February 5, 2008
by Steve Rawley
The Ivy Charter school has appealed their application, and the charter schools subcommittee has voted 2-to-1 to recommend ther approval. Board member Ruth Adkins was the lone no vote; Bobbie Regan and Trudy Sargent voted yes. This may be referred to the full board as soon as the February 11 meeting. Please write to the school board and superintendent right away to urge them to (once again) reject this application. Besides being too close to existing Northeast Portland neighborhood schools that are struggling with enrollment, it appears to be an attempt to convert an existing private school (which is illegal under Oregon law).
Here’s the letter I sent the board when they first considered this charter application, and the school board and superintendent’s e-mail addresses can be found here.
Swing votes on this appear to be Dan Ryan and Sonja Henning. The superintendent’s recommendation may carry weight with them, so please remember to write to her as well.
Steve Rawley published PPS Equity from 2008 to 2010, when he moved his family out of the district.
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February 4, 2008
by Steve Rawley
I am planning to submit questionnaires to mayoral and city council candidates to see where they stand on the issues we all care about. I would love some input from the community on these. Here are a couple sample questions I came up with.
- City Auditor Gary Blackmer and Multnomah County Auditor Suzanne Flynn released a joint audit report in June of 2006 which found that Portland Public Schools’ transfer policy contributes to racial and socio-economic segregation and conflicts with other district goals such as strong neighborhood schools and investing in poorly performing schools. The report requested that the school board clarify the of the purpose of the transfer policy, but nearly two years later, they have not. As mayor or commissioner, will you do anything to hold the school district accountable to this audit?
- Portland Public Schools’ student transfer policy divests over $40 million annually from our poorest neighborhoods, leaving our most economically vulnerable citizens with gutted educational programs and a disproportionate number of school closures. This puts PPS policy at odds with city policy of strong, livable neighborhoods, with affordable housing near strong schools. As mayor or commissioner, how will you work with the PPS Board of Education to ensure their policies do not work at cross purposes with city policies?
And here’s one just for Sho Dozono:
- You started the Portland Schools Foundation to support schools, particularly those in lower-income areas, in the wake of Measure 5. Now, more than ten years later, the foundation is frequently criticized as part of the problem, not part of the solution. Is the foundation still relevant today, or should the district administer the equity fund in-house?
What else?
Steve Rawley published PPS Equity from 2008 to 2010, when he moved his family out of the district.
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February 4, 2008
by Steve Rawley
Udate: I fixed the link to the flier. Sorry to anybody who tried to download it earlier!
Also braving the cold wind and rain at the Last Celebration was Neighborhood Schools Alliance member Steve Linder, who distributed his flier (644KB PDF) which details the common-sense criteria for good neighborhood schools:
- Schools to which more children can walk or bike
- Schools designed to fit growing neighborhoods, with room for art, music, computers and PE
- Well sited schools, adjacent to parks, with playfields meeting Oregon’s State School Acreage Standards
Ironically, many of the schools closed in recent years have met these criteria, with their students shuffled off across major arterials to inadequate facilities.
The free-market fetish at PPS has left major swaths of Portland, such as the Kenton area, without an elementary school. And, amazingly, they are often the areas expected to gain school-aged population over the coming years.
It’s time to rethink our facilities planning. Linder’s document is a good starting point. Everybody at Portland Public Schools who has anything to do with facilities planning should read it, as should all concerned community members.
Steve Rawley published PPS Equity from 2008 to 2010, when he moved his family out of the district.
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February 3, 2008
by Steve Rawley
I attended the last Portland Public Schools “Celebrate!” event yesterday, and handed out leaflets (109KB PDF) drawing attention to the inequities that follow the open transfer policy. Fellow Neighborhood Schools Alliance member Terry Olson braved the absolutely miserable weather with me, and we handed out 500 fliers in the first two hours of the event.
If you think it’s a little odd for a school district to set up a shopping mall for their schools, you’re not alone. Several families I spoke with were virtually speechless. What’s even more appalling, once you scratch the surface, is that this showcase event exposes the startling inequities between our neighborhood schools. I spoke with parent Peter Campbell, who’s been trying to get the district to publish curriculum offerings for all elementary schools, to no avail. Even at an event like this, he discovered that it is virtually impossible to get accurate, consistent data.
This inconsistency is incredibly frustrating, and it is one of the ways PPS is shifting the true cost of its open transfer policy onto families. If the district really wanted to do this right, the real costs would include a standardized format for schools to publish their offerings, and full-time marketing staff at each school, so that administrative staff could focus on running their schools and educating our children. The real cost of doing this would be prohibitive, of course, and nobody wants to spend precious FTE budget on marketing. Yet without it, parents are not able to make informed choices.
