Educational Plan

Educators across the country have responded to the “moral imperative” (M. Fullan) that challenges us to fundamentally rethink schools for a different and complex set of teaching and learning needs for the twenty-first century.   Embedded into these challenges are the following ideas:

• First and foremost, research on human cognition (how people learn) has brought forth compelling evidence around every person’s ability to learn to high standards.  Heretofore, the mindset (and practice in schools) that IQ was the single factor in determining student success has been throughly debunked.  We know now that human potential ,coupled with the ever evolving research on the multiple and varied ways that people learn beyond IQ, has allowed us to begin to rethink practices of simply sorting and labeling students.  Our greatest challenge then, is to identify how a student learns, and then to begin to adjust instructional practices and to rethink and adjust long held structures to harness human potential.

• To achieve the above, school districts must first begin with adjusting the culture in our classrooms and school buildings.  Simply put, structures must be in place – by design – that allow teachers and administrators access to this research and time to begin to engage in needed and routine reflective dialogue.  In Portland, we have referred to this shift in culture as moving towards a “Community of Practice (Por) as well Michael Fullan’s term Professional Learning Community.  Likened to a teaching hospital, we now understand the power of teachers and administrators talking with one another as simply the way we do business – the way we “do school”.  This idea, this practice, is supported by research as the single most important factor in raising student achievement.  Simply put, when teachers/administrators get smarter, so do students in their care.

• Instructional practices must adjust to what we know, beginning with the research on how people learn and how that research impacts instruction.  In Portland, we have embraced the tenets of Dimensions of Learning (Robert Marzano) as a starting place.  The Dimensions model emphasizes teaching that goes beyond simply the giving back of information, and relies heavily on moving to higher level thinking skills ( using knowledge meaningfully and differently) as a way for our students to be better prepared for the skills needed in a knowledge based/ information based society.

• In Portland, we are uniquely situated as the state’s largest district to implement school choice.  This allows us to offer a menu of teaching and learning options to accommodate the myriad of student learning needs.  This happens within schools where vertical teaming structures are in place ((teachers working in K-2, 3-5 cohorts for example), and a K-12 expeditionary learning option.

• And lastly, we understand the need to engage our community and our public as we act on what we know.  Much work has gone on and continues around  ways to make our work more transparent  and understandable.  We are most fortunate to have interested and actively involved families in our community. We remain committed to seek ways to bring them into the needed dialogue around the “moral imperative” so needed to harness and unleash the potential of every student in our care.