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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