TEAM UP Oregon

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TEAM UPOregon
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TEAM UP Partners

• Chalkboard Project
• Confederation of Oregon School Administrators
  (COSA)
• Oregon Department of Education (ODE)
• Oregon Education Association (OEA)
• Oregon PTA
• Oregon School Boards Association (OSBA)
• Oregon School Employees Association (OSEA)

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TEAM UP Objective

• The key to improving public perception of Oregon
  schools is to
• Actively engage internal audiences in planning
  and communication of positive messages about
  public schools
• (teachers, classified employees,
  administrators, school board members, involved
  parents)

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TEAM UP Strategies

• Help internal audiences understand
• Their influence as messengers about Oregons
  public schools
• The impact of negative messages, as compared to
  the power of positive messages

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TEAM UP Strategies

• And
• The benefits of planned, consistent, collective
  messaging
• The facts about school success, and the research
  about public perception and effective messages

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TEAM UP Action Plan

• As a TEAM UP district, we will TEAM UP to create
  an annual communications plan

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7Quick Questions
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Question 1

• How was school today?

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Question 2

• Can you please tell me one good thing about your
  school?

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Questions 3

• How do you rate student and school performance
  in our district?
• A1. Very good
• A2. Somewhat good
• A3. Fair
• A4. Poor

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Questions 4

• How do you rate student and school performance
  in Oregon?
• A1. Very good
• A2. Somewhat good
• A3. Fair
• A4. Poor

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Questions 5

• How important is parent involvement to student
  and school success?
• A1. Essential
• A2. Very important
• A3. Somewhat important
• A4. Not very important

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Questions 6

• How important is community involvement to
  student and school success?
• A1. Essential
• A2. Very important
• A3. Somewhat important
• A4. Not very important

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Questions 7

• What percentage of school budgets is spent on
  central administration in Oregon?
• A1. 33
• A2. 24
• A3. 16
• A4. 9
• A5. 3
• As defined by Chalkboard Project. School
  district superintendents office, including all
  support staff and associated costs. All salaries
  and benefits, as well as associated costs, for
  all administrators/managers located off-site from
  a school building.

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Public Perceptionof K-12 Education
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What Oregonians want to know

• Oregonians want to know
• Schools and students are succeeding
• Parents are contributing to school success

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What Oregonians want to know

• Communities are involved in schools, and students
  are involved in community service
• Districts are spending money wisely in ways
  that maximize teaching and learning

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School success lost on Oregonians

• Heres what Oregonians believe about student and
  school success
• Fewer than half (45) rate the states public
  schools as very or somewhat good (62 when rating
  local schools)
• Almost half (46) of Oregonians think schools set
  expectations too low for students, and more than
  half say a high school diploma does not mean
  students are ready for college or work

Source 2004 Chalkboard Project survey
Source 2004 Employers for Educational Excellence
survey
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but schools are succeeding

• State test scores continue to improve
• students meeting or exceeding benchmarks
• 3rd 5th 8th 10th
• Math 1998 67 61 50 32
• Math 2006 86 85 65 45
• 3rd 5th 8th 10th
• Reading 1998 78 66 55 48
• Reading 2006 87 83 66 55

Source Oregon Department of Education
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and succeeding

• Oregons national (NAEP) math test scores
  continued to climb in 2005
• of students at or above standard
• Math 1996 Math 2005
• 4th Grade 65 80
• Math 1990 Math 2005
• 8th Grade 62 72
• Oregon scores at 4th 8th grades exceed NAEP
  averages in math and reading

Source National Assessment of Educational
Progress, U.S. Department of Education, National
Center for Education Statistics
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and succeeding

• 2006 SAT Scores
• Verbal Math Combined
• Oregon 523 529 1052
• Nation 503 518 1021
• Oregon ranks 2nd among the 23 states that had
  at least 50 of high school graduates take test

Source College Board, 2005
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• Oregonians want to believe their schools are
  succeeding.
• They want to invest in success, not failure.
• Question So why are Oregonians hesitant to
  invest more in their schools?

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Why?

