Oregon teachers transform their careers and compensation
Contacts:
Chalkboard Project
503-542-4325
info@chalkboardproject.org
Chalkboard funds effort to raise student achievement and elevate teaching profession
SHERWOOD AND TILLAMOOK – April 18, 2008 – The Chalkboard Project is announcing today that it expects to invest $2.25 million in the Sherwood and Tillamook school districts over the next three years. These are the largest grants ever by the Chalkboard Project. These districts are using the money to implement a new and expanded career architecture for teachers and classified staff. Teachers and administrators worked collaboratively to design the project with the aim of enhancing student achievement.
Chalkboard and local school officials will officially launch the CLASS Project in two events Tuesday, April 22 in Sherwood and Tillamook.
These school districts will pioneer Chalkboard’s CLASS (Creative Leadership Achieves Student Success) Project, a pilot program that expands career and compensation opportunities for teachers and classified staff.
One of the biggest challenges facing Oregon schools is that more than a third of new teachers leave the profession within their first five years of teaching. The expanded career opportunities created by the CLASS Project include new roles for teachers as leaders and mentors, which offer the promise of more pay and ultimately greater success for children.
The Sherwood and Tillamook districts spent a year designing their CLASS Projects based on input from teachers, administrators, school board members, and parents. Each CLASS Project is unique because each district has different needs, but all CLASS Projects have four elements in common:
• New career architecture with opportunities for advancement
• Comprehensive and fair performance evaluations
• Expanded professional development opportunities
• Enhanced compensation for new leadership roles
“This is a true transformation in our profession,” said Terrel Smith, Sherwood teacher union president. “It’s a system built by teachers for teachers. The CLASS Project makes teachers excited about teaching and students excited about learning.”
Tillamook superintendent Randy Schild said, “This project is a perfect match with our district’s goals to maximize student achievement by providing stronger support to staff. It means we’re going to be better able to recruit and retain highly effective teachers in small towns like ours.”
“To increase student achievement, we need excellent teachers in every classroom,” said Sue Hildick, Chalkboard Project president. “The CLASS Project gives teachers and staff a whole new way of building their professional careers.”
The Chalkboard Project has already spent $370,000 developing the CLASS Project. It is formally committed spending $850,000 in the first year. As long as the districts follow through on their plans, Chalkboard expects to support the Sherwood and Tillamook districts through three years of CLASS implementation. The money will help establish new career opportunities, professional development, performance evaluations, and an enhanced staff compensation system. Researchers at Portland State University’s Center for Student Success will be monitoring the progress of the districts engaged in the CLASS Project.
In addition to the Sherwood and Tillamook school districts, Chalkboard is reviewing a grant proposal from the Forest Grove school district, where teachers and administrators are currently designing their own CLASS Project.
Read a summary of the CLASS Project and key district information
Contact:
Colin Fogarty
Chalkboard Project
503-841-0045
cfogarty@pyramidcom.com Dan Jamison or Erin Prince
Sherwood School District
503-625-8122
djamison@sherwood.k12.or.us
eprince@sherwood.k12.or.us Randy Schild or Ed Armstrong
Tillamook School District
503-842-4414
armstronge@tillamook.k12.or.us
schildr@tillamook.k12.or.us
About Chalkboard Project
Launched in early 2004, Chalkboard Project exists to inspire Oregonians to do what it takes to make the state’s K-12 public schools among the nation’s best, while strengthening our school system’s financial accountability to taxpayers. Chalkboard aims to help create a more informed and engaged public who understand and address the tough choices and trade-offs required to build strong schools, and to enable statewide programs that can be applied at the local level to improve school quality, accountability, and funding. To date, Chalkboard has connected with about 100,000 Oregonians, asking for their best ideas to strengthen the state’s K-12 public schools. It also has partnered with other education organizations to create the Open Book$ 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 Oregon foundations. The foundations providing major support are: The Collins Foundation, The Ford Family Foundation, Jeld-Wen Foundation, Meyer Memorial Trust, James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation 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.
