oregon’s comeback: an 18 point plan - educating for our economic future

8/8/2019 Oregons Comeback: An 18 Point Plan - Educating for Our Economic Future

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www.chrisdudley.com

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Oregons Comeback: An 18 Point Plan - Educating for Our Economic Future 2

Educating for Our Economic FutureFrom Pre-School through College, A Focus on Student Success

OVERVIEW

Good work is going on in classrooms across Oregon. We have pockets of true excellence inour school districts, and so many of our states educators are conducting small daily miraclesin challenging circumstances. Theyre making a difference in the lives of Oregons childrenevery day. You dont have to be the son or brother of a teacher, as I am, to feel the need tothank them. Nor do I think you need be the parents of three students at Oregons publicschools, as my wife and I are, to acknowledge the debt we owe particular teachers or schools.

But it is just as important that we candidlyassess the state of education in Oregon,from pre-school to college. Oregonsstudents and the future of our states

economy depend on it. An honestassessment reveals that the state ofeducation in Oregon is not good. Wemust change quickly and in a big wayover a sustained period of time. Theeducation of today is the economy oftomorrow.

The future of Oregons economy and itsability to overcome what GovernorKulongoskis Reset Cabinet called a

looming decade of deficits are directly tied to our ability to prepare the children of Oregon tocompete and win in the global marketplace. Oregon is not just competing with other states for

jobs and investment its competing against other countries, particularly Pacific Rim countriesthat routinely out-score Oregon students in education.

Nothing points to the lack of leadership on education more than Oregons humiliating failure inthe Obama Administrations Race to the Top and the reasons for that self-inflicted failure.Our state failed to make the funding list after the first round. We were 35th out of 40 and thuswithdrew from the race.1

We talk a lot about school funding problems, and those problems are all too real. Yet, other

states have their own funding issues, and the Race to the Top was not about funding. TheU.S. Department of Education was looking at proposals that did not require additional funding.Oregon dropped out of the Race because of a massive failure of leadership, commitment andimagination. We were worse than losers in this. We were quitters. The forces of the status quoand the interests of adults prevailed over the urgency of change and the immediate bestinterests of Oregon children.

1 Race to the Top, Phase 1 Final Results

[W]hile Obama and [Secretary of Education Arne] Duncan are calling for states to expandcharter schools and adopt new ways of

evaluating and paying teachers, the powerfulOregon Education Association has pretty muchstifled all progress on such reforms in Oregon.Never mind the president's clear belief thatnimble charter schools are the best laboratoriesto test the best reform ideas, including newteaching practices, individualized instruction andextended school years. Oregon simply isn't allthat interested.

- Rick Attig, The Oregonian, August 8, 2009


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Heres what Oregons Race to the Top made plain. We talk a good game, but our plans andstrategies are fragmented and disconnected. Weve had a dysfunctional approach toattempting full-scale reform and have lacked the leadership to establish an aligned system. Asa state, Oregon has no strategy for ensuring that effective teachers are assigned to the lowestperforming schools. Our state has no accountability system or coherent strategy for turning

around our lowest performing schools. We have no true alternative pathways for potentialteachers to enter the profession from anything other than a higher-ed track.

Again, its not that we havent had plans we have. Some have been good, and somemisconceived. Some have borne fruit at the local level, and the results are impressive. At thestate level, however, the plans have often amounted to endless talk, a diversion of valuableresources and, in the end, a waste of time and missed opportunities.

The prime example is Oregons Educational Act for the 21st Century passed in 1991, with itsCertificate of Initial Mastery (CIM) and Certificate of Advanced Mastery (CAM). After twodecades of meetings, paperwork, debate, deadlines set and delayed, and goals established

and defined down, Oregons Department of Education finally recognized the obvious anddeclared the CIM and CAM dead letters. Its unfortunate that Oregonians had to give so muchto achieve so little.

In the meantime, Oregons failure to keep pace economically and change the way we deliverstate and school services has hurt our schools and universities. The current recession has onlyexacerbated a drop in per-student funding over the past decades. Districts have responded byreducing school days and course offerings, increasing class sizes, and cutting summer schoolor drop-out prevention programs. New curriculum adoptions and efforts to boost studentachievement have been put off. The graduation rate for all students is 84 percent, but forHispanic students it is even lower at 70.5 percent. More alarming is the rate for African-American students, currently at 68.5 percent.2 As the Reset Cabinet reported, Oregon'sstatewide drop-out rate is significant and many individual schools simply are not achieving therobust graduation rates we should expect.

