PORTLAND, Ore. — Portland Public Schools has made some progress implementing changes to address inequities in the district's high-poverty schools but there is still "substantial work to be done," the Oregon Secretary of State's office said in a follow-up report released Wednesday.
A 2019 audit found a significant achievement gap between white students and students who were African-American, Latino or economically disadvantaged. For example, 21% of Black students met or exceeded standards for language arts compared to 74% of white students.
The audit identified high turnover, low teacher experience, frequent teacher absences and a disconnect between teachers and administrators as factors contributing to the inequities. It also included concerns that PPS was careless in monitoring its spending.
The audit report gave the district 15 recommendations for improving students' performance at struggling schools.
On Wednesday, three years after the audit, Secretary of State Shemia Fagan's office and the Oregon Audits Division released a follow-up report on the district's progress. The report says PPS has fully implemented two of the 15 recommendations included in the audit, and the other 13 were only partially implemented.
READ FULL REPORT: Follow-up to 2019 audit of PPS
Fagan spoke to the media about the report Wednesday morning. She started by acknowledging the challenge PPS and other districts have faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Teachers have had incredibly unique challenges and shifts in their work," Fagan said. "As a single mom to a public schools student, I know personally that students and families have faced unique challenges and changes to every aspect of their day-to-day experience of learning. School administrators have had unique challenges and been asked to manage through so much uncertainty."
Fagan said while she understands the pandemic delayed the district's ability to act on some of the recommendations from the 2019 audit, she encouraged the district to prioritize full implementation of the audit's recommendations.
"The district's prioritization of racial equity is important and must be highlighted," Fagan said. "Because of the district's priority for racial equity, the district should take immediate steps to implement the remaining recommendations of this audit."
In a joint statement, Amy Kohnstamm, chair of the PPS School Board Audit Committee and PPS Chief of Staff Jonathan Garcia said while the district "made significant progress" on the recommendations set forth by the Secretary of State's office in 2019, they agree that there's more to do.
"PPS still has substantial work to do to improve results for Black, Indigenous and Students of Color (BIPOC)," Kohnstamm and Garcia said. "The School Board and Senior Leadership of PPS–the majority of whom are people of color–strive every day to undo these unacceptable realities."
One of the fully implemented recommendations from the 2019 audit was to develop a common core curriculum for schools and ensure adequate training for teachers, particularly for those who are new or inexperienced. The other was to improve controls over spending, such as requiring management to review "non-standard and high-dollar transactions" and to improve policy guidance for certain types of spending.
"The district's efforts to improve support for high-poverty schools is commendable," Fagan said. "They've added training, student and family support, and staff, such as counselors and assistant principals."
In a news release, the secretary of state's office said PPS "made significant progress" in other areas as well, including "developing a strategic plan focused on equity, improving contract management, and increasing investment in teacher professional development."
Other recommendations from the 2019 audit — things like setting concrete performance measures for students, improving instructional quality, and maintaining a consistent feedback loop between teachers, educational assistants and parents — were only partially implemented.
During Wednesday's media availability, Fagan put the spotlight on several key issues that the district still needs to address.
"This is a call to action," Fagan said. "Despite high principal turnover, the district is not yet detailing or publicly discussing turnover, teacher experience or initiative overload at high-poverty schools."
The follow-up report says despite the improvement, there's still a long way to go to address inequity in the district.
"Despite the very real and understandable challenges facing schools today, we all must do better for Oregon kids right now," Fagan said.
Kohnstamm and Garcia said the district is dedicated to continued progress.
"Our work on the issues identified predate this audit, and continues under the leadership of Superintendent [Guadalupe] Guerrero and the School Board," Kohnstamm and Garcia said. "Complex and deeply entrenched racist systems will take strategic and deliberate action to dismantle, guided by our unapologetic and relentless commitment to lifting up positive learning experiences for our BIPOC students.
"This work is deeply personal for us, too," they continued. "Superintendent Guerrero, Chair [Michelle] DePass and the majority of our PPS senior leadership have dedicated their entire careers to lifting up the experience of Black and Brown students, in part because they, too, went through an American education system that was not designed for them to succeed. We look forward to the progress ahead."
Read the entire text of PPS' statement at the bottom of this article.
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Below is the full text of the statement from PPS:
Today, the Oregon Secretary of State's Office released a set of follow-up recommendations from its 2019 audit to Portland Public Schools (PPS) and the PPS Board of Education.
We appreciate the Oregon Audits Division for sharing its thoughts on the issues facing PPS. We agree: PPS still has substantial work to do to improve results for Black, Indigenous and Students of Color (BIPOC). The School Board and Senior Leadership of PPS–the majority of whom are people of color–strive every day to undo these unacceptable realities. We are motivated to create a more positive counter narrative, precisely because the historical record in American public education is so dismal for students of color. This has been our senior leadership team’s commitment from day one at PPS.
Despite the significant impacts of the global pandemic, which disrupted school operations and exacerbated the racial inequalities in our society, PPS made significant progress on 13 of the 15 recommendations made by the Secretary of State’s Office in 2019, having fully implemented the additional two. We appreciate today’s report acknowledging the challenges of the pandemic and the significant progress that has been made.
This includes significant progress to:
- Improve support for high-poverty schools, adding training, student and family supports, and additional staff including counselors and assistant principals.
- Prioritize decision making through a racial equity lens, evidenced by an increased investment in instructional staff development at schools serving a large number of students of color.
- Develop a multi-year strategic plan, improved budget transparency, and improved purchasing card management and contract management.
Since 2019, PPS has worked with the state auditors, providing regular updates on progress. Our work on the issues identified predate this audit, and continues under the leadership of Superintendent Guerrero and the School Board. Complex and deeply entrenched racist systems will take strategic and deliberate action to dismantle, guided by our unapologetic and relentless commitment to lifting up positive learning experiences for our BIPOC students. PPS will be guided by our community’s vision for our graduates, striving to make school a joyful and rich learning environment for every student.
Lastly, we remain undeterred. Secretary Fagan’s statement is right, this work is deeply personal for us, too. Superintendent Guerrero, Chair DePass and the majority of our PPS senior leadership have dedicated their entire careers to lifting up the experience of Black and Brown students, in part because they, too, went through an American education system that was not designed for them to succeed.
We look forward to the progress ahead and, as our School Board Chair and Vice Chair shared last month, "We invite the critics and supporters among us to join this effort."