PPS STUDENT PERFORMANCEHow we measure up to other districts, and what they’re doing to get results

PPS, Beaverton, and Salem have similar demographics and per-student spending. Each district deals with Oregon’s inadequate, fluctuating school funding.

Demographics

Portland Public Schools, Salem Public Schools, and Beaverton Public Schools have similar demographics*

*African American population is exception

DistrictTotal 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%

Funding

Portland Public Schools spends the most per pupil overall

DistrictOperating 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

YET SALEM-KEIZER AND BEAVERTON OUTPERFORM PORTLAND IN GRADUATION RATES FOR EVERY DEMOGRAPHIC.

Graduation Rate, Economically Disadvantaged Students, 2009-2010

Graduation Rate, Students with Limited English Proficiency, 2009-2010

Graduation Rate, Hispanic Students, 2009-2010

WHAT ARE MORE SUCCESSFUL DISTRICTS DOING TO GET BETTER RESULTS FOR STUDENTS? WHAT WORKS?

Successful urban school district have a relentless, unwavering focus on student achievement

This means…

Strong Leadership Clear Goals and Assessments High-performing principals and teachers

workforce that is supported to succeed

Strong Leadership

Strong districts have a superintendent and leadership team who embody a relentless focus on teaching and learning and ensure people at all levels of their organization embody this goal, too.

When Sandy Husk arrived in Salem, she implemented a “customer service” initiative to ensure that her staff at all levels sees service to students as a top priority. Staff all explain their work now in terms of benefit to students.

In 4 years, Salem has seen jumps in reading and math performance.

Leadership in Portland

For at least ten years, PPS has not been characterized by strong, consistent leadership.

High Superintendent turnover Lack of customer service orientation

Widespread parent and educator dissatisfaction with PPS management, especially staff below the executive team

Portland School Board not attracting top talent Contract Negotiations: acrimonious, not yielded positive changed

for students, and dominated by PAT Lack of clear strategic plan with clear objectives and performance

metrics No clear emphasis on strong teaching and student learning as the

number one objective

Clear Goals and Assessments

The best urban district ensure that educators use student learning data all the time to inform their teaching. They communicate clearly about expectations for students and what success looks like.

Teachers in Salem-Keizer, whose graduation rate for LEP students is twice Portland’s, use data constantly to ensure their students are progressing.

Successful Portland schools like Lane MS and Jason Lee K-8 do the same

Portland as a district, however, does not the will or ability to instill this as a priority district wide: Thousands of low income kids are in schools that are not using the kind of

formative assessments that have been proven to improve student outcomes.

Achievement for like-demographics varies tremendously school-by-school

High performing teacher and principal workforce that is supported to succeed

This looks like: Early recruitment of top candidates (who are familiar with district

practices) Aldine TX, winner of “best urban school district” establishes strong partnerships with nearby

colleges of ed so graduates have student-taught in Aldine and know the culture. They also have a very strong program to develop their own principal talent

Mentoring and development so teachers and principals remain in the district and improve Salem-Keizer cites a teacher mentor program as key in turning around a low-income

elementary schools

Evaluations that give timely, relevant feedback and are based off of student learning Tillamook cites its student-learning-based teacher evaluations as key in doubling growth on

reading/math scores; Nancy Golden in Springfield gained trust and increased learning by implementing student-based principal evaluations. If kids aren’t learning, the principal is out.

Layoff and placement decision that factor in the quality of the teacher, not just their seniority NYC Schools have seen a nearly 20-point jump in graduation rates, and negotiated a contract

with “mutual consent” hiring to allow all schools to hire the staff best for their students

Teachers and principals workforce in Portland

Recruitment: Portland hires late and loses out on the strongest candidates In 2007, 50% of applicants to Portland withdrew applications before we even started

interviewing Student teachers who learn a school culture and practice have no consistent path to

getting hired Contract dictates that all senior teachers have to find job before anyone can hire

Mentoring in Portland is inconsistent, and professional development is underfunded and considered a waste of time

Teacher evaluations are 30 years old, principals and teacher are often not evaluated* The quality of evaluation vary widely school-to- school (many teachers are told to

evaluate themselves) There are no clear professional standards, and evaluations are not linked to student

learning. This is something the district has pledged to work on There are no 360 reviews for principals, and deputy sup’t spend very little time

evaluating principals. They are not consistently evaluated on student performance.

Layoffs in Portland are done by seniority only Senior teachers often bump less senior teachers from their jobs, regardless of quality

Union Relationship

Strong relationships mean shared sacrifices for students:

When Nancy Golden became superintendent in Springfield she brought in a trained facilitator to their union discussions and slowly turned a broken relationship into one of mutual trust and collaboration.

8 years later, the union and district have agreed to preserve the length school year (even though it means pay cuts) and to work on 2 of their 7 unpaid furlough days

Springfield district also proved that non performers would be moved out of system. Merit is now considered in placement decisions.

In Portland, the union and district have distrustful relationship:

This distrust makes positive change for kids and positive interactions with the community very difficult

Firing one teacher takes 10-20 hours every week for principals Difficult to find parent-teacher contract time because not in contract No discussion about shared sacrifices of hours during tough budget times,

no acknowledgement that seniority layoffs are a problem for students

CONCLUSION

What needs to change in PPS?

What needs to change in PPS?

PPS needs to adopt a long-term goal for student learning and resist any temptation to get off of this course. To do this, we need:

Strong leadership with track record of success who embody this goal, starting with executive leadership Clearer strategic plan with milestones and metrics based on student achievement that

dictates decision making at all levels

Data-based decision making at district and in every school Elevate teacher and principal support as top priority:

- Stronger partnerships with colleges of ed to recruit the strongest candidates and to hire our best student teachers (and to recruit more teachers of color)

- Develop stronger “grow your own” principal training programs

- Teacher and Principal evaluations that give useful feedback based on student learning, evaluate principals and deputy superintendents on whether or not they are properly evaluating staff- exit chronically low-performing teachers out of the system

- exit low-performing principals

- Implement mutual-consent teacher hiring to allow schools to hire the best possible teachers for the job

- Layoff decisions that include more than seniority

References

Information on teacher mentoring in Oregon: http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009905250329 http://www.stand.org/Document.Doc?id=1980

Broad Foundation Best Practices (includes documents from individual districts): http://www.broadprize.org/resources/tools.html

Aldine principal expectation documents: http://www.broadprize.org/asset/1543-instructional%20leadership%201.pdf

Broad Summary and Focus Article: http://www.hepg.org/document/126/ Springfield article on union/district collaboration:

http://www.registerguard.com/web/newslocalnews/26230232-41/district-springfield-teachers-2011-12-employee.html.csp

AYP report cards by district: http://www.ode.state.or.us/data/reportcard/reports.aspx

Per pupil expenditure by district: http://www.ode.state.or.us/sfda/reports/r0051Select.asp