices and programs to be more effective, while setting clear performance expectations for employees and basing promotions on demonstrated success with kids.
Equitable access to rigorous, relevant programs
Every student — no matter their grade level, race, income or address — should have access to a consistently rigorous education with rich learning opportunities. We must set and hold clear and high standards for all, with varied ways for students to show what they have learned. Our teaching methods must be flexible, engaging and culturally relevant to help all students achieve.
Supports for individual student needs/Collaboration with families & community
We must use a range of teaching strategies in response to a range of learning styles. We must check students’ progress regularly and then help students accelerate their learning or catch up if they are behind. And we must wrap support around our students from strong early childhood education to essential community and family partnerships that put family and community inside the circle of how our schools serve students.
Oh, it sounds fine when you read it. But when you put it together with how the district actually operates it reinforces the whole idea of kids in lower socio-economic areas of the city having their curriculums and schools organized around test scores. It continues for the next five years test-driven curriculums and educations for these children when what
is actually needed are vibrant, comprehensive, and relevant curriculums and educations predicated on engaging children in school.
It also reinforces the inequities the school district has created over the last two decades. Like in the Old South where there were supposed “separate but equal” schools and black children actually got a substantially worse education this strategic plan maintains a substantially worse education for children in poorer neighborhoods. The corresponding idea is that poor kids need to have test-driven curriculums and educations whereas the schools in more well-to-do neighborhoods (where way more kids pass the tests) can have more interesting and relevant curriculums and educations.
The school district persists with the idea that the test scores, which consist of only a narrow swath of what a good education should entail, are what is important in educational achievement and all other learning is pretty much inconsequential until a certain level of test scores has been reached in a school. Never mind that huge numbers of kids in
every school have met benchmarks and need to move on.
So, when the strategic plan talks about “rich learning opportunities” they mean in the schools which easily pass the tests, but when it talks about tracking “student progress frequently and adjust practices and programs to be more effective” they mean in schools which have lower test scores.
Of course, it is hard to take serious anyway a document that says every employee is responsible for the education of every child. So, the security guard at Grant is responsible for the students in the 5th grade at Meek. Well, fire him or her if they don’t perform. And if a kid at Madison drops out then fire the librarian at Sellwood. Ludicrous stuff.
This entire plan needs a redo with substantial and real goals spelled out which might have a real effect on the education of Portland’s children. Time to go back to the drawing board.
June 28, 2011 3 Comments
How is Franklin Increasing the Graduation Rates for All Student Groups?
Superintendent Smith’s end of the year report highlights Franklin as a high school ”where the graduation rate exceeds the state average, students of color graduate at the same or better rates than white students.” That’s great news. How are they doing it? Will the superintendent and her team take an in-depth look to see?
The district does a remarkable job of replicating failure but rarely replicates success. Smith might like to chalk Franklin’s improvement up to their core program but that’s just part of the story.
I hear from a variety of sources that struggling students at some Portland high schools are counseled into leaving their neighborhood high school so that they don’t affect the school’s graduation rate. Is Franklin doing that?
Assuming that Franklin’s improvement is accurate, why is PPS investing in programs that aren’t seeing the same kind of results? Jefferson wasn’t mentioned in the superintendent’s highlights. How are they doing?
PPS has contracted with SEI (over $1.5 million annually) to provide services to students in N/NE. Is it paying off?
Smith and her team like to talk about “going deeper” to hit that “sweet spot” but that’s where it ends. Just talk.
June 26, 2011 2 Comments
Heidi (Outsource) Franklin
Do you remember when PPS saved millions by outsourcing the custodial work? No? Well Heidi Franklin, PPS former Chief Academic Officer, must remember it because now she’s trying to outsource the print shop at Mt. Hood Community College. She called in an impartial consultant (Office Max) to help. Here’s a recent memo from Heidi:
MEMORANDUM
To: Members of the Board
Dr. Ski
Dr. Hay
From: Heidi Franklin
Date: June 6, 2011
Re: Print Shop
Print Shop Situation: Recently, several factors have contributed to the current state of confusion regarding the savings included in the budget for the operations of the print shop. Unfortunately, many unintended consequences of our decision to outsource our print shop were realized over the past week. I believe what follows is the only substantive change to the budget we need for you to make (and hopefully approve) at this time. I sincerely apologize for this late notification of the situation and the need to amend our budget.
Contributing Factors:
Communication: When the budget detail was recently published on the web, print shop staff among others saw that there was no budget for personnel in the print shop. This is the main impetus for the rash of e-mails and phone calls that has ensued this last week. Clearly my attempts to inform staff of what was happening proved inadequate, and understandably much upset resulted. I have personally and publicly apologized to those most directly wronged. While that helped some, further steps are required.
New Information: I learned last week that there is a clause in the Classified Employee Association agreement that requires formal notification to the union whenever the College is planning on outsourcing work performed by classified members. Therefore, time needs to be built into the process to allow for this notification, for the union to respond, and for the union’s response to be considered.
The Proposed Solutions: While we can’t unring this bell, we can conduct a process going forward that is responsive to the number of concerns that have now come to light.
Process: A thorough analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing the print shop requires gathering data on the types of services and volumes of work that the College needs, as well as getting an understanding of the breadth and depth of services provided by vendors. As the recent e-mails have demonstrated, there is controversy around the steps for gathering this data. If the results of this data gathering and analysis phase lead to the conclusion that outsourcing would save significant dollars while maintaining or improving service levels, then the College has two ways to proceed: (1) issue an RFP and solicit proposals from all interested vendors, conduct a selection process, and negotiate a contract with the chosen vendor; or (2) do a cooperative procurement by piggybacking on a contract that is already in place with the state or another government. Office Max has such a cooperative purchase contract with the City of Vancouver and with Western States Contracting Agency (WSCA). Other vendors may also have such agreements. These are worth exploring, since the pricing tends to be more favorable due to economies of scale with larger volumes than a single, stand-alone contract.
Budget Impact: It seems reasonable to assume that the data gathering and analysis phase, which typically would take two to three months, will take longer given the summer timing. In the meantime, the print shop needs to continue its usual operations.
Therefore, I am requesting that the two full-time positions (manager and assistant) and some part-time/student positions be restored to the adopted budget for now. This will add a total of about $229,000 to expenditures and reduce contingency by the same amount. Contingency reserves for the 2011-12 adopted budget would then be $3.57 million, or 5.6 percent rather than $4 million, or 6.5 percent.
June 25, 2011 No Comments
The Principal Shell Game
I think just about everyone who has put in any time with PPS knows the the district has a practice of moving bad administrators from one school or program to another when things heat up. They usually do this with little notice and without a community process. Parents at the receiving school often end up scrambling to find background information on the administrator…usually it’s too late.
I’m considering adding a page dedicated to profiles of PPS administrators. It could include their resumes, successes and failures, strengths and weaknesses, grievance information etc. How can parents share this kind of administrator information in a way that’s constructive?
June 25, 2011 7 Comments
Still Cheating
So it’s been a few months since my final Cheating in Class post and much has happened. The PPS bond failed, Marshall closed, new school board members were elected and I’m working with youth in foster care.
One other thing that has happened since my final post is that I’ve made several new friends through the blog. Portland parents, out-of-state parents, and employees of other districts have contacted me seeking information about PPS or help in resolving specific issues.
I’ve decided to restart the blog because I’ve realized that it was more useful than I thought. There’s so much that we can do collectively.
I’d love to have people write guest posts so please contact me if that interests you. You can reach me at carrie.adams@comcast.net.
June 25, 2011 7 Comments