Discussion Forum

This is where we invite discussion on issues important to our public schools, offer updates on upcoming events, and provide helpful information relevant to parents of public school children. We welcome your input, and would appreciate any ideas you wish to share. Visit our Suggestions page to request a new topic.

The Principal Problem

Posted by admin on April 27th, 2011 under Chapter News
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BY JENNIFER ANDERSON
The Portland Tribune, May 28, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

She issued an apology of sorts to the staff of Northeast Portland’s Madison High School, what some might call the Rodney Dangerfield of high schools in this city.

The May 11 e-mail addressed the staff’s frustration about having a new principal placed at their school without a process to solicit their input, which typically occurs when a principal vacancy occurs. (The current principal is moving to the district’s central office.)

Smith acknowledged the oversight. “Before making that selection, the district missed a key step,” she wrote. “We did not invite the broader Madison community – including students, families and partners as well as staff – to share what they wanted to see in a leader. While I believe everyone was acting with the best of intentions, this failed to fulfill a primary value of our district to involve our communities in key decisions.”

Schools, teachers consider new evaluations

Posted by admin on April 27th, 2011 under Chapter News
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BY JENNIFER ANDERSON
The Portland Tribune, Dec. 16, 2010

When it comes to improving schools, many agree that access to rigorous classes, lots of support and modernized school buildings help – but student success really boils down to onething: strong classroom teaching.

Two years ago, the Portland School District and Portland Association of Teachers agreed to tackle the subject when the next round of bargaining starts in January.

It’s considered a political hot-potato, however, because no one wants to label teachers as “bad,” and also because it’s subject to the technical machinations of bargaining. Now, finally, the issue will get its time in the light, and major changes may be in store

Now, finally, the issue will get its time in the light, and major changes may be in store.

“I’m pretty positive we can work with the district and come up with a fair, equitable evaluation teachers could support,” says Rick Kolinsky, a Lincoln High School teacher who chairs the union’s five-person teacher evaluation bargaining team.

The committee will look at updating the district’s Teacher Evaluation Process Handbook and recommend changes to Superintendent Carole Smith by the end of the 2010-11 school year. Both the district and the union must agree to the changes.

Smith says the district is on board, and she’s excited about the collaborative efforts so far by the district-union work group that’s been meeting to discuss the issue prior to formal bargaining.

The team of teachers, principals and administrators is “jointly invested in coming up with a better tool that lets us provide quality feedback to teachers,” she says. “Something that’s more descriptive of their performance, that lays out expectations as opposed to a letter” indicating their work is satisfactory or unsatisfactory.

Both she and teachers like Kolinsky are looking at the pilot project at Roosevelt High School as inspiration. Read more

Parental Engagement Pays Off: It can boost test scores and attendance

Posted by admin on April 27th, 2011 under Chapter News
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By Alan Dessoff, May 2009

We know that parental involvement in elementary schools pays off in improved achievement of students and quality of their schools. But whether school-parent partnerships are initiated by administrators at the district level or by parents, agree that it takes commitment from district leaders as well as creative thinking and hands-on staff management to make partnerships work well. And according to a report by the Safe and Responsive Schools Project, increased parent involvement can lead to home environments that are more conducive to learning and improve communication and consistency between home and the school. Schools can promote parent involvement in learning in part through teaching better child-rearing skills and stressing learning at home. And parental notification systems, such as STN Alert Now, can help keep parents in the loop on emergency and important school matters.

“The nation’s schools must improve education for all children, but schools cannot do this alone,” says Joyce L. Epstein, director of the Center on School, Family and Community Partnerships at Johns Hopkins University. “More will be accomplished if schools, families and communities work together to promote successful students.”

While administrators generally welcome parental engagement, it can make them uneasy when groups representing special interests extend their involvement to aggressive advocacy with senior administrators and school boards. With access to modern tools and techniques from cell phones to social networking, parents can become engaged at the click of a button and sometimes drown out other voices with differing viewpoints on issues from grading and testing policies to budgets and birth control. Download the article

Parent Involvement Project report

Posted by admin on April 27th, 2011 under Our Work
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