Oregon's K-12 education system is on a path to becoming unable to provide a minimal 180-day calendar, a comprehensive program, and the necessary support structures for teachers toteach and students to learn, the Governors Reset Cabinet noted, pointing out that the mainproblem was that costs are increasing at 13 to 17 percent while annual increases in fundinghave been running at 6 to 9 percent.3 Key parts of these rising costs are increases in laborcosts forced by the Public Employee Retirement System and health care benefit packages,which together are eroding dollars otherwise available for classroom instruction.

In 1990, state support totaled 30 percent of local schools operating budgets. Today, 67percent of our schools operating budgets come from Salem.4 In terms of both governance andaccountability, we continue to act as if its still 1990.

2 National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), Oregon Statewide Report card 2008-20093 Final Report Governors Reset Cabinet, June 2010, p. 434 Final Report Governors Reset Cabinet, June 2010, p. 43


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A more pronounced disinvestment has occurred in higher education over the last two decades.The Governors Reset Cabinet found that per-student state support fell faster in Oregon from1991 to 2007 than in any other state. After adjusting for inflation, Oregons per-student fundingis just over half what it was in 1991.5 The last 20 years have been a story of tuition increasesto make up for cuts in state support.

According to the Reset Cabinet, for the first time in Oregons 151-year history, youngergenerations of Oregonians lack the complete education that the retiring generation received.This is sobering.

(Report to the Reset Cabinet Submitted by Subcommittee on Education Beyond High School, June 2010, p. 11)

Oregon doesnt measure up against other states or its own past. According to Measuring Up2008: The State Report Card for Higher Education, a small proportion of high school studentsscore well on Advanced Placement tests and college entrance exams, and collegeopportunities for young, working age adults are poor. Oregons investment in need-basedfinancial aid is exceedingly low compared to the top-performing states. This isnt just aneducation issue. This is a jobs and incomes problem. Oregons fairly low performance in

5 Report to the Reset Cabinet Submitted by Subcommittee on Education Beyond High School, June 2010, p.3


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educating its young population, the higher education report card warned, could limit thestates access to a competitive workforce and weaken its economy.6

Oregon has done some things right. The needs-based Oregon Opportunity Grant hasincreased affordability for our students, but our struggling economy and the attendant loss of

tax revenues has taken its toll on the program, leaving thousands on waiting lists. And, again,there has been much talk about restructuring the Oregon University System. But talk is cheap.The fact is that Oregon has failed to make fundamental change over the last two decades.

THE KITZHABER RECORD

Oregons failure to keep pace with thenation on education funding results in nosmall measure from its failure to keep pacewith the nation economically. The steadyerosion in Oregonians earning power and

job growth began at the end of JohnKitzhabers first term in office. It has left uswithout sufficient tax revenues to fund ourschools and universities.

Governor Kitzhabers inaction on behalf of the status quo included his failure to do anything toaddress the states mushrooming PERS crisis. He left this massive problem for his successor.His lack of leadership over eight years meant PERS financial liabilities grew bigger and thestates ability to change PERS grew narrower. Our current budget deficit would be much lowerif Kitzhaber had taken action when he had the chance. Districts and their students paid for thisin higher PERS premiums that took dollars out of Oregon classrooms; money for increasedpremiums was money that couldnt go to hire new teachers, textbooks and support services forstruggling students.

Governor Kitzhaber demonstrated no leadership and less interest as education officials,legislators and educators across the state struggled to implement the Oregon Educational Actfor the 21st Century. The result was a colossal waste of talent, time and resources. Nor did hestep forward to ensure that Oregon school districts meet measurable performance goals, sharesupport services to save money for the classroom and create systems to nurture newteachers. He also never pushed to reform the costly way Oregon funds school bustransportation or the archaic teacher certification process that discourages career-changeprofessionals from teaching in Oregon schools. When it came to K-12 policy, the old and tiredways of business were not threatened during Governor Kitzhabers eight-year tenure.

State support for higher education declined during Kitzhabers time in office, but he neverpushed the kind of dramatic restructuring that would have allowed the Oregon UniversitySystem to operate more nimbly in this more challenging environment. The result of hisinaction: OUS was saddled with all of the regulation but little of the funding it had enjoyed in an

6 Measuring Up 2008: The State Report Card for Higher Education, National Center for Public Policy and HigherEducation

In the late 1960s, young Oregonians (25-34years of age) were among the best educated

people in the world. Now, Oregon lags thenation and many countries of the world interms of the education level of Oregonians inthat age category.

