M Artin l uther K ing J r .
January 16, 2019
2019 special edition
INSIDE
The
Week in Review
C ALENDAR
O PINION
Page 3
This page
Sponsored by:
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page 27
pages 28-29
Rigler Elementary School in northeast Portland has endured high teacher turn around
rates, a pattern that takes a toll on efforts to reduce the achievement gap between white
and African American students, according to a new audit of Portland Public Schools from
Oregon’s Secretary of State Dennis Richardson.
Blistering Schools Audit
District hit on
achievement
gap, fiscal order
page 31
A new audit of Portland Pub-
lic Schools from Oregon’s Sec-
retary of State Dennis Rich-
ardson revealed a staggering
achievement gap in the district
where African American stu-
dents dramatically underper-
form their white counterparts,
and where money is spent with
little strategy or accountability.
The audit, released Jan. 9,
determined there is a 53 per-
cent achievement gap between
white and African-American
M ETRO
students in Oregon’s largest
school district versus the 29
percent state achievement gap
average.
A number of financial is-
sues were cited in the report,
including an insufficient over-
sight of contracts. The audit
also determined that teachers
at high-poverty schools had
an average of one month of
absences per year, they had a
high turn-over rate, and that
hiring rules gave high-poverty
schools fewer qualified teach-
ers to choose from than wealth-
ier schools.
The audit cited Rigler El-
ementary School, located at
5401 N.E. Prescott St., which
has endured four new princi-
pals in the last five years and
had some of the lowest scores
for state assessments.
Over the past four years, de-
spite overall third-grade read-
ing and writing test scores hav-
ing improved slightly across
the district, academic results
for African-American and eco-
nomically disadvantaged stu-
dents have fallen in that same
period, the audit found. All of
this, despite Portland Public
Schools having more fund-
ing-per-student than any other
district in the state.
State Sen. Jackie Winters,
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Security Shoots Man Outside Bar
Marks second
deadly incident
in months
pages 30-33
Arts &
ENTERTAINMENT
C LASSIFIEDS
pages 34
Authorities said a man died
after being shot by a security
guard outside a southeast Port-
land strip club early Tuesday
after a confrontation erupted be-
tween two men and the security
guard. The name of the victim
was withheld pending notifica-
tion of his next of kin.
Portland Police Officers re-
sponded to the incident when
a report of the disturbance and
shooting at the Dream On Sa-
loon, located at 15920 S.E.
Stark St., came in around 2:30
a.m.
A 911 caller reported that a
man had been shot by a private
security guard. It happened af-
ter the two men had approached
the security guard in the parking
lot where a disturbance ensued,
police said.
The injured man was discov-
ered nearby after fleeing, police
said. He was provided emer-
gency first aid and transported
by ambulance to a hospital, but
C ontinueD on p age 18