| |
Portland
Schools Foundation
Portland, OR
Contact: Cynthia Guyer
Executive Director
503 234 5404
Cynthia@thinkschools.org
The Portland Schools Foundation (PSF) initiative, Closing
the Opportunity and Achievement Gap for Every Child,
is anchored by a bold vision: Portland will make sure
that every school becomes a vibrant learning
community where every child is learning and
achieving at high levels. This vision is clearly articulated
in the Portland School District’s five-year strategic
plan; it represents both a mission for PSF and a unifying
goal for a community that wants to ensure that every
student receives a stellar education in its public
schools.
The vision for Portland’s schools has three goals
for the next three years: The first year will focus on
improving the use of data to drive school improvement
throughout the city; years two and three will focus on
improving the system’s ability to support successful
schools (policy and practice) and improving the capacity
of school communities and leaders to build and sustain
high-performing schools for all children in the city
(leadership development). Three key strategies will be
employed to accomplish these goals:
|
•
|
Make data a force for change in Portland schools:
use comprehensive data about school improvement
and successful practices to improve achievement
for every child; develop criteria for a new data
framework and indicators for high-performing schools
and build consensus around the framework; create
a communications and media strategy to educate
the community about issues and strategies for closing
the achievement/opportunity gap.
|
|
•
|
Help school communities—parents, community
members, educators—take responsibility for
school improvement and pursue effective strategies
at individual school sites: develop a training
model based on best practices and information from
other districts and organizations to drive continuous
improvement strategies and integrate implementation
with other Portland initiatives.
|
|
•
|
Establish policies that describe successful and
failing schools and identify district actions that
create incentives and consequences for student
and school performance; research best practices
of school accountability systems and indicators
of successful schools; review high-performing Portland
schools to identify strategies that work, as well
as those that do not, to reveal the critical steps
failing schools will need to take to improve.
|
|
 |
|