- Oregon University System, GovernanceProposal, p. 2


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earlier era. And Oregon students paid for all this inaction in the form of higher tuitions bills andlower aid packages if they even could afford to attend our states colleges and universities.

Kitzhaber himself appears to have no illusions about his unsatisfactory performance oneducation issues over his eight years in office. Asked in April 2009 if Oregons children are

better educated today than they were before he was governor, John Kitzhaber responded, Ingeneral, probably not.7

CHRIS DUDLEYS EDUCATION TRANSFORMATION

The first thing an Oregon governor can do to help our schools and universities is to get Oregonmoving again. More jobs and higher incomes getting our state back to where we were in1996 will generate more tax revenues to fund our kids education at all levels. But theres somuch more that needs to be done to change the way Oregon does education, and it shouldhave been done decades ago.

I havent spent the last decades in Salem reforming or failing to reform education in Oregon.John Kitzhaber went before the Oregon Education Association and said, I know you, and youknow me. I cant say as much. Im not an insider. But I think Oregonians who are worriedabout our kids schooling might as well ask where all this insider activity has gotten us?

Below Ive set forth specific policy proposals to transform Oregon education from pre-kindergarten to college. Here, I want to flesh out my vision of how our schools and universitieswould be governed and what life would be like for Oregons young people under thoseproposals.

Parents should have the choice of where they send their children: the neighborhood school, a

school in another district, a charter school, virtual school or alternative learning environment.Parents would be able to choose the learning environment that meets their childs needs. Andstate education dollars should follow the child, provided the school meets establishedperformance and accountability measures.

We need to change our thinking about teaching and learning and call a truce in our wastefuleducation wars that pit one school of thought against another. Just as hybrid vehicles are animportant solution for our environmental challenges, hybrid thinking taking the best ofdiffering approaches and giving parents and kids real choices will improve our schools. Welive in an age of ever-expanding technologies laptops, handheld devices, wikis, interactiveclassroom tools, open source curricula, teacher-parent communication platforms, video-

sharing, "serious games," social media, and GPS devices that can be deployed in newlearning venues that match an individual students learning style. Full funding of alternativelearning environments, charter and virtual schools is not something we should fight over.Outcomes, not inputs, should be what matters.

7Willamette Weekeditorial board meeting, April 9, 2009


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Furthermore, the performance of our schools should be transparent and easily understood byevery Oregon taxpayer. The current system is a confusing mix of compliance reports that golargely ignored because of their complexity. Grading should be something as simple as A-F,reflecting student progress.

I want all of our kids ready for school upon entering kindergarten. For disadvantagedyoungsters, this would mean access to a preschool or pre-kindergarten program such asOregon Head Start Pre-Kindergarten whose goals line up with the states K-12 expectations.Primary prevention through programs such as Healthy Start and local Relief Nurseries arecritical to maintain. Ideally, all these programs will work in sync with local districts and be co-located at schools, within easy reach of parents.

In Oregon, no child should reach the end of the third grade without being able to read. One-on-one reading tutoring programs based on Oregons SMART program would be available at allschools with disadvantaged populations. Our schools should become full time learningcenters or so-called Community Schools where education continues after school and through

the summer (the third semester), especially for children of low-income parents who cannotafford the enrichment activities other parents can. Vibrant partnerships with communityorganizations, businesses, volunteers and retirees are cost-effective ways to support studentswithout adding costs to taxpayers.

Our kids should go to schools where teachers are treated like true professionals. Schools thatfeature meaningful professional development, peer mentoring and teacher collaboration shouldbe rewarded by the state. Contractual barriers to effective teaching should be a thing of thepast. We can learn so much about how to best support teaching and learning from Oregonsbest teachers and should rely on them to lead the way forward.

We must graduate more students ready for advanced training and college. This requires takinga serious look at the performance of Oregon high schools. We need to re-constitute robustdropout prevention efforts and summer youth employment programs. Many Oregon highschools are focusing attention on the true proficiency of students (knowledge and skills) ratherthan just course credits or passing grades. This allows students to move at their own pacetoward Advanced Placement classes, dual-credit opportunities and advanced career/technicaltraining with state funding following the student. This would blur the bright line between highschool, college and businesses that need high-skilled workers for high-wage technical jobs. Inaddition, we should examine the merits of a high school exit exam that guarantees entranceinto either a community college or university.

