Central Oregonian

A new plan to measure progress

As a result of the No Child Left Behind Oregon waiver, the district has formed a committee to address the two-way partnership agreement with the Oregon Education Investment Board

Ramona McCallister

March 14, 2013

A local committee consisting of 11 staff members from Crook County School District has met since November 2012, and has come up with their first recommendations and priorities for the district learning compacts.

In July 2012, Governor John Kitzhaber announced that Oregon had been granted federal approval for its Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) flexibility application.

In short, the waiver for the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) had been approved, and a new model was put in place for rating and supporting schools, replacing the Adequate Yearly Progress designations and sanctions of NCLB. Central to the new model is what is being referred to as achievement compacts. These consist of district agreements that set achievement goals.

“The achievement compacts will be used to take where you are now (as a district), and set annual improvement performance goals between now and 2025,” commented Yecha shortly after the state was granted the waiver.

Oregon’s waiver is the product of work by more than 120 education and community stakeholders from around the state who helped design the new framework referred to as 40-40-20. These goals include that by 2025, 40 percent of adult Oregonians have earned a bachelor’s degree or higher; 40 percent of adult Oregonians have earned an associate’s degree or postsecondary credential as their highest level of educated attainment; and 20 percent of all adult Oregonians have earned at least a high school diploma, an extended or modified high school diploma, or the equivalent of a high school diploma as their highest level of educational attainment.

An achievement compact is an annual list of a district’s performance and goals for the next year’s improvement to meet the progress towards the 40-40-20 goal by 2025.

As a result of the new system, Crook County School District formed an Achievement Compact Advisory Committee in November 2012. The committee was made up of representatives from elementary, middle school, high school, classified, special education, and included co-facilitators Dennis Kostelecky and Stacy Smith. The committee devised a list of recommended achievement compact goals for the district, which were completed by Jan. 17, 2013.

“We are all advised as a big group to talk about the things we need to improve on, and specifically, what the state is asking us to do in those particular categories, and projecting how we are improving each year,” explained committee member Lori Meadows.

She added that the committee helps make the projections, and gives input into what they believe will help improve the categories set out by the state.

The prioritized goals from the committee include providing an extended year such as summer school, for students K-11 below benchmark, enforcing the attendance policy throughout the district, implementing a fifth through eighth grade program (perhaps online), and expanding credit recovery during the summer session for grades 10 through 12. There was also a long list of curriculum implementations which centered on the Common Core State Standards. In addition, the goals included implementing an all-day kindergarten, implementing Math 180 at the middle school level, and providing ACT suite for eighth, 10th, and 11th grades.

For staff development, the committee recommended increasing the early release days by eight, providing staff development on teaching children in poverty, and implementing a K-12 math plan.

Kitzhaber and the Legislature have created the Oregon Education Investment Board (OEIB) to ensure that educational dollars get to where they do the most for student success. In 2011, Governor Kitzhaber appointed a 13-member team from around the state to an Oregon Education Investment Team (OEIT). The team was created by executive order, and included former Crook County Middle School science teacher, Teacher of the Year, Michael Geisen. In February 2011, the OEIT met to engage the public, legislators, and stakeholders in creating a new investment and budget process for Oregon public education. Shortly thereafter, the Oregon Education Investment Board (OEIB) was created, using recommendations that were drafted by the OEIT team during the 2011 year.

Part of the process included entering into achievement compacts with every k-12 public school district, education service district, community college, university system, and Oregon Health Sciences University. These two-way partnership agreements will challenge educators across Oregon to set targets on key student outcomes. The compacts center on whether students are college and career-ready, and whether students are making sufficient progress toward college and career readiness.

“The achievement compacts are a product of the Legislature and the Investment Board,” said Duane Yecha, Crook County School District superintendent.

As with any education reform or mandate, many considerations come down to having enough dollars to support them.

“We have given those ideas and then we have prioritized them, and the board prioritized them for what they can do and what they can’t do in terms of money,” added Meadows.

Licensed: Todd Barrett, Christine Kasberger, Joe Swinehart, Lori Meadows

Classified: Shani Wood (advisory)

Administrative: Michelle Jonas, Kurt Sloper, Cheri Rasmussen, and Mona Boyd

Co-Facilitators: Dennis Kostelecky and Stacy Smith (advisory)