News Parents at a meeting at Rigler on K-8s in 2008. Dozens of concerned parents and community members filled the auditorium at Rigler K-8 School in the Cully neighborhood Wednesday night for a meeting to discuss overcrowding at Rigler -- or the “injustice of inadequate space,” as some called it. Years ago, before Rigler started its conversion from an elementary school to a K-8 in 2006, ...   More

News The busy state of Portland Public Schools' high-school redesign and teacher contract negotiations bring this omnibus update, in advance of tonight's School Board meeting: • Parents in the Grant High School cluster met last week to organize against Grant's possible closure as a neighborhood school. Between 200-300 people attended the meeting, which included entertainment from Grant's Royal ...   More

News Two weeks ago, The Oregonian published an informative article about Portland Public Schools' high-school redesign. The redesign has been in the making for two years but has yet to produce any definitive answers about the future of Portland's schools. Taking PPS' own public statements at face value, Oregonian education reporter Kimberly Melton conducted an analysis to show which of the district's ...   More

News Portland Public Schools board member Trudy Sargent just sent out this email to report that the school district has told a state mediator that its negotiations with the teachers union have reached an impasse. The 3,200-member Portland Association of Teachers has been working without a new contract for more than 19 months, and obviously has been unhappy over that state of affairs. Negotiations ...   More

News A few bits of news about the high-school redesign emerged at last night's Portland School Board meeting, and if it weren't for -- wait for it -- School Board Member David Wynde, nobody in the room would have acknowledged that news. Here's the shocker (or non-shocker, depending on how cynical you are): The school district might "carve out an exception" to its proposed ban on neighborhood-to-neighborhood ...   More

News PPS Equity beat us to following up on a tip from yesterday that Portland Public Schools' top administrators are at the Oregon coast for a three-day retreat. Teachers, meantime, are pounding the pavement for the Yes on Measures 66 and 67 campaign, according to the Portland Association of Teachers union. A private donor gave a cash donation to cover the $400-a-night beach house for administrators, ...   More

News The Oregon Department of Education has released its latest assessment [PDF] of Portland Public Schools' program for teaching English to immigrant and refugee students. The findings, which follow a 2009 audit of PPS's department for English-language instruction, are mixed. The state found PPS had corrected some failings but still fell behind in other regards. For example, the state says English-language ...   More

News Mayor Sam Adams met Sunday with a few Grant High School parents who are concerned about Portland Public Schools' high-school redesign. Technically speaking, the mayor has absolutely no control over Portland Public Schools. (Then again, neither does Bill Gates, and he's managed to exert plenty of influence at Jefferson, Roosevelt, Madison and Marshall High in recent years.) Two days after the ...   More

News One goal of Portland Public Schools' high-school redesign -- increasing the socio-economic diversity of its schools -- is meeting opposition in Wake County, N.C. The New York Times has an interesting story today about the Wake County school district's busing policy and fresh attempts by new board members to challenge it. "The board is scheduled to vote Tuesday on whether to support the creation ...   More

News After almost two years of negotiations that twice erupted in protests from teachers, the Portland Association of Teachers union and the Portland School Board have voted to approve a new three-year contract for teachers. The union, which represents more than 3,000 Portland teachers and guidance counselors, ratified the agreement by secret ballot Friday night; the School Board voted "yes" to the agreement ...   More