Our overall goal should be to end a K-12 system that produces too many drop-outs(particularly among our disadvantaged students) and graduates too many studentsunprepared for college or the work world. That system is not fair to the students or taxpayers,and it hurts Oregons economy.Our high school graduates need to be ready for college, workand the world.

I would like the state of Oregon to provide its high school graduates who have achieved acertain grade point average with an Oregon Future Fund Scholarship to attend our states


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colleges and universities. The Oregon Future Fund Scholarship Program would phase in overtime as we get our states economy moving again and straighten out state government. Thiskind of scholarship program would both boost student performance in our high schools andcontribute to our states economic development all while encouraging our kids to stay inOregon.

All this will require a change in the governance of our K-12, community college and universitysystems. Salem will have to change the way our schools do business. It will have to changethe state funding formula to reward schools that achieve specific measurable results in theclassroom, share support services among districts and establish peer mentoring systems fornew teachers. It will have to add non-negotiable performance goals to the State School Fundformula and benchmark state funds to results.

Oregon elected leaders will have to ensure that local school districts no longer negotiate salaryand compensation increases that will exceed projected state revenue. This may take a newsystem of statewide or regional collective bargaining for teachers. Finally, Salem will need to

rewrite state laws that now restrict charter and virtual schools and revamp our states teachercertification standards to encourage career-change professionals to become teachers.

We must also restructure the Oregon University System to ensure our public universities canattract Oregons best and brightest high school graduates and become turbo-charged enginesof economic growth across the state. This will require OUS and its member institutions to meetprecisely defined performance goals (boosting college graduation rates for Oregonians, job-focused research projects) in exchange for freeing them from legislative and administrativemicromanagement and providing them with predictable long-term funding. The restructuring ofOregons higher-ed system should proceed largely along the lines outlined by the state boardof higher education. Free to succeed should become OUS new watchword with thegovernor and legislature defining and rewarding success for Oregons students and taxpayers.


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THE DUDLEY EDUCATION TRANSFORMATION IN DETAIL

Better Outcomes for Students

1. Ready for School Chris Dudley will make access to quality prekindergarten programs

such as Head Start and Healthy Start a priority so that all our kids are ready to learn bythe time they enter kindergarten.

In Oregon, our early childhood system is a disjointed collection of programs regulatedand governed by a variety of agencies. If you asked most K-12 superintendents what isthe best Oregon investment we could make for our children? the answer would mostoften be early childhood programs. If this is truly the case, we must do much better. Ourtask will be to connect all our early childhood efforts in clear, concrete ways to OregonsK-12 enterprise. As governor, Chris Dudley will work with state agencies, schools andcommunity and business groups to create a true, coordinated and coherent system forour states early childhood efforts. Its critical to Oregons educational and economic

success.

Priority funding would go to programs whose goals line up with the states K-12performance goals and meet accountability measures. Programs that coordinate or co-locate with local elementary school would be rewarded. The goal would be to create acontinuum of care and a learning foundation for disadvantaged pre-schoolers.

An integrated approach to supporting families at the community level is long overdue.Such integrated solutions should include social service providers, workforce investmentboards, school boards, city councils and county commissions. In an era of stressedbudgets, Chris Dudley will strive to maintain investments in Oregon Pre-kindergartenHead Start, Healthy Start, Relief Nurseries and early literacy initiatives that benefitchildren, birth to school age, but hell work to supplement these funds when newrevenues from an improved Oregon economy permit an additional investment. Inexchange, the state must mandate clear outcomes, coordinate governance, integratefinance approaches, data systems and provide quality guarantees.

2. Early Readers: Tested and Tutored Chris Dudley will ensure Oregons kids areproficient in reading by the end of the third grade. Early reading skills are critical to achilds success in school, and were not doing our students any favors by allowing themto move on to the fourth grade without a clear plan to achieve reading proficiency. Thiswill require testing well before the end of the third grade as well as school-basedinterventions to support struggling readers. We know that tutored students are 75percent more proficient than untutored students, and Oregon has a model privateprogram for helping early readers in the Start Making a Reader Today (SMART)program.8

Its time that all elementary schools have a plan to provide paid or volunteer readingtutors and one-on-one support for students who are reading below grade level. The

8 Chalkboard Project 2008-09 Report to Oregonians


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short-term costs of doing so would produce long-term savings, since low-achievingreaders are unlikely to meet state standards later in school. As a result, Chris Dudleybelieves its now time to rewrite the state funding formula to reward districts withSMART or SMART-like programs in their elementary schools.

