CHALKBOARD PROJECT WILL AWARD TWO ADDITIONAL GRANTS TO EMPOWER EDUCATORS AND RAISE STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT

Portland – April 23, 2013 – The Chalkboard Project is seeking two school districts or district consortiums to join the 23 school districts that are empowering educators and raising student achievement through the CLASS Project.

CLASS (Creative Leadership Achieves Student Success) provides teachers the opportunity to collaborate on plans for teacher professional growth and success tailored to local needs.
Teachers create for themselves what every professional deserves: a clear career path, opportunities for feedback, relevant and individualized training, and recognition for leadership and results.

Districts that receive a CLASS design grant will spend the 2013/14 school year designing models that meet the needs of their unique staff, students and community. Every CLASS design is different, but all are focused on raising student achievement.

“We have seen demand for the CLASS Project grow tremendously since we began the work with three districts in 2006,” said Sue Hildick, Chalkboard Project President. “Teachers are hungry for a career model that recognizes their contributions to their school community and student learning, and they want to be the ones designing those models.”

The CLASS design grant RFP is available on the Chalkboard Project website. Applications are due May 3^rd.

Learn more about the CLASS Project at: www.cbclassproject.org.
If you have questions about the RFP contact Dan Jamison, Vice President of Education Policy at 503-542-4325.

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHERS SOUGHT TO INCREASE FAMILY ENGAGEMENT THROUGH TECHNOLOGY

Meyer Memorial Trust makes a $750,000 grant to TeachOregon and the Paul G. Allan Family Foundation makes a $450,000 grant to Springfield Public Schools

Portland – February 4, 2013 – Two recent grants to TeachOregon will support the implementation of newly designed models of teacher preparation.  TeachOregon is the Chalkboard Project’s initiative that gives school districts and universities the opportunity to design innovative models to prepare the next generation of diverse and effective Oregon teachers.

“The need for universities and school districts to share the responsibility of preparing Oregon’s new teachers is clear. By 2020, 33% of the teacher workforce will be new. School districts understand the needs of their students and the training new teachers receive should be aligned with those needs,” said Sue Hildick, Chalkboard Project President.

The five TeachOregon partnerships, which include 20 school districts, 10 universities and 4 community colleges, are currently in the process of evaluating what can and should be done to ensure that a teacher candidate’s training and support best prepares them to meet the needs of their future students. The partnerships will submit their plans around recruitment and selection, clinical experience, hiring and placement, and mentoring and induction to Chalkboard in May. Chalkboard plans to fund the implementation of strongest plans for three years.  The Meyer Memorial Trust’s grant of $750,000 will be put toward the implementation of successful designs.

“After seeing the success of the CLASS Project, the Trust embraced the opportunity to expand our investment in great teachers, even before they enter the classroom,” said Doug Stamm, CEO of the Meyer Memorial Trust.  “Through TeachOregon, school districts and universities are collaborating around teaching and learning in an unprecedented fashion that will allow them to build on best practices and work together for the benefit of the new generation of teachers and students.”

The $450,000 grant from the Paul G. Allan Family Foundation will go directly to Springfield Public Schools to fund its innovative teacher preparation model.  Springfield plans to create a program for university students who are fifth-year education majors. Those students would spend the entire school year in Springfield classrooms. The programs would allow teacher candidates to spend the year working with experienced and highly skilled “master teachers,” planning and preparing curriculum, teaching in the classroom, engaging with parents and seeing a school year from beginning to end. After their year in Springfield Public Schools, successful students would be granted a license to teach in Oregon.

Nancy Golden, Superintendent of Springfield Public Schools added, “Our team is thrilled by the opportunity to work with our university partners to give teacher candidates a rigorous and supportive year-long experience. The intensity of the program will allow candidates to immerse themselves in the district culture and get to know the needs of our students. At the same time the district will have the opportunity to understand the teacher candidates’ needs and support their development.”

Between 2008-09 and 2010-11 CLASS School Districts showed greater improvements in graduation rates than the state

Portland – November 29, 2012 – In light of the news this week of Oregon’s sub-par graduation rate, the Chalkboard Project is sharing hopeful news about the graduation rates in CLASS districts. Oregon has begun investing in CLASS-like work through Senate Bill 252, the School District Collaboration Fund.

Between 2008-09 and 2010-11, the first group of CLASS districts improved its cohort graduation rate by 5 percentage points and the second group improved its rate by 3.8 percentage points. During the same time, the rest of the state only improved by 0.9 percentage point.¹

CLASS provides teachers the opportunity to collaborate on plans for teacher professional growth and success tailored to local needs. Teachers create for themselves what every professional deserves: a clear career path, opportunities for feedback, relevant and individualized training, and recognition for leadership and results.

CLASS is designed and led by teachers for teachers, on the ground, one school district at a time. All districts build upon the same framework, but each district designs differently with the needs of their staff and students in mind. As the Chalkboard Project’s largest initiative, 23 districts, reaching about 30% of students in Oregon, have participated in CLASS.

“The improvements in the Tillamook School District since their implementation of CLASS have been phenomenal. Their graduation rate since 2008-09 has increased 9 percentage points. If Oregon as a whole were to increase its graduation rate by the same amount, we would be firmly out of the bottom of the pack. I’ve seen how empowering educators can lead to these tremendous results for students and I would encourage the state to make investments in educators a priority,” said Oregon Senator Betsy Johnson.

Sue Hildick, Chalkboard Project President, commented, “Oregon’s current graduation rate is unacceptable, but there is reason to be hopeful. Through the School District Collaboration Fund the state is beginning to make the type of CLASS-like investments in educator effectiveness that have been shown to positively impact student outcomes. If the state is serious about providing the best educational experience possible for all students, it will need to grow this investment.”

Randy Schild, Tillamook School District Superintendent, added, “The CLASS Project helped Tillamook focus on high-quality instruction in every classroom, every day. Our teachers have been able to improve their skills through staff development directed at meeting the needs of each individual student. As a result of this focused work, we are seeing graduation rates well above the state average, but Tillamook won’t be satisfied until every student gets a diploma.”

US Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, invited CLASS educators to present as his most recent labor-management conference, recognizing the uniqueness of CLASS and the results the CLASS districts were achieving.

About the Chalkboard Project
The Chalkboard Project is an independent education transformation 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 that share a central belief that research and on-the-ground expert knowledge 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
Twitter: @ChalkTalkers