In the Fall of 2000, the Portland Public School District and the Portland Schools Foundation combined grant funds from the U.S. Office of Education and The Carnegie Foundation to begin the work of increasing achievement in the ten comprehensive high schools and two alternative schools. During this first year of active reform work we focused on asking questions and gathering data about our student performance. We visited sites around the country and invited noted scholars to our schools. Among our first conversations we talked with the following: Tony Wagner, Harvard; Bill Ayers, University of Illinois; Small Schools Workshop; and Rick Lear, University of Washington. These conversations spawned many of the changes that we see today.
Although the funding for high school reform was limited to Portland Schools Foundation until the Fall of 2003, each high school continued to seek new and better ways to meet student needs and to decrease the drop-out rate. With the receipt of a U.S. Office of Education Grant for Small Learning Communities for 2003-2005, we were able to accelerate our progress. During the 2003-2004 school year, all ten high schools developed and implemented initiatives to personalize and customize the educational experience for students. Among the most dramatic changes were the three high schools that developed small autonomous schools on the campus where the former comprehensive high schools had resided. They are Roosevelt, Marshall and Jefferson. These small schools will begin full scale implementation in September 2004. These small school sites can be located by using the name of the former comprehensive program. Websites for each of these schools can be visited by clicking on the links under the section called "Schools" on the main page of this website. All Portland Public high schools have taken on the system wide challenge of collaboratively working for the improvement of all schools and thus all students.
The office of high school reform is currently staffed by Lynne George, Director, and Christina Rilatt, secretary. 503.916.6580.
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