3. College and Career Ready: Re-focus High School Chris Dudley will push the StateBoard of Education to demand better outcomes and redirect a portion of the stateschool fund to provide incentives to teachers and faculty to ensure that studentscomplete demanding coursework and demonstrate proficiency rather than earn creditsfor just sitting in class. He will also ask the Chancellor of Higher Education, theCommunity College Commissioner and the Superintendent of Public Instruction to crafta blueprint for Oregon that identifies a student-focused roadmap to success andemphasize multiple educational routes to economic prosperity.

If you look closely at Oregons student achievement data you will see most of ourelementary and middle schools are more successful each year. It is Oregon high

schools that struggle to reduce dropout rates, increase graduation rates and preparestudents for the rigor of the global workplace, advanced training and college. To turnthis around, we must set higher expectations for student performance in the high schoolyears. Our state needs to embrace standards and assessments that align withinternational expectations. We should, at a minimum, embrace the new nationalCommon Core Standards and aligned assessments for learning so Oregon canmeasure success in a global context. At the end of high school, we must providemeaningful exit exams that establish that students are ready for the rigor of college andadvanced training.

If all Oregon high school students were ready at graduation for the rigor of collegecoursework, the state would save more than $60 million a year in community collegeremediation costs and lost earnings.9 The state should set performance expectations toincrease participation in dual credit (community colleges, universities) and advancedplacement courses. It should also help students accelerate completion of theirrequirements through greater access to virtual learning.

4. Drop-out Prevention, Job Preparation Chris Dudley believes Oregon students mustbe able to apply their knowledge in a real world setting. Our schools can do no less.Chris Dudley will launch a major dropout prevention initiative to energize Oregonbusiness leaders, city mayors, county commissioners and others to breathe new energyinto efforts to support struggling students.

Chris Dudleys drop-out prevention initiative will include expanding opportunities forwork-based learning, apprenticeships and summer youth employment. It will alsoinclude increasing the number of research-based options for dropout recovery such asearly college and credit recovery programs such as Portland Community Colleges

9 Oregon: The Case to Adopt Common College- and Career-Ready Standards and Assessments, Alliance forExcellent Education, April 2010


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Gateway to College program.10 Our goal must be to increase the number of studentsmoving on to college or career opportunities by reducing achievement gaps and tacklingthe reality that poor, minority, and non-English-speaking students are disproportionatelyrepresented at Oregon's low-achieving schools.

The graduation rate for all Oregon students is 84 percent, but for Hispanic students it iseven lower (70.5 percent) and lower still for African-American students (68.5 percent).11Thats unacceptable. It directly harms Oregons economy. Dropouts are twice as likelyas graduates to be incarcerated and the average working dropout earns $10,000 lessper year than those who graduate.12

Communities across the country are bringing together education, workforce andbusiness leaders to support new or expanded options that move struggling students andout-of-school youth through high school to postsecondary experiences and careerpathways. These highly effective learning environments integrate technology,academics, career and technical education. New schools such as the Architecture

Construction and Engineering (ACE) Academy

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represent creative a partnershipbetween high schools, business and industry.

5. Getting Our Kids Moving and Healthy As a father, former professional athlete andsomeone whos lived with diabetes from the age of 16, Chris Dudley is committed toensuring the health and physical fitness of our young people. Physical education andwellness instruction are essential educational investments that have huge long-termpayoffs. Disinvesting in these school programs is simply short sighted.

It is a painful reality that many children in this country are obese. Right now, about 32percent of children and adolescents today (25 million young people) are obese oroverweight. The direct medical expenses attributable to obesity are estimated in thebillions, to say nothing of the related deaths in adults from heart disease and cancer.Childhood Type 2 Diabetes is on the rise across the country. First Lady Michelle Obamais leading Lets Move initiative, with the goal of reducing the childhood obesity rate to 5percent by 2030.

Chris Dudley and his wife Chris will lead an effort to engage mayors, school andcommunity leaders, health care professionals, youth and recreation leaders to get kidsmoving and making better nutritional choices. He will engage Oregons college andprofessional athletes to raise awareness among parents and kids of the importance ofphysical activity both in school and at home. This epidemic will require creativesolutions. Theyll be guided by the excellent recommendations in "Solving the Problemof Childhood Obesity in a Generation: The White House Task Force on ChildhoodObesity."

