Chalkboard to legislators:
An Incomplete for K-12 this session

 

Contacts:
Chalkboard Project
503-542-4325
info@chalkboardproject.org

Lawmakers take some steps, but skip others, to improve school quality, accountability

PORTLAND – June 27, 2007 – Good grades are hard to get in the classroom. They’re hard to get in the Legislature, too. And Oregon lawmakers’ 2007 legislative session earns an “incomplete” from the Chalkboard Project for progress on K-12 schools.

Legislators passed important Chalkboard-backed initiatives to mentor new teachers and principals, seek savings in school transportation costs and stabilize school funding. They even took steps to begin exploring a shift in how K-12 schools are funded to create additional stability.

But other important tasks were left undone: Dedicating funding to K-3 reading tutors and other research-proven practices to raise student achievement. Creating a statewide process to ensure the $50 million spent each year on professional development for teachers is paying off in higher student achievement. And guaranteeing that every school district will receive an outside review of its business operations on a regular basis.

That’s the analysis of the independent, non-partisan Chalkboard Project, which entered the 2007 legislative session with an ambitious, research-based agenda to make progress in four key areas:

  • Enhancing K-3 learning
  • Supporting teachers more effectively
  • Seeking and acquiring more savings and accountability in school spending
  • Stabilizing school system funding
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“In an average year, the achievements of this Legislature for K-12 schools would have been very good,” said Sue Hildick, Chalkboard Project president. “But this wasn’t an average year. Legislators passed a record budget for K-12 education – nearly $6.3 billion. While they funded a few important projects with that money, the Legislature didn’t connect the dots to show how that record amount of spending is really going to drive student achievement up throughout the state, and restore public confidence in schools’ use of tax dollars.

“Other proponents of K-12 education will call this session a resounding success because of the big budget for schools. We can’t be as generous with our praise, because money alone is not the answer to resolving the challenges facing our schools. We give lawmakers a grade of ‘incomplete.’ They took some positive steps for schools, but they were capable of doing more, and it will take much more than an extra infusion of cash to raise Oregon’s school system from ‘average’ to ‘excellent.’”

Legislators did approve measures that were key Chalkboard priorities, based on extensive best practices and public opinion research:

  • All new Oregon teachers, principals and superintendents will receive two years of high-quality mentoring, thanks to a new law that phases in this assistance over the next four years. Chalkboard partnered with Stand for Children to advocate for this initiative, which also drew broad support from other education leaders.

  • Lawmakers created the state’s first comprehensive rainy day fund and redirected this year’s corporate kicker to begin filling it. Chalkboard was one of many organizations advocating for this change.

  • The Oregon Department of Education will undertake a study of the school transportation system and how it can be operated more efficiently. Chalkboard pushed hard for a thorough study to learn why Oregon’s school transportation costs are higher than the national average and those of neighboring states such as Washington, and to determine how we can fund student transportation more efficiently.

  • An interim legislative study will be conducted on improving coordination among the pre-K, K-12 and higher education systems, which will include an analysis of moving from a revenue-based funding system for K-12 education to a per-student spending guarantee. Coupled with a larger rainy day account, this Chalkboard-supported funding shift would assure stable K-12 funding even in bad economic times.
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Chalkboard was encouraged by the Legislature’s approval of a new effort to undertake outside performance reviews of school district business practices, so that districts can learn about efficient practices from each other and find savings. The drawback: These reviews are voluntary, not mandatory.

“We are pleased to see a process where these reviews can now take place, and we know our push for more accountability helped make this happen. But we need more teeth in the legislation by making school districts’ participation mandatory, not voluntary,” said Hildick. “More than half of Oregonians think schools can be more efficient. A full 40 percent don’t think schools need more money, period. Valid or not, these perceptions are real. And our school district business operations costs are indeed much higher than the national average. School and state leaders must do more to assure Oregonians their school tax dollars are being used wisely for the benefit of kids in the classroom.”

Chalkboard is taking steps outside the legislative arena to tackle this issue. Earlier this month, Chalkboard announced a pilot project in partnership with the Oregon Association of School Business Officials to review the business practices of five school districts over the coming year. The Beaverton School District has volunteered to be the first to go through this review. Chalkboard also is nearing release of phase two of its Open Books project, which provides easy-to-understand online information about school district spending.

In addition to the failure to make business performance audits mandatory, two other missed opportunities led to the Legislature’s “incomplete” rating by Chalkboard:

  • Lawmakers’ failure to target a small portion of the state’s “school improvement fund” to statewide initiatives that research has proven will raise student achievement significantly, including reducing K-1 class sizes and providing reading tutors to K-3 students who need them. Instead, legislators agreed to allow districts to use school improvement funding in many different ways, diluting its overall effectiveness.

  • Legislators failed to approve a statewide professional development system to coordinate the approximately $50 million school districts spend yearly on ongoing training for K-12 educators, and to ensure the quality and relevance of that training. There remains no means of tracking this spending and demonstrating whether it is truly paying off in higher student achievement.
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“We saw legislators take a harder look at research in making decisions about allocating spending, but we don’t believe they went far enough,” said Hildick. “There are clearly some places we can put our money to make a proven difference for kids, while still leaving money to buy technology, textbooks and all of the other things schools need. Our state needs to make a stronger commitment to targeting limited funding to areas where it will help students the most.

“We think this session paved the way for far more progress on accountability and targeted funding in the future. Our legislators’ greatest accomplishment for public schools this session was starting to shift the conversation from how much we’re spending with our K-12 dollars to what we’re buying. Chalkboard played a strong role in helping changing the scope of that debate.

“We will be back in future sessions to advocate for legislative initiatives that will go beyond big budget numbers to make a real difference for our kids and restore Oregonians' faith in our public schools.”

For more information about the status of Chalkboard’s 2007 legislative agenda, visit www.chalkboardproject.org.

About Chalkboard Project
Launched in early 2004, Chalkboard Project exists to inspire Oregonians to do what it takes to make the state’s K-12 public schools among the nation’s best, while strengthening our school system’s financial accountability to taxpayers. Chalkboard aims to help create a more informed and engaged public who understand and address the tough choices and trade-offs required to build strong schools, and to enable statewide programs that can be applied at the local level to improve school quality, accountability, and funding. To date, Chalkboard has connected with about 100,000 Oregonians, asking for their best ideas to strengthen the state’s K-12 public schools. It also has partnered with other education organizations to create the Open Book$ Web site www.openbooksproject.org to track school district spending.

Chalkboard – an initiative of Foundations For A Better Oregon – is sponsored by a growing list of independent foundations. The founding five foundations are: The Collins Foundation, The Ford Family Foundation, Jeld-Wen Foundation, Meyer Memorial Trust, and The Oregon Community Foundation. For more information about Chalkboard and to learn how to get involved, call (877) YOUR-K12 or visit www.chalkboardproject.org.