OPEN has been busy during past few months. Highlights included (i) wide-ranging discussions with Senator Lew Fredrick, (ii) meeting with Rick Stiggins to discuss his new book Give our Students the Gift of Confidence and how it can be implemented, (iii) addition of a new member who has been deeply involved in educational advocacy in Minnesota, (iv) meeting with Denisha Jones, the director of Defending the Early Years and (v) continued efforts on key pieces of legislation. You’ll find more information below.
Senator Lew Fredrick: Lew has a long history of involvement in education, including 13 years as the Director of Public Information for the Portland Public Schools, 2 years on the Board of the National PTA and 2.5 years on the Oregon State Board of Education. In 2009, he was elected to the Oregon House of Representatives and in 2017 he was elected to the Oregon State Senate. He currently serves on three Senate and Joint House/Senate education committees, two of which he co-chairs.
After the short legislative session ended in February, we met with Senator Frederick He noted that there will be a work group with which he hopes OPEN will engage and will focus on issues around online schools and computer learning. We shared our interest in following the results of HB 4124, a bill which required districts to report the number of mandated standardized tests being used in each Oregon school district. We want to know what the real cost of all the testing is with regards to staff time and administrative costs. We are hoping that alternative testing can be funded once again. Two such assessments were piloted in seven Oregon schools in 2016- 17. We are particularly interested in Performance Assessment Demonstration Sites (PADS) and Oregon Formative Assessment for Students and Teachers (OFAST).
It was also suggested to Lew that the QEM Quality Education Model (QEM), which focuses on the cost of a quality education, needs to be updated by a task force.
Senator Frederick closed by asking OPEN to expand our contact list to rural parts of Oregon.
Confidence Promotes Academic Achievement: Research has shown that students who believe in their abilities to succeed, often called Growth Mindset, can be far more successful in school and throughout their lives. We are currently working with Rick Stiggins to promote confidence in Oregon students. Rick is the retired founder and president of t he Assessment Training Institute in Portland, OR. We are promoting his new book, Give Our Students the Gift of Confidence. Please take a half hour to watch his video presentations of this important book.
Rick is working to assist teachers in maximizing student achievement by helping their students come to believe in themselves as capable learners. Parents will gain a great deal by watching the video, as well.
At the end of February, Rick held two successful public events in Eugene, and his work is spreading.
New Member Spotlight:
In March, we welcomed a new member to our team, David LaPorte. David comes to us from the University of Minnesota, where he worked for 37 years as a professor of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics. He brings a wealth of knowledge as he worked to prepare preK-12 students to thrive in an unpredictable future where workers will need a much better education in transferable skills like critical thinking and creative problem solving which are in demand by employers in every sector of our economy. We are grateful for his expertise.
In April, Carol Greenough joined our team. After completing her training as an English teacher and a stint in VISTA, running a tutoring program, Carol went on to get her doctorate in psychology. Her career began in Alaska where she started a mental health/substance disorder clinic in a small Alaskan town, became a commercial fisher, and then was program administrator for Alaska’s 25 mental health centers. Carol came to Oregon in 1987 and worked as K-12 consulting psychologist for several school districts, government agencies and nonprofits. Her teaching ranged from Area 51, a 7th grade course in life skills, to adjunct faculty for the University of Alaska, Juneau and several community colleges. A return to Alaska gave her a chance to dig into policy work as staff for the Alaska Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder boards. In retirement, she serves on the Washington County Behavioral Health Council and as a Family Promise of Tualatin Valley board member. She runs the after-school program at a family homeless shelter and is inspired by the children she works with~~their needs and resilience. Continued policy and political work through advocacy with the legislature, convening East Washington County Democrats and as a House District Leader in Tualatin reflects her desire to help create a community where all of our children can thrive.
Defending the Early Years & the “Science of Reading: In April, we met with Denisha Jones, the Executive Director of Defending the Early Years, a non-profit advocacy group that focusing on the needs of young children. One of the priorities is the Science of Reading. Like many reading policy experts, Denisha is concerned that schools would emphasize just phonics at the expense of the other reading skills: oral language, content knowledge, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. OPEN shares her concerns.
Educational Legislative Priorities Recently Supported by OPEN
- Workforce Senate Bill 1552. OPEN supports this wide-ranging bill that will prepare students to participate in the workforce. Highlights of the bill include the creation of an Oregon Department of Education work group to set standards and collect data from secondary schools, establishment of a youth advisory group and proactive identification and direct admissions of Oregon’s top students to community colleges and public universities.
- Collection of Data on Student Assessments: House Bill 4124. Introduced by Representative Nancy Nathanson. The bill passed during the 2022 legislative session and requires the Department of Education to conduct a survey regarding the academic assessments administered to students by school districts and to develop recommendations and best practices related to assessments.
