Award-winning educators sought to lift practitioner voices in policy discussions

PORTLAND- March 23, 2012- Chalkboard is seeking 12-15 award-winning Oregon educators to serve on the Distinguished Educators Council. The Council’s mission will be to provide an independent platform for educator voices on reform efforts and implementation, as well as to advise Chalkboard and an array of stakeholders on initiatives not currently being addressed. Applicants should be current classroom teachers who want to participate on the Council in addition to their regular classroom responsibilities. Chosen applicants will earn a $1200 stipend for a year of service on the Council.

The Distinguished Educators Council will have professionally facilitated meetings and access to research on a range of topics related to strengthening the teaching profession including, educator evaluations, continuous growth and career paths, assessing effectiveness, principal leadership, and recognizing and rewarding great teaching.

“In order to meaningfully strengthen education in Oregon we need more educator voices at the table. Chalkboard sees this Council as a platform for the practitioner voices that are often left out of policy discussions,” said Sue Hildick, Chalkboard Project President. “We are hopeful that a diverse group of distinguished professionals can get the attention of policymakers and help put Oregon on a clear path to teacher and student success.”

The Distinguished Educators Council will be asked to develop recommendations, prior to the 2013 legislative session, on what can be done to elevate the teaching profession in Oregon and ensure that educators have the tools and support they need to be successful. Members of the Council will also receive advocacy training to effectively express their views to policymakers.

The application materials to become a member of the Distinguished Educators Council are available here. Applications are due April 17th.

About the Chalkboard Project
The Chalkboard Project is an independent education reform organization dedicated to making Oregon’s K-12 public schools among the best in the country. We are funded by a consortium of Oregon’s leading philanthropic foundations who share a central belief that expert research is essential to identifying policies and practices that improve outcomes for students. In 2011, Chalkboard was awarded $24.4M in federal funding to accelerate CLASS, a revolutionary initiative that is transforming the teaching profession by creating new career pathways that lead to higher achievement in the classroom.

Launched in 2004, Chalkboard is the first initiative of Foundations for a Better Oregon (FBO). FBO partners include: Meyer Memorial Trust, The Oregon Community Foundation, The Collins Foundation, The Ford Family Foundation, JELD-WEN Foundation, and The James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation. www.chalkboardproject.org @ChalkTalkers

For more information, contact: Children’s Institute Communications Manager Katia Riddle,kriddle@childist.org, 503.219.9034

February 2, 2012– In a new analysis of school data from the Oregon Department of Education, researchers at the local economic consulting firm, EcoNorthwest, found that 23 percent of Oregon students were chronically absent in the 2009-2010 school year. Children who live outside of the most densely populated parts of the state were more likely to be chronically absent. Chronic absence is defined as missing 10 percent or more of school days — or 18 days in most Oregon districts — and is highly correlated with poor literacy skills and academic performance. Students who miss that much school during early grades are statistically more likely to have poor academic performance in later grades.

“Chronic absence is one of the most reliable and easily understood indicators of students’ risk of dropout,” said Hedy Chang, who directs Attendance Works, a national organization that commissioned the report and works to reduce chronic absence across the country. Chang went on to say that this report should serve as an urgent call to educators and policy-makers to monitor and address chronic absence.

Oregon’s report is the first statewide analysis of its kind released nationally, breaking down absenteeism by poverty levels, racial and ethnic groups, and geographic areas. Researchers also identified schools that are beating the odds, demonstrating good attendance despite a student population facing several risk factors.

In the last year and a half, administrators at the Multnomah County Schools Uniting Neighborhoods (SUN) Service System have already begun working with some school districts to tackle this issue through a public service campaign, new attendance protocols and enhanced data collection. Their efforts have been especially focused on children in the earliest grades, where Oregon’s rates of chronic absence are especially high: 24 percent of Oregon kindergarteners and 18 percent of first-graders were chronically absent.

Policy-makers who focus on early childhood education agree that this data illuminates a critical issue. “Addressing the problem of chronic absence in the early years especially is key to closing the achievement gap,” said Swati Adarkar, CEO of the Children’s Institute, an organization that concentrates on moving early childhood research to policy. “Having good data gets us one step closer to identifying feasible solutions.”

Sue Hildick, President of the Chalkboard Project, added, “This report reiterates that if students are not in school, they are not learning. When Chalkboard first began talking to the public about education issues, absenteeism rose to the top of the list of concerns. Unfortunately, little progress has been made to address the issue statewide. We need to be supporting educators and parents in their strategies to tackle this serious issue.”

To see the research and data surrounding this problem, view the powerpoint presentation, Chronic Absence in Oregon.

About the Children’s Institute

The Children’s Institute is an organization dedicated to improving the odds for Oregon’s at-risk children. We are moving research to action by promoting cost-effective public and private investments in early childhood programs. http://www.childinst.org/

About the Chalkboard Project

The Chalkboard Project is an independent education reform organization dedicated to making Oregon’s K-12 public schools among the best in the country. We are funded by a consortium of Oregon’s leading philanthropic foundations who share a central belief that expert research is essential to identifying policies and practices that improve outcomes for students. In 2011, Chalkboard was awarded $24.4M in federal funding to accelerate CLASS, a revolutionary initiative that is transforming the teaching profession by creating new career pathways that lead to higher achievement in the classroom.

Launched in 2004, Chalkboard is the first initiative of Foundations for a Better Oregon (FBO). FBO partners include: Meyer Memorial Trust, The Oregon Community Foundation, The Collins Foundation, The Ford Family Foundation, JELD-WEN Foundation, and The James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation. www.chalkboardproject.org.

About Attendance Works

Attendance Works is a national and state initiative that promotes awareness of the important role that school attendance plays in achieving academic success. Its goal is ensure that every district in the country not only tracks chronic absence data beginning in kindergarten or ideally earlier, but also partners with families and community agencies to intervene when attendance is a problem for children or particular schools. www.attendanceworks.org.

Open Meadow Alternative Schools Seek to Empower Educators and Students

Joining the Growing List of CLASS Participants, Teachers Will Work to Transform their Professional Experience

PORTLAND- January 30, 2012- Open Meadow Alternative Schools has received a grant from the Chalkboard Project to spend a year designing new models to better support their educators to meet the needs of students. The grant makes Open Meadow the first alternative system to participate in Chalkboard’s CLASS Project.