Of course, it would be far less expensive — not to mention far more fair — to have a uniform core curriculum, including music, art and P.E., in all our schools.
I’m glad this is the last “Celebration” PPS will spend money on. The Oregonian reports that these events have typically cost $300,000 to put on. That’s easily enough to pay for the three FTE positions I’ve advocated to restore the music department in the Jefferson cluster.
Steve Rawley published PPS Equity from 2008 to 2010, when he moved his family out of the district.
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February 1, 2008
by Steve Rawley
It’s been about 24 hours since I launched this site, and I’ve got to say I’m a little overwhelmed by the response. I wasn’t sure how people would take to the forum, but already ten new users have registered, and a handful of discussions have begun.
The blog has received comments from people I have not heard from before, and technically (knock on wood) things are hanging together and seem to be working. Be sure to let me know if you find something that doesn’t work. I’m pretty handy with the blog software by now, but the forum software is totally new to me.
I can’t help but feel optimistic that we’re building the kind of energy that is just unstoppable. When reasonable people really look at things the way they are, it is difficult to disagree that it is intolerable. Let’s keep pushing and building. We may soon have the critical mass necessary to push beyond the tipping point. We may even have that critical mass now.
Steve Rawley published PPS Equity from 2008 to 2010, when he moved his family out of the district.
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February 1, 2008
by Steve Rawley
The Portland Tribune ran my guest opinion piece on the charter schools movement this morning, Promise is only illusion.
I’m generally pleased with the few edits they made, except for one, which significantly reduces the punch of the piece. See if you can spot the critical difference here.
Original: “In Portland, charter school students are whiter and wealthier than the general student population, and they are less likely to have special needs.”
Edited: “In Portland, charter school students appear whiter and wealthier than the general student population, and they would appear less likely to have special needs.”
I cited my source on this when I submitted the story (Portland Public Schools Enrollment Summaries 1998-99 through 2007-08 — 122KB PDF). It is a factual statement. Portland charter schools are 35.2% free and reduced lunch, compared to 45.3% for the district as a whole. Charters are 13.9% special ed, compared to 14.7% district-wide; and 57.75% white, compared to 54.94% district-wide.
It might sound like splitting hairs on the racial issue, but if you factor out Self Enhancement Academy, which is 96.35% black, charter schools in Portland don’t just “appear whiter,” they are significantly so. Opal school is 74% white; Emerson, 79.4%, Portland Village, 77.42%; Trillium, 64.97%. Note that Portland Village and Trillium are both in the Jefferson attendance area, which is 69% non-white.
The “pro” piece, written by Republican state house candidate Matt Wingard, is a mealy-mouthed, factually inaccurate diatribe against a school board he sees as fighting a “loss of power.” While complaining that the PPS school board has rejected more charter schools than all other Oregon districts combined, he doesn’t bother to address the fact that of the last four applicants, three had very major problems in their applications. Here’s the paragraph that stood out as being a little, eh, factually challenged:
The board signaled this preference for fewer choices by beginning to talk about restricting transfers within the district. Board members claim that unrestricted transfers between existing public schools might be fostering segregation. But most of the parents who want to leave their “neighborhood” schools are minorities.
First, when has the board ever talked about restricting transfers? News to me, and I’ve been pounding on them to talk about this for a year now.
Second, it’s not board members making a “claim,” it was the auditors of Multnomah County and the City of Portland whose 2006 audit of the PPS transfer policy said that open transfers have increased segregation. This was reinforced by the PPS staff study that compiled hard statistical evidence showing, beyond debate, that this is the case.
Finally, I’d like to see the statistics to back up the statement “most of the parents who want to leave their ‘neighborhood’ schools are minorities.” PPS statistics, in fact, contradict this statement.
Steve Rawley published PPS Equity from 2008 to 2010, when he moved his family out of the district.
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January 31, 2008
by Steve Rawley
Well, here we are. Welcome to the new PPS Equity blog. I’m ready to restore my old blog to its former status of a personal blog. I’m especially psyched to turn people loose on the forum. The blog format is a little limiting and difficult to use as a discussion forum, so hopefully this will open things up. You can still comment on blog posts, of course, but on the forum, you can start your own topics.
The original idea of this site was to be a place for data and policy analysis. I still hope to make that happen, but in the mean time, the blog and forum are available as community resources.
I’d like very much to open up the blog to guest bloggers. If you’re interested, please drop me a line at ppsequity at rawley dot org.
Steve Rawley published PPS Equity from 2008 to 2010, when he moved his family out of the district.
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