10 www.pcc.edu/prepare/head-start/prep/gatewa11 NCES formula 2009 ODE Annual Report Card12 Oregons High School Dropouts: Examining the economic and social costs, Foundation for Educational Choice,March 3, 201013 www.acecharterschool.org


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Chris Dudley knows that many school districts have had to cut back on specialiststeaching physical education. Adequate levels of school funding and new ways ofmanaging education costs will be needed so these programs are not on the choppingblock. As our economy and revenue picture improves, Chris Dudley will push adequateexercise and nutritional instruction as a key component of our kids education. Well

have to be creative. Schools will have to create partnerships with health agencies, parksand recreation districts, 4-H, Boys and Girls Clubs and many other organizationscommitted to youth development. Well have to explore giving school physical educationcredits to kids who participate in extracurricular and afterschool sports programs. Itwont be easy, but it is essential to our kids well being when theyre young and whentheyre adults.

6. The Oregon Future Fund Scholarship Chris Dudley will phase in, over time, ascholarship program that will provide Oregon high school graduates who have achieveda certain grade point average with a four-year scholarship to attend our states collegesand universities. The Oregon Future Fund Scholarship program would be both merit-

and need-based. Oregon high school graduates with a 2.75 to 3.49 grade point averagewould be eligible to receive a full scholarship to one of our public universities or anannual $3,000 scholarship to one of our states private colleges, universitiestechnical/professional programs, based on need. Oregon high school graduates with a3.5 grade point or higher would be eligible for similar scholarships without regard toneed.

The Oregon Future Fund Scholarship Program will complement the restructuring of ouruniversity system, which ties eliminating state micromanagement to OUS meetingperformance goals related to such things as affordability and accessibility. The programwould phase in over time as we get our states economy moving again and our state

finances in order. In addition to the state funds now devoted to four-year scholarships tothe Oregon Opportunity Grant program, some of the funds for this program would comefrom lottery funds that now go to, among other things, K-12 and economic development.Private giving to the Future Fund Scholarship by individuals and business could beencouraged through tax incentives. The scholarships will boost student performance inour high schools, improve post-secondary affordability and access for Oregons highschool graduates and contribute to our states economic development all whilekeeping our kids in Oregon.

Invest in Our Educators Professionalism

7. Recruiting Great Teachers from All Walks of Life Chris Dudley will change teachercertification laws in Oregon to attract the best and brightest individuals from all walks oflife to its classrooms, particularly in mathematics, science and engineering.

He knows first-hand that gifted classroom teachers make the difference betweensuccess and failure for our kids. He also knows that in an increasingly complex world,individuals with different backgrounds, experiences and perspectives will become evercritical to the success of our students.


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Although Oregon has alternate routes for talented individuals to enter teaching, it is oneof only a few states in the nation that requires mid-career professionals to enroll in anapproved teacher preparation program at a university. Most states have found thathaving an alternate pathway into the classroom is an effective way to bring talented and

motivated people into high-needs areas of teaching. In response they have initiatedaggressive programs to attract mid-career professionals and young people into thenation's most challenging learning environments.

Chris Dudley will use the legislative process and his appointments to the TeacherStandards and Practices Commission to open up the path to Oregons classrooms,acknowledging important requirements that define Highly Qualified Teachers.14 He willalso work with the states businesses and national programs such as Teach for Americaand The New Teacher Project to achieve this goal.

8. Investing in Effective Educators Chris Dudley will support dedicated investments

from existing funds to provide mentoring and quality professional development forteachers and education leaders. At a time when we must scrutinize every tax dollar, oneof the smartest investments we can make is to keep highly effective teachers in Oregonclassrooms led by effective administrators. Chalkboard Project research reveals thatnearly 40 percent of Oregon teachers leave the profession within the first five years.This costs $45 million a year,15 not including the harm it does to student learning.

If we want to improve the performance of our students, we need to invest in oureducation workforce. Teachers need dedicated time to work together to review studentperformance data and consider ways to improve classroom instruction.

Oregon districts invested an estimated $130 million in professional development in the2005-06 school year. This is no small sum, and we need to know that it directly benefitsOregon students. Chris Dudley will create an incentive for districts to end professionaldevelopment activities that many teachers themselves find wasteful and useless.Twelve Oregon school districts have proven in pilot projects that this is possible, andChris Dudley will rely on them to lead the way.

9. Test for Student Progress, Pay for Professionalism Chris Dudley will ask districtsto design systems that work best for them, with teachers providing leadership at thetable. Schools have proven that working in a collaborative team approach improvesstudent outcomes.

