GoBigEd

Thursday, May 26, 2005


PRIVATE FOUNDATIONS IN OREGON TEAM UP FOR A GREAT PROJECT

(Go Big Ed is reporting on developments in K-12 education in other states this week.)

A friend of a friend is heading up an interesting and inspiring nonprofit organization, Foundations for a Better Oregon. The goal is to find out what citizens of Oregon want from their public schools, and then set a course of action to deliver it.

Come see:
www.chalkboardproject.org

Five private, nonprofit foundations are collaborating with resources to put this project together. It requires only one paid staff member, the executive director, who works with a board made up of one trustee from each of the five foundations. There’s a professional polling and research firm helping out with the 18-month information-gathering phase, which is now wrapping up.

That phase has identified five key desires of the public for Oregon’s K-12 schools. These are very likely identical to what Nebraskans would pinpoint:

Parental involvement
Quality educators
Good readers
Budget accountability
Funding stability

The organization uses verbiage I love: to help inform the public about education issues so that they can “address the tough choices and trade-offs required to build quality schools,” and the intent to “raise the noise level” so that more people with diverse perspectives are involved and contributing.

The formal recommendations are due out soon. Go Big Ed will report back on the Chalkboard Project to see how Nebraskans might think . . . not to mix metaphors . . . take a page from that chalkboard.

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Go Big Ed will resume Tuesday, May 31. Happy Memorial Day!

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