Ambitious Partnership Fuels Effort to Equip Oregon High School Students for College, Work, and Citizenship

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Building on Oregon’s small high school initiative launched in 2003, Governor Ted Kulongoski, State Schools Superintendent Susan Castillo, and Portland Public Schools (PPS) Superintendent Vicki Phillips today announced a $10.7 million investment by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Meyer Memorial Trust targeted at improving high school performance and graduation rates for Oregon’s high school students. These investments reflect growing momentum throughout Oregon to design a school system that ensures all students in the state will graduate prepared for college, work and citizenship.

“In Oregon we are creating a seamless system of education in our high schools, community colleges, and four-year institutions so that all Oregonians leave high school prepared for success in whatever their next steps may be – post-secondary education, the workplace and citizenry,” Governor Ted Kulongoski said. “To achieve this vision, we must continue to partner with our schools and non-profits as well as business communities because real reform requires more than simply increasing the number of credits to graduate – real reform is about ensuring we teach our children what they need to know in order to compete in the 21st century. This grant is critical in our ability to carry out that promise.”

Students across Oregon have demonstrated significant achievement gains in the early grades, but progress at the high school level has been more challenging. According to the Manhattan Institute, only one in three ninth graders in Portland and across the state graduates prepared for college. Portland has the largest public school district in the state, with approximately 47,000 students, including 14,500 in high school. While student performance in the district, as measured by test scores and school report cards, has improved in recent years, about 40 percent of African American students, and more than two thirds of Latino students, fail to graduate from Portland’s public high schools, according to the Oregon Department of Education.

“In these tight economic times, these resources will help PPS to accelerate the changes we began last year: raising graduation standards, tightening the core curriculum, and most importantly, equipping teachers with the tools and training they need to help students succeed,” said PPS Superintendent Vicki Phillips. “Our students will also have more choices and options to pursue a college degree or a family wage job here in Portland.”

Oregon’s elected, appointed and business leaders have all committed to develop and implement policies and practices that increase graduation rates and, specifically, prepare more young people for college and for the workforce. The broad-based partnership will institute reforms that impact every high school in the state, assure all students will receive more support, and will be measured by increased graduation rates and improved achievement.

“This state partnership in Oregon has the potential to set a national standard for the level of commitment needed to ensure sustained high school reform,” said Tom Vander Ark, executive director of education at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “And Portland is on track to be a national district model of how accountability and efficiency throughout the district can drive achievement and excellence in the classroom.”

The investments announced today will advance these efforts to develop state policies that foster academic rigor and at the same time invest in a redesign of the state’s largest district to improve the way schools and students are supported to meet the higher standards. Both the state and the district will also identify effective strategies to improve and support the state and district’s lowest performing schools.

The Meyer Memorial Trust, which has a strong record of investments in education improvement efforts in Oregon, will support redesigning the Portland Public School district to ensure the effective implementation of the reforms. In continuing to partner with the Gates Foundation, the Meyer Memorial Trust is building on its recent investments in public education in Oregon. 

"Our work with the Chalkboard Project has convinced us that Oregonians want higher quality schools, and we are always looking for ways to support results oriented, cutting edge reform,” said Doug Stamm, executive director of the Meyer Memorial Trust. “This is not about business as usual. It's time for real change and real accountability."

The grants announced today will support the following work:

The State of Oregon ($1.75 million over two years), through the Department of Education and its partners including the Oregon Business Council, will focus on turning around low-performing schools and improving teaching in urban and rural areas throughout the state. The state’s portion of the grants will be used to develop policies based on high standards and personalized learning, with an eye toward preparation for the demands of college curriculum.

Portland Public Schools ($8.96 million over three years), in collaboration with the Portland Schools Foundation, will continue its work improving student learning and performance in its high schools. The effort will include transforming middle and high schools to focus on high standards and assessments, improving the quality of teaching, launching a pilot program to help turn around low-performing schools, and redesigning the operations of the district to more effectively support local schools during the reform efforts. The Portland Schools Foundation will mobilize the community to champion high achievement, plan and design middle and high schools, and take an active role in improving results for young people. 

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Meyer Memorial Trust have invested in efforts to improve graduation rates in Oregon since 2003. This includes supporting new and existing schools and the work of the Chalkboard Project, a statewide effort to engage citizens in the development of education reform policies focused on quality, accountability, and funding issues. To date, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has invested $1 billion to improve high schools, including supporting the creation of more than 1,500 high-quality high schools in 40 states and the District of Columbia.

###
The Oregon Department of Education provides leadership in statewide curriculum programs, school improvement efforts, and statewide testing. In addition, the Department acts as a liaison and monitors implementation for a variety of state and federal programs. Superintendent of Public Instruction Susan Castillo provides statewide leadership for all elementary and secondary students in Oregon's 198 public school districts and 20 education service districts. Her responsibility also extends to public preschool programs, the state Schools for the Blind and the Deaf, regional programs for children with disabilities and education programs in Oregon youth corrections facilities.

### 
Portland Public Schools was founded in 1851 and today serves 47,000 K-12 students in 90 schools. For more information on the district, call (503) 916-3304, e-mail us at [email protected], or visit www.pps.k12.or.us. The volunteer School Board sets district policy, with seven Board directors serving the entire district but elected from geographical districts, and one current high school student representative. The Board office telephone number is (503) 916-3741. Portland Public Schools is an equal opportunity educator and employer.

###
The Portland Schools Foundation, founded in 1995, is an independent, community-based organization that mobilizes ideas, leadership, political support and money necessary to ensure a first-rate public education for every child, in every school, in every Portland neighborhood.  For more information visit www.thinkschools.org.

###
The Meyer Memorial Trust invests in people, ideas and efforts that deliver significant social benefit to Oregon and southwest Washington. Since it began operating in 1982, the Trust has awarded more than $375 million to nonprofit organizations to improve the quality of life in the region. The Meyer Memorial Trust has invested more than $95 million in education over the past 23 years. For more information, visit www.mmt.org.