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Audit Reveals Alarming Problems at Portland Public Schools
State of Oregon ^ | 01/11/2019 | DENNIS RICHARDSON

Posted on 01/11/2019 6:39:10 PM PST by aquila48

Portland Public Schools (PPS) has an unacceptably high achievement gap of 53% between white and African-American students. This gap is far worse than the state average. There are also troubling gaps in student achievement for students who are Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, Hispanic/Latino, or economically disadvantaged.

My team’s recent audit of PPS revealed a system that is grossly underserving low-income students and students of color. This is not acceptable in Portland, or anywhere. Every Oregonian should be alarmed and angered by these findings. Our kids deserve better.

High Funding But Low Results

Despite higher funding and lower poverty rates than most peer districts, management challenges at PPS and an inconsistent focus on performance are hurting students and teachers. Achievement gaps can mean that underserved students are years behind their peers in learning.

PPS has more funding per student than all Oregon peer districts, with $2,000+ per student more than each of the next 11 largest districts. PPS also has more funding than many national peer districts, along with equal or lower poverty rates than most state and national peer districts.

PPS is doing better than the state average at helping wealthy and middle-class white students succeed, as well as students with disabilities. However, low-income students and students of color are significantly worse off.

As we found in a statewide audit last year, high school graduation rates remain low, with worse outcomes for low-income students and students of color. While PPS should be applauded for recent small increases in graduation rates, there is far more work to do.

.......

Despite relatively high funding, PPS is spending a smaller percentage on instruction than many of their peer districts. So, where is the money going?

(Excerpt) Read more at content.govdelivery.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: education; oregon; portland; race
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To: aquila48

The Bell Curve is a great read. Well done with lots of data support.


41 posted on 01/11/2019 8:46:06 PM PST by stubernx98 (cranky, but reasonable)
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To: jonascord

This past summer, a high school girl (white, probably a Junior) was manning the deli in the local supermarket, I asked her for four ounces of roast beef. She stood there completely dumbfounded, so I asked her “What’s wrong?” She replied “We only sell roast beef by the pound.”

I thought to myself “This is going to be fun.”

I asked her how many ounces are in a pound. She didn’t know. I told her 16 and asked her what fraction of 16 ounces was 4 ounces.

I might as well have been asking my dog. I gave up and ordered a quarter pound of roast beef.

That really drove home how screwed we are as a nation.


42 posted on 01/11/2019 8:51:48 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: aquila48
My guess is the gap is unusually high (compared to for example Chicago) because in Portland upper middle class white people send their kids to public school.

This is easily "fixed".

43 posted on 01/11/2019 9:00:59 PM PST by Salman (Democrats. The other religion of peace.)
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To: aquila48
Facts:
Oregon is 1.9% Black... 4.0% Asian... 7.5% mixed race...

Portland is 2.9% Black... 5.9% Asian... 9.0% mixed race...

And it ain't the Asians that are part of the achievement gap.

44 posted on 01/11/2019 9:17:21 PM PST by Teacher317 (We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men)
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To: Teacher317

“And it ain’t the Asians that are part of the achievement gap.”

Well, they are... but on the other side of the gap.


45 posted on 01/11/2019 9:19:08 PM PST by aquila48
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To: onedoug

make some ex military drill sergeants principles allow the firing for no cause of the teachers then toss out the kids who choose not to participate witch to my guess is about 20 percent of the students and you will see things improve for the kids over time.


46 posted on 01/11/2019 9:26:12 PM PST by PCPOET7
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To: aquila48

Why aren’t they trying to catch up? Oh - the school wants the achievers to become more stupid. /s


47 posted on 01/11/2019 9:59:22 PM PST by DennisR (Look around - God gives numerous, indisputable clues that He does, indeed, exist.)
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To: aquila48

an achievement gap doesn’t automatically mean there is an ‘underserved’ problem. Children who are encouraged through social pressure to reject western values will also reject western education. Those who understand western values recognize that western education is a requisite to success.


48 posted on 01/11/2019 10:11:00 PM PST by blueplum ( "...this moment is your moment: it belongs to you... " President Donald J. Trump, Jan 20, 2017)
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To: DennisR

“Oh - the school wants the achievers to become more stupid.”