Research has proven that great teachers make all the difference in student success.We know from the Chalkboard Projects 12-district CLASS initiative that an emphasis onteacher professionalism gets results. Teacher leaders are designing more effectivestrategies for professional development, evaluation, compensation and career

14 Oregon Teachers Standards and Practices Commission, Highly Qualified Teachers FAQ15 CLASS Project, Chalkboard Project, www.chalkboard.org/what-we-do/class


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pathways. Union leaders in these local districts are helping drive reform and setting anexample for their colleagues across the state.

Recruiting and retaining the best teachers will require systems that recognize andreward professional excellence. Such systems need to include opportunities to earn

more pay for effective teaching, but will also need to provide teachers with the feedbackand tools to be their best.

10.Bonus Pay for Turnaround Teachers in Oregons Lowest Performing Schools Chris Dudley wants to encourage Oregons best teachers to take positions in our stateslowest performing schools by eliminating all state income taxes on talented teacherswho are selected as part of a school turnaround initiative. Top educators who teach atthese turnaround schools for five years will not have to pay state taxes over that period.

We all know what a difference a teacher can make in the life of a child and a wholeclass. Yet seniority rules keep our highest-performing teachers from working in our

lowest-performing schools. This tax cut for turnaround teachers will create an incentivefor top educators who are willing to take their proven talents where theyre neededmost. Chris Dudley will work with education leaders in the field to define effectiveteachers and measure their performance so these top-rank professionals are eligible forthis program.

Better Choices

11.Expand Public School Choice Chris Dudley supports open enrollment so thatOregon students can choose the learning environment best suited to their needs. Thiswould allow students to attend schools with available space in other districts. No longer

would the students home district have the only word on where that child can go toschool. This would empower parents to send their child to a school that meets thestudents individual needs or a school that has a curriculum or an instructional approachthat the parents prefer.

12.Expand Charter and Virtual Schools Chris Dudley supports charter and virtualschools as important educational options for Oregon students. He will oppose furtherattempts to limit virtual and charter school options across the state, and will work toensure accountability measures that improve student outcomes. He will work to allowother governmental jurisdictions, such as community colleges, to establish charterschools within a school district.

Unlike other states, Oregon does not provide full funding for charter students. Our lawprovides that districts pay charter schools at least 80 percent of the State SchoolFunds General Purpose Grant for K-8 and at least 95 percent for high schoolstudents. But a study by the Northwest Center for Educational Options found thatcharter school students receive only 55 percent of the public funds that students in


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district public schools receive and that funding levels vary dramatically by district. 16 Atthe very least, students in Oregon charter schools should receive no less than currentlaw stipulates.

Accountability That Makes Dollars and Sense

13.An Appointed Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Dudley believes that it istime to make the superintendent accountable to the governor. He will work to makeOregons Superintendent of Public Instruction an appointed rather than elected office.He will lead a broad coalition of education interest groups that are frustrated with thelack of accountability in the current system. Oregons governor and superintendent ofpublic instruction need to be on the same page. If not, our states schools will continueto be without clear direction and leadership.

14.Making the Grade Chris Dudley will revamp the current grading system for Oregonschools so that parents can understand how their local school and any state-funded

school measures up. The new system will be a simple as A through F.

Oregons current evaluation system is confusing in the extreme. Its pointless to giveparents the right to choose their childs school if they dont have a clear andunderstandable way to evaluate schools. It is currently possible to designate a schoolas exceptional under the Oregon accountability system, yet that same school could beidentified as failing according to No Child Left Behind.

15.Shared Service Dollars for Classrooms Chris Dudley will create incentives underthe state funding formula for Oregons smaller districts to share services (technologyservices, fiscal services and overall administrative functions) and use those savings to

bolster classroom services. In our wired world, geography is no longer destiny when itcomes to contracting or consolidating some services. A more efficient provider might bea mouse click away when it comes to, say, doing payroll.

A recent Chalkboard/High Desert ESD study by ECONorthwest identified savings of$275,000 that could be achieved within 18 to 24 months by the regionalization of theRedmond, Sisters and Crook County Districts fiscal services alone. The savings wouldcome through reduced staffing levels, combined systems and expenses as well aseconomies of scale.

Oregon should also follow other states (Florida, Texas, Virginia) that have established

formal processes to help districts identify cost savings, management improvements andbest practices from across their state and the nation. This constant improvementprocess will see that of our tax dollars make it to the classroom where they can do themost good.

16 New Charter School Funding Studies,Northwest Center for Educational Options,http://www.nwceo.org/data.php


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Finally, other states Maine, Vermont, Arkansas, Indiana and New Jersey haveconducted statewide reviews of optimal district size. Chris Dudley will commission sucha review so that any discussion of consolidation is based more on facts than fears.

