P age 3
T he P ortland O bserver • D ecember 29, 1993
State Awards Teacher
Training Grants
Around The Educational Scene I
by P rof . M c K inley B urt
Last week, at the end o f m y arrie le
on the Pro-Sports Machine and black
high school students, I promised fu
ture comment on, “ Oregon’ s H igher
Ed System tocorrelate w ith high school
curriculum ” . I was not able to get back
as much comment from the education
fraternity as wished - but, perhaps,
later. Anyw ay, there is this so far,
sim ply as a matter o f intent.
Norm a Paulus, state superinten-
dentof education acknowledges “ these
steps taken by higher education” ap
parently taken after much “ goading” .
The reference is to the “ admissions
project” designed by the state board
which has developed a list o f w hat
students m u st'kn o w ’ in order to enter
college. New requirements (1998) w ill
not take into account 'courses taken’ .
That w ill be interesting.
M r. David Reinhard, Associate
Editor o f the Oregonian, recently had
some interesting comments on “ Chap
ter I ” the federal education program
for “ raising the academic skills o f the
nations disadvantaged school c h il
dren” . W hile la m not at a ll supportive
o f his intim ations that the program
was an expensive and gigantic failure,
he does have a point or two.
In no way can one take 1991 and
1992 test results (reading and math)
and extrapolate such a supposed
“ evaluation” to a longitudinal cntique
o f Lyndon Johnson’ s Great Society”
program. As one interested enough to
interact w ith schools, teachers, par
ents and pupils in inner cities during
critica l periods o f chapter I programs,
1 can attest quite positively to many
concrete educational gains. You need
to have been present at both the be
fore and after’ . And to remember the
'g rou nd zero’ debacle.
The somewhat m ixed decline in
1991 and 1992 test scores say much
more about the fa ll out from worsen
ing socio-economic conditions than
about Chapter I failures. Certainly,
during the 1970s and 1980s I was able
to fin d some marked improvements in
the educational delivery system for
Ragsdale's Metro
Executive Campaign
Headquarters Opens
Mike Ragsdale
The M ike Ragsdale for M etro
Executive campaign has opened its
headquarters in the historic Centen
nial B uilding at 206 SW M orrison in
downtown Portland. Situated at the
S W 2nd and M orrison avc. Max stop,
the campaign office is geographically
central to the M etro district and easily
accessible to residents who want to
predom inately A fric a n A m erican
schools - personal experience in New
Y ork, Chicago, Washington, D.C.,
on their supposed mandate - to prop
erly educate the children.
It is w ithin this context only that
I said M r Reinhards “ deficiencies” [in
the chapter I program] were really
“ marked improvements in most areas
o f a long neglected system” . In other
words we are saying “ it was better
than the nothing that preceded it” , as
sad a commentary as that is on those
who professed themselves to be “ pro
fessionals” at every opportunity and
on a media that was so late in raising
an alarm. More 'variations on the
Portland and several other cities.
Where as M r Reinhard sees such
th in g s as “ ina de qu a tely tra in e d
teacher’ s aides, low expectations and
deficient materials” as the prime in
gredients o f a pedagogical disaster
(alleged), those o f us in the trenches
recognized that many o f the deficien
cies” were really marked improve
ments in most areas o f a long ne
glected system (“ ground zero” ).
Here, I can speak directly to a Theme’ next week.
Can anyone help me to identify
disturbing situation encountered dur
ing my administrative jobs in industry the very committed high school teacher
— especially from 1955to 1971.Many who informed a member o f the Port
o f us in the same or sim ilar circum land Opera chorus the other Sunday
stances discovered what had floored that their “ Peasant Chorus from Eu
the Catholic priest who wrote, “ W hy gene Oregon” sparked an intent to
Johnny Can’ t Read” ; the reason the apprise her classes that it was adapted
personnel o ffice was sending us both from a novel written by Alexander
high school and some college gradu Pushkin, the great A frican poet who
ates who could not read w rite or count transformed Russian letters. She had
decently was that many urban school acopy o f an observer article I wrote on
districts had utterly failed to deliver the subject.
City Seeks
People With An
International
Inclination
w ill use much o f its grant for computer
training. M ike Taylor, principal o f the
school, said Ontario has a computer in
every classroom, but not all teachers
are trained to operate them. “ This
Oregon’ s school reform program.
Retraining is the top priority o f grant w ill give us a real opportunity to
the school reform program this bien do some serious staff development,”
nium. The funds were appropriated by he said.
A ll schools which received grants
the 1993 Legislature.
The goal o f the school reform act, have site councils - including teach
passed by the 1991 Legislature, is to ers, other employees and parents -
produce the best educated citizens in which steer local improvement ef
the nation by the year 2000 and a work forts. The grants, which run from
force equal to any in the world by the S3,000 to $70,000, w ill be used during
an 18-month period beginning in Janu
year 2010.