2081 isn’t that far away...

http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/harrison.html


49 posted on 01/11/2019 10:31:57 PM PST by aquila48
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To: aquila48

Mark Kruger, captain of the Portland Police Bureau’s drugs and vice division, says, “We have a massive problem.” “We’re seizing larger quantities of methamphetamine and heroin and cocaine in Portland, Oregon than we have historically ever seized.” Kruger has been with the police bureau for 23 years. Oregon has the sixth-worst overall drug problem in the U.S and the fourth-highest percentage of teenage drug users nationwide.

Perhaps the black culture in Portland has devolved into a drug culture. For the black teen, academics is a low priority when wealth can be made selling drugs. This causes a drug problem in the black community that affects the mental capacity to learn in their youth. Drugs destroy the cognitive functions of the mind at ages when the mind is most vulnerable. A black youth is more inclined to sell drugs making great income than to burden their minds with the complex thinking challenges of the school.

“Until we can stop the flow of drugs across the border coming in here,” Kruger said, “it’s going to be a very difficult problem to fix.”


50 posted on 01/12/2019 12:43:20 AM PST by jonrick46 (Cultural Marxism is the cult of the Left waiting for the Mothership.)
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To: PCPOET7

End it.


51 posted on 01/12/2019 1:57:25 AM PST by onedoug
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To: sparklite2

“Voting is a white thing, too, but that doesn’t seem to stop them.”

I listened in on a couple of blacks at the gym talking about voting for Obama. One said, “They come by and pick you up at the door. You get lunch.”

If it weren’t for the extra effort made by the Democrats to get blacks to the precinct house many probably wouldn’t vote.


52 posted on 01/12/2019 3:47:44 AM PST by Gen.Blather
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To: aquila48

Leftist run the system, by their own standards this PROVES that THEY are racists.


53 posted on 01/12/2019 4:14:31 AM PST by TalBlack (It's hard to shoot people when they are shooting back at you...)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

Similarly, we were interviewing a kid to do grunt work at our shop. Tbe other 3 guys seemed to think he was ok; I did not. So, I asked him what one-third of one-half was. He had no idea, and didn’t even seem embarrassed by that. We didn’t hire him.


54 posted on 01/12/2019 4:33:20 AM PST by Trailerpark Badass (There should be a whole lot more going on than throwing bleach, said one woman.)
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To: hanamizu

Yes, you are correct. It is not the color of skin. It’s the attitude/culture/upbringing that makes the difference. But it’s something that cannot be said out loud.


55 posted on 01/12/2019 4:58:30 AM PST by Flavious_Maximus
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To: aquila48

I wonder if there’s also a gap between the students in White or Black teachers’ classes...


56 posted on 01/12/2019 6:26:35 AM PST by trebb (Don't howl about illegal leeches while not donating to FR - it's hypocritical.)
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To: aquila48

The system is not under serving, the students are under working

Laziness is not remedied by a system


57 posted on 01/12/2019 6:29:52 AM PST by bert ( (KE. N.P. N.C. +12) Princess Gray Beaver, for President?)
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To: aquila48

btt


58 posted on 01/12/2019 6:30:25 AM PST by KSCITYBOY (The media is corrupt)
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To: aquila48

Teacher of 30 years. You would NOT believe what I see. I’m an inner city teacher...and like real estate, it’s all about location location location. Suburban schools, smaller town schools function at a high level, it’s only when the “masses” start to move in that you get problems. At my school, everyone passes. You can be absent in excess of 40-60 or more days and still graduate/pass????? We don’t count tardies, there is no discipline, woe be to the teacher who fails more than your quota of 2 or 3 students. But even in the chaos, many students do the best they can, it’s always that 13% that bring everyone else down.


59 posted on 01/12/2019 6:37:30 AM PST by krug
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To: aquila48

When you have a Democrat/Socialist-induced culture that perpetuates hopeless victimhood, as well as criticism for anyone trying to exhibit self-discipline and a desire for education as “actin’ White”, no amount of “serving” is going to make a difference.

LBJ and his “Great Society” has succeeded in destroying the Black Family and established the new “Plantation” for their “Economic and Societal Slaves”.


60 posted on 01/12/2019 7:40:16 AM PST by Redleg Duke (Disarming Liberals...Real Common Sense Gun Control!)
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