• Answer Oregonians arent hearing our
  remarkable success story
• Oregon schools and students are performing at
  unprecedented, high levels despite more that 15
  years of difficult budget circumstances.
• Just imagine what we could do with adequate
  funding!

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Parent involvement

• Oregonians believe parent involvement is critical
  to success of students and to generate support
  for schools
• 83 say lack of parental involvement is the
  biggest obstacle to student success even bigger
  than money/spending concerns and 80 say parent
  support for teaching and learning is essential

Source 2004 Chalkboard Project survey
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Community involvement matters

• OSBA Tangible Triumphs project finds that
  Oregonians opinions about schools improve when
  we use these messages
• Studies prove that schools do better when
  parents and other adults are involved.
• Well-educated students are essential to our
  economic and civic health teachers and schools
  cant do this job on their own.

Source 2004 Employers for Educational Excellence
survey
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Community involvement matters

• Students learn best when they have the chance
  to apply their lessons to real-life problems
  through internships and other experiences in the
  community.
• Kids who are active in school are less likely
  to engage in crime or get in trouble.

Source 2004 Employers for Educational Excellence
survey
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Perceptions of school spending

• Oregonians two biggest school funding concerns
• 1) Reducing administrative costs
• 2) Schools not spending wisely
• 70 believe central administration waste and
  inefficiency is big obstacle to school success

Source 2005 Stand for Children survey
Source 2004 Chalkboard Project survey
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Perceptions of school spending

• Oregonians think 34 of district budgets are
  spent on central administration
  (educators/parents think its 16)

Sources 2005 Citizens for Oregons Future survey
2005 COSA data, Bringing Oregons Education
Community Together
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http//www.chalkboardproject.org/openbook1.php
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Small Group Exercise
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Small group exercise

• Develop a list of local school examples that
  illustrate one of the following messages
• Schools and students are succeeding, academic
  standards are high, and schools are preparing
  students for college and the workforce
• Parents are contributing to school success
• Communities are involved in schools, and students
  are involved in community service

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Our Perceptionsof Schools
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What do our folks want?

• We want all of us to work together more
  effectively
• We want positive public relations and marketing
  for schools, and to be armed with positive
  messages and success stories to tell
• We want better knowledge about school budgets
• Teachers, classified employees, administrators,
  school board members, involved parents

Source 2005 COSA data, Bringing Oregons
Education Community Together
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Working together

• 90 of educators and parents say its very
  important that a broad-based coalition of school
  groups team up both in Salem and in local
  communities to work together on funding and
  other education issues
• More than 90 believe it is vital to have a
  united voice, with both the legislature and the
  public, to overcome negative perceptions about
  schools

Source 2005 COSA data, Bringing Oregons
Education Community Together
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Better knowledge of budgets

• 35 of non-administrators would rate their
  districts spending choices as so-so or poor
• Almost half couldnt think of instances in which
  they were happy with how their district spent
  money
• Biggest gripes were high administrator
  salaries, too many administrators and not
  spending enough money to explain how money is
  spent and allocated

Source 2005 COSA data, Bringing Oregons
Education Community Together
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TEAM UP Focusis on us
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Why TEAM UP focus is on us

• 46 of Oregonians are unable to identify anything
  positive about their local school
• 36 percent say it has been more than a year or
  that they have never heard from their local
  school district

Source 2004 Employers for Educational Excellence
survey
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Why TEAM UP focus is on us

• Nearly half of all messages coming from staff
  about schools are
• NEGATIVE

Source Banach, Banach and Cassidy national data,
2000-2004
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Report Back7 Quick Questions
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7 Quick Questions Answered

1. How was school today?
2. Can you please tell me one good thing about your
   school?
3. Rate student performance in your district.
4. Rate student performance in Oregon.
5. How important to student success is parental
   involvement?
6. How important to school/student success is
   community involvement?
7. What percentage of school budgets is spent on
   central administration?

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Where do we gofrom here?
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If your district decides to TEAM UP

• Get the TEAM UP Playbook (www.cosa.k12.or.us)
• Please let us know. TEAM UP Oregon partners
  are happy to help.

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Team UpOregon