We’re pleased to announce that the results from our Parent Involvement Assessment Project are now available for review.

The CPPS Parent Involvement Assessment Project was conducted during the winter and spring of 2006-07. The project had two main components: a district-wide survey taken by over 1,300 parents from 74 schools, and a deeper assessment of 11 elementary schools, selected to reflect current PPS demographics. Those deeper assessments included 11 principal and family coordinator interviews, 19 parent focus groups—including a number with English Language Learners (ELL), seven teacher surveys and two teacher focus groups.

Both the survey and the deeper assessments looked at five key areas needed to foster strong parent involvement: school climate, communication, learning collaboration, volunteering and parents as decision-makers. It is CPPS’ hope that the findings (available in PDF here) will inform a needed dialogue between all stakeholders—parents, teachers, school administrators, Blanchard Education Service Center central office staff (BESC), district-level leaders, and the community at large—and lead to tangible ways to strengthen parent involvement in every single school in the Portland Public School District.

(Read more about the Parent Involvement Assessment Project here.

In the next few weeks, we’ll be providing more details – about our findings, community feedback, and needed next steps. Look for email annnouncements, blog posts, and other initiatives – and do consider joining us in order to help bring about change!

The PPS School Board announced yesterday that they’ve just opened a new survey up designed to solicit feedback from the community about the permanent PPS superintendent opening. That survey is now available online here.

From the press release:

The Portland School Board wants to hear from interested
members of the community about what characteristics the new school
superintendent should possess. A new survey is available that gives
people the opportunity to share their ideas directly with the Board.
Interested parents, students, school staff, and community members can
fill out the survey on-line at www.pps.k12.or.us or by visiting the
school district’s main office at 501 N. Dixon St, Portland.

“As we work to define the qualities, experience and characteristics
we’re looking for in our next leader, we continue to listen to what
the community has to say,” said School Board co-chair Bobbie Regan.
“Survey respondents can tell us what they think our school
district’s most pressing issues are and what we should be looking for.
This is a critical part of our search process.”
…

For more information and/or questions, please email
[send email to via gmail] ppssuperrecruit@nwlink.com.

We invite you to take the survey, then come back to register your opinions on the process. Does the survey itself seek to accurately capture public input? Did it ask the questions you’d hoped?

CPPS was recently contacted by Bridgespan asking our assistance to help them reach families as part of work they’re doing with the Office of High Schools:

We’d like to have a focus group (or two) of parents of high schools students in the July timeframe. These groups would solicit parent input on high school improvement (as well as share select findings from our work to date).
Topics of inquiry would include:

• School selection: What are the most important elements that you look for in your child’s high school?
• Student engagement: How well does your child’s school keep him/her engaged? How could they do better?
• Student academic preparation: How well does your child’s school prepare him/her academically? How could they do better?
• Preparation for postsecondary: How well does your child’s school prepare him/her for postsecondary? How could they do better?
• Innovation in schools: What would a school different than the traditional comprehensive school need to have in place to be attractive to you and your child? (examples include small schools, community-based schools, etc.)

If you’d like to be involved, contact us; we’ll connect you.

And if you’re interested in more details of the Bridgespan work – not to mention related initiatives like the Connected by 25 work, read the extended entry…

Read the rest of this entry »

(A quick editorial note: We’ll be passing along news items and information (both in newsletters and via blog posts) that we receive from like-minded organizations on a regular basis from now on. We won’t post everything we receive, of course (we presume you’re already plugged into your own info-networks) – but we also want to do our part to help spread the word about topics we all care about!)

Planning Our Future Together:
A Democratic Conversation About Portland’s Schools

Please join others concerned about the future of Portland Public Schools as it moves into a future marked by major changes, led by a not-yet-known new superintendent.

This Open Forum is an opportunity for all voices to speak and to be heard by one another, including

• Voices for change and for stability
• Voices of students, teachers, parents, principals and district administrators
• Voices of old-school teachers and “new” school teachers
• Voices of immigrants and old-time Portlanders
• Voices of students affected by changes
• Voices from the east and west sides of the city
• Voices for, voices against textbook change

Please come to add your thoughts and feelings to this deeply democratic dialogue.

Time: 5-6:30 pm
Date: June 18, 2007
Place: Lincoln High School rm. 169

Facilitated by Judy Chambers, EdM, LCSW and sponsored by the Process Work Center of Portland. For more information, contact Judy directly: 503 970 8662, or judy@chambersforhealing.com.

(Also sent as an email announcement to our list today)

We have two quick items of note to pass along, and a discussion topic we’d love to get your input on:

• Portland Public Schools now has an interim superintendent, Ed Schmitt, who will begin work on July 1st. (See this Portland Tribune article for more details.)
• From the PPS Key-Communicators list: PPS is holding a going away reception for Vicki Phillips on Tuesday, June 19th from 4-6 pm in the BESC foyer, 501 N. Dixon

So now that it appears the district has a plan in place to see us through the transition while they forge ahead with hiring a new superintendent, I have a question. In your opinion, what should be the top five items on Schmitt’s summer to-do list? Or should we stay in a holding pattern until a new superintendent’s been selected?

Weigh in below, please…!