A total o f S6.2 m illio n in state
grants has been awarded to 342 schools
to help train teachers and other school
employees in the various elements o f
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“ T o do this,” said State School ary.
The recipients were selected from
Supt Norma Paulus, “ we must invest
in retraining teachers for it is they who 465 applicants. Grants cover 41 per
cent o f Oregon’ s schools and 333 o f
w ill make the difference.”
Paulus said the average age o f an the 36 counties.
“ O ur grant w ill provide training
Oregon teacher is 41. “ What we know
about teaching has grown dramati fo r school and community representa
cally in the last 20 years,” said Paulus, tives on our site council to work effec
“ yet we haven’t given teachers the tive ly together to make sound deci
tim e and other resources to make sions for kids,” said Kathleen Hering,
principal o f Calapooia M iddle School
needed changes.”
*•'.
* .
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in Albany.
For instance, Ontario High School
Denise Richardson Wants To Communicate
With Americans Of All Colors
(T V Correspondent Says Fear
Often Kept Her From F ully Experi
The C ity o f Vancouver is seeking encing Life U ntil She Bungee-Jumped
stop in and learn about the campaign. _ applicants to serve on the newly-cre W h ile on A s s ig n m e n t in N ew
“ W e wanted a location the was ated International A ffa irs C om m is
Zealand)
central, accessible and visible,” said
“ When you fly up front, you’ ve
sion.
Ragsdale. “ M etro has been the invis- '
T his nine-m em ber board w ill always got to be ready to go back and
iblc government and M etro races have serve in an advisory capacity to city fly c o a c h ,” d e clare d D enise
had little media coverage in the past.” council on matters relating to interna
Richardson, who, as the first black
Ragsdale went on to say, “ I hope that tional activities and events and w ill
woman to be featured on one o f the
the region’ s news media w ill make serve as a clearinghouse for inform a
daily network m orning shows, wants
the com m itm ent to bring greater at tion and w ill raise citizen awareness to communicate w ith all Americans.
tention to this critica l race which w ill about events in the area. It w ill exam
“ Despite my color, your color,
directly affect so many people.”
ine pertinent issues and make recom we have much more in common than
M etro is the regional govern mendations to C ity Council fo r con we have differences,” Richardson told
ment that serves over one m illio n t r i sideration. The main goal o f the C om
PARADE Contributing Editor James
county residents. The 1992 voter-ap mission is to encourage and support Brady, who interviewed her for this
proved charter calls for Metro to de international activities in the com m u
Sunday’ s issue o f the magazine. “ As
v e lo p and im p le m e n t a c o m p re nity and to expand educational ben a child, I watched T V and didn t sec
h e n s iv e , r e g io n -w id e , 5 0 -y e a r efits by encouraging citizen participa anyone who looked 1 ike me. Now I do.
g ro w th m anagem ent p la n . T he tion.
Sure, I ’d like my own show one day,
n ext E x e cu tive O ffic e r w ill lead
Interested applicants should con but now I simply love what I’m doing.”
tact M arie D ay, in the M ayo r’ s O ffice,
th is e ffo rt.
She added, “ m orning anchor
Candidate M ike Ragsdale is an at 696-8211 or (F A X ) 696-8049, for
spots arc a little frightening because
independent business man who served an application. Completed applica
in the slate legislature in both the tions must be submitted to Vancouver
House and Senate. He also spent four C ity H all, PO Box 1995, Vancouver,
years on the M etro C ouncil-tw o o f W A 98668-1995, by Tuesday, Feb. 1,
those years as presiding officer.
1994
A m e ric a ,” p a r tly fro m
fe a r,
Richardson said that when she was
asked to reconsider she told her former
boss at “ Good Day New Y o rk.” “ I
want to see i f 1 can play w ith the big
kids.’
Fear has often held Richardson
back from doing things, which is why
she surprised herself by bungee-jump
ing when G M A was in New Zealand.
“ I had to do it,” she said. "Y o u know,
I ’ ve been afraid o f so many things in
my life , and that held me back. I ’ m
very shy. I can work a room i f I ’ m sent
there on a job but not i f I ’ m there as a
guest So when the network proposed
talking on fo ur challenges fo r a fea
ture—white-water rafting, jet-speed
Denise Richardson
tl c> remove you from real people. I
don’ t ever want to be distanced from
real people. Explaining that she first
turned down her job as correspondent
fo r A B C -T V ’ s “ G ood M o rn in g
boating, a chopper ride in the m oun
tains and bungee as the culm ination-
-I went for it. M y whole career had
been New Y o rk, a hometown g irl
from the South Bronx. I knew I had to
break out.”
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