A coalition of Central Oregon school districts, led by Bend-La Pine Schools and Oregon State University-Cascades Campus, will receive half a million dollars over the next two years after missing out on similar funding in August.

Earlier in the year, Bend-La Pine and OSU-Cascades worked with the High Desert Education Service District, Sisters School District, Crook County School District and Central Oregon Community College on a proposal aimed at winning a three-year TeachOregon grant from the Portland-based Chalkboard Project. It was worth up to $690,000.

TeachOregon is focused on better matching teacher preparation programs to the needs of school districts and students.

Three projects west of the Cascades were awarded full funding, while the Central Oregon team received a $25,000 “bridge grant” to maintain its planning.

But now the Oregon Education Investment Board and the Oregon Department of Education have directed $233,600 toward Central Oregon for the current academic year. The majority of the money comes from House Bill 3233, which established the $46 million Network of Quality Teaching and Learning, aimed at training teachers and administrators.

In 2014-15 school year, the districts will receive an additional $267,600. There is no guaranteed third-year funding, but OEIB has indicated to project leaders that it intends to fund the project’s third and final year.

“We were ecstatic when word reached us that we would receive the money,” said Carolyn Platt, OSU-Cascades Teacher Education Lead and the university’s TeachOregon leader. “The three projects that already have funding had a track record of this work. But we’re new in terms of devising pilots and mentoring programs for novice teachers.”

Vindication

Lora Nordquist, Bend-La Pine’s assistant superintendent for primary education, added, “We’re all thrilled because we always thought we had a really good proposal, and that Central Oregon was unique because of our history of collaboration. But this is still very vindicating.”

State administrators said that Central Oregon’s unsuccessful TeachOregon proposal aligned with the goals set forth by HB 3233.

“OEIB and ODE recognized that the design work engaged in by the partnership from Central Oregon all last year had resulted in a high level of readiness for the type of partnership envisioned for Network funds,” Kristin Gimbel, the communications director for Oregon’s chief education officer, said in an email.

The TeachOregon projects focus on four areas — recruitment and selection of future educators, improving the clinical experience of student teachers, fostering more inclusive and effective hiring and placement practices and strengthening mentoring and induction programs for new teachers.

According to the Chalkboard Project, by 2020 Oregon will need to hire 16,400 teachers, a number equal to one-third of the state’s current teacher workforce. Meanwhile, one-third of Oregon students are minorities, and the rate among teachers is less than 10 percent. TeachOregon is aimed at addressing these challenges by strengthening collaboration between teacher education programs and districts.

Some of the core features include extended clinical experiences for teacher candidates and programs that encourage K-12 students to pursue education careers.

The districts also hoped to provide master teachers — those who mentor student teachers — with stipends to support their additional responsibility. But that will have to wait until 2014-15 due to the project’s late start.

“Unfortunately, we’re too far into the school year now to redo our master teacher agreements,” said Bruce Abernethy, Bend-La Pine’s grant writer. “They will receive small, mostly symbolic stipends this year. But this was originally an opportunity to compensate them more fully and to ask them to go through more training. We weren’t just going to pay them for what they were already doing. But the additional money will kick in next year.”

In addition to supporting master teachers, Platt said the money will be used to grow their numbers.

Developing the pool

“The goal is to develop a substantial pool of teachers who have gone through professional development and become master teachers,” she said. “But not all will be (hosting student teachers); some may choose to be instructional leaders — and there could be other categories.”

Nordquist said that Central Oregon’s focus on promoting not only new teachers but existing teachers is what sets the project apart from others.

“Our model focuses on a lot of side-by-side professional development for all teachers, with a real focus on elevating the entire profession,” she said.

Recipients

The three projects to received original funding from the Chalkboard Project are the Salem-Keizer School District in partnership with Western Oregon University; Willamette University and Corban University; Springfield Public Schools in partnership with Lane Community College; Pacific University and University of Oregon; and the David Douglas School District, North Clackamas School District and Portland Public Schools in partnership with Portland State University.

OEIB and ODE are funding another project led by the Tillamook, Newberg, Sherwood and Woodburn school districts in partnership with George Fox and Pacific universities; and Chemeketa and Tillamook community colleges.

“The three projects that already have funding had a track record of this work, but we’re new in terms of devising pilots and mentoring programs for novice teachers.”

—Carolyn Platt, OSU-Cascades teacher education lead