16.Transportation Dollars for Classrooms Chris Dudley will overhaul the way we fund

school transportation in Oregon. The current matching-grant system for schooltransportation creates a disincentive to control transportation costs. Why worry aboutyour costs when Salem is going to match 70 to 90 percent of your total transportationcosts? Giving districts a block grant predicated on greater efficiencies a fixedappropriation would end this disincentive to save on school transportation. Creatingan even greater incentive to save could be achieved by allowing the district to putadditional savings over the biennium into classroom enhancement projects.

17.Control Total Compensation Costs: Statewide or Regional Collective BargainingChris Dudley will bring our public schools total compensation costs in line with growth inour states revenues and the general labor markets total compensation costs.

The Reset Cabinet recently projected that public-sector compensation costs will rise 13percent, twice the private-sector increase, and concluded, The payroll costs of schoolemployees account for more than twice the payroll costs of the states own workforce inthe states general fund budget. Controlling the labor costs of the state workforce whileignoring the labor costs of the schools workforce will not achieve the savings needed toovercome future deficits nor will it meet any reasonable test of fairness for balancingresources between the two groups. 17

This is all the more reason to look at a workforces total compensation costs. Doing sowill require a change in the state school funding formula, stipulations in school funding

appropriations bills, the establishment of a statewide salary schedule in the allocationprocess or a move to statewide or regional collective bargaining of teacher contracts.

Oregon can no longer leave local school boards and superintendents at the mercy ofunion pressure to provide increases in wages and benefits when state revenues cannotkeep up. If school districts are pressured to commit more than the state general fundcan support, the only choices they have are to lay off employees, cut programs anddays or increase class sizes. In early 2008, for example, many districts lockedthemselves into significant cost-of-living and step increases, and then the economydeteriorated.

Governor Kulongoskis Reset Cabinet couldnt be clearer about this: Future increasesin the costs of pay and benefits for state and school employees should be aligned withthe rate of increase in the total compensation of employees in the statewide (public andprivate) labor market. This alignment will reduce the cost increases that are nowexpected to be a major contributor to the decade of deficits ahead of us.

17 Final Report Governors Reset Cabinet, June 2010, p. 71


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18.Fewer Mandates, Greater Results: Restructuring the Oregon University System Chris Dudley will implement a restructuring of the Oregon University System. Our publicuniversities need to be given both predictability of funding and freedom from excessiveregulation and legislative micromanagement in exchange for delivering measurableoutcomes such as graduation rates, access and affordability and research tied to

Oregon jobs and economic development.

While our community colleges receive about half of their funding and our stateuniversities receive a little less than a third of their funding from Salem, our communitycolleges are not hobbled by the same administrative requirements and legislativebudget notes that hamstring OUS and its member institutions. The legislature does notlimit community colleges tuitions, grab the interest community colleges earn fromstudent tuition collections, require them to receive its blessing to spend these earningsor risk having these monies spent on other state programs or require them to come hatin hand to the legislature for permission to spend non-state funds on their projects. Butour public universities must endure all this and more, and it ends up costing them, their

students and, ultimately, Oregon taxpayers.

The Oregon University System spends more than other state systems for such things asemployee benefits plans as well as property and liability insurance even other stateshigher-ed systems that receive more taxpayer support.18 One state-commissioned studyconcluded that OUS ended up spending $12 million a year to insure other stateagencies workers. It was also estimated that OUS inability to purchase its own propertyand liability insurance cost the system an extra $2 million a year and this does notinclude the costs racked up in layers of state bureaucracy and paperwork that thecurrent arrangement imposes on OUS and its institutions. Those are costs that studentsand their families inevitably pay in higher tuition bills. The current systems bureaucratic

and legislative maze has also prevented our universities from responding quickly toopportunities to purchase properties and make other sound investments.19

We must end Salems administrative and legislative micromanagement of ouruniversities in exchange for OUS and its member institutions meeting clearly definedperformance objectives. The state would provide our public universities predictablefunding and the freedom to succeed. OUS would produce the agreed-upon number ofOregon-bred college graduates and innovative research that will help the state thriveeducationally and economically. Its a good deal for Oregon, and Chris Dudley willsupport it through appointments and the budget process.

18 OUS Governance Proposal, Oregon University System board, July 201019 OUS Governance Proposal, Oregon University System board, July 2010

oregon’s comeback: an 18 point plan - educating for our economic future

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