Officer Mourned
New College Leader
A police officer is shot
and killed while
responding to a fire
Jeremy Brown takes
reigns at Portland
Community College
See Local News, page 2
See page 4
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VolumeXLIII
'City of Roses'
Number 43
....... ___________________
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • November 6, 2013
Model School
by D onovan M. S mith
T he P ortland O bserver
Self Enhancement Academy is taking its bows after the
middle school serving local African American kids was named
a “model school” by the Oregon Board of Education.
The north Portland school’s education coach, Linda Harris,
said she felt elation when the scorecard was announced last
month.
“I know that the principal and the teachers have worked
really hard, especially over the last two years. So for us, it was
just a lot of our successes and accomplishments coming to the
floor because of all the hard work and diligence that’s been put
into that process,” Harris said.
Self Enhancement, Inc. founder Tony Hopson, the school’s
president and chief executive officer, said earning the high
marks only magnifies what he was long aware of, that African-
American kids can excel and compete educationally in a cultur­
ally specific learning institution.
In the case of SEI, it boils down to what people at the school
call ‘the right who’.
“In this particular case, you’ve got the appropriate leader­
ship,” Hopson said. “You’ve got the appropriate education
coach, who has years of experience that she can share. And
you’ve got teachers who are committed and dedicated to kids
who don’t have low expectations, but have high expectations.”
One of the major components for SEI Academy, a charter
school operated with oversight from the Portland School
District, is the school’s attention to children and families
outside of the traditional school setting. SEI takes a “big
picture” approach to learning, for example, by linking itself with
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SEI Academy earns high
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social services and parent coordinators who follow students
home to evaluate the quality of their living conditions.
Hopson said the school “looks at the challenges that many
of our kids show up to school with, the environment that they
come from, whether or not they have parents that ever went to
school, or had bad experiences, or are from single parent
households. You know, all of those ills in society that can
impact many of our kids.”
SEI reports that a staggering 70 percent of its incoming
students come to the school testing drastically behind grade
level, the very students most likely to later drop out of high
school if there is no intervention.
SEI Academy Principal Andre Goodlow said that all of his
continued
photo by D onovan
on page 4
M. S mith /T he P ortland O bserver
S e/f Enhancement Academy celebrates being named a ‘model school' for its innovative services addressing the unique challenges facing underserved, mostly African-
American students. Pictured at the north Portland charter school are Principal Andre Goodlow (center) and students (from left) Elijah Crawford, Jacob Willingham Titus
Green, and Elijah Winston.