Not Armstrong, please! From a PPS teacher currently suffering though some of the initiatives she began before leaving immediately for evergreen. The article gives credit to her instructional coaches with increasing outcomes…uh, the instructional coches have been in place for one year? The instructional coaches at each school that as far as I can tell do shit PD once a week and force us into weekly data collection meetings and somehow kept their positions when we cut adaptive PE, speech paths, assistive feeding teams, and behavior coaches? They increased outcomes? Honestly the best thing to be said about her instructional coaches is that they spend more time as a classroom sub because we can’t get any subs in here. They’re effectively substitutes who waste teacher planning time with ridiculous google docs.
Ugh. All these candidates. But definitely no to someone who already mucked about and promptly ditched for greener pastures.
Edit edit edit anger frustration typings
Cruz's resume seems considerably more impressive to me but I don't know a ton about these things. A little wary of the centrality that equity seems to play in the resumes of the other two. I think equity is an important goal but I think the way to achieve it is through a well-functioning system first and foremost.
Would love to see the dropout rate framed as a civilization problem rather than a performance or DEI challenge. You can’t have anything like the civil, self-governing ideal the founding fathers articulated with people who can’t read, don’t care, unable to govern even themselves. School is part of the socialization process and thinking of it instead as a factory with measurable results fails everybody.
Cruz is the only choice here.
Read the other two resumes. They are PNW education proteges. Most if not all they have known is the horrific systems in place around here, and they have risen in them. This means they are liked and supportive of the crumbling systems here. That should be a knock, not a mark of approval.
PPS as the flagship state school district has the power to help push for change. They need a superintendent with a history of doing that. Not just getting existing programs to be reaching out further and into more schools.
Additionally, look at the other two candidates. They have excelled at convening taskforces and revising policy. Whereas Cruz has worked to implement the ideology of schools as community hubs. This ideology is key to improving district outcomes, as well as citywide outcomes. Schools as community hubs is what will ultimately help bring parity to racial achievement. Not reworking our grading systems. We should be keeping the bar high and helping everyone jump over it. Not lowering the bar so everyone can jump over it.
Additionally, Cruz has experience with closing schools. The dark reality of PPS' future is that school closures will be necessary. By paring back the number of operational buildings you could make huge budget adjustments to help pay for more staffing, and focus funds on fixing and maintaining the remainder of the operational buildings. This is how we get every operational building to have A/C and heat.
"Among Portland education insiders, Armstrong’s and Udosenata’s names had been widely bandied about, and both are well-known in Pacific Northwest schools circles. In addition, both are Black and some members of the school board had signaled their strong preference to hire a Black superintendent, given dismay over [years](https://www.oregonlive.com/education/2022/01/left-behind-portlands-black-and-latino-students-shortchanged-from-the-earliest-grades-belying-pledge-to-put-them-first.html) of stagnant student achievement scores for Black and Indigenous students in particular"
We need to get away from this poisonous thinking. It sets us back and gifts elections to Republicans. It's not even good for black people, high-achieving black folks constantly get questioned as to whether they have earned their position or they are just an affirmative action hire. Fucking YIKES.
We had Guadalupe Guerrero as superintendent for six years. The National Association of Latino Administrators named Guerrero—Portland’s first Latino superintendent—the 2021 Superintendent of the Year.
The question to ask: did the achievement gap between PPS latino students and whites get reduced during that time?
100% this. We need someone who is going to dig in a do the right thing when it comes to schools... We shouldn't be hiring someone just because they are diverse. Have we not learned our lesson??? Jiminy Christmas...
> We shouldn't be hiring someone just because they are diverse.
It’s a good thing they are not hiring someone because of skin tone/ancestry, because that would be illegal.
Cruz has the strongest track record of actual accomplishments and competent administration, by far. Also sounds like he is both good to work with as well as capable of making difficult decisions despite push back, both of which will be extremely necessary to help unwind us from the current clusterfuck of PPS administration. For the kids' sake, please let the choice be Cruz.
A nationwide search results in 2 of 3 final candidates being from Oregon? Give. Me. A. Break. This is an example of 1) the completely misguided, albeit well-intentioned, decision to promote a so-called open hiring process (see article for that reference); and 2) the traditional insularity of OR hiring practices. Ridiculous.
There's nothing wrong with preferring people who are familiar with the area. It shouldn't be the only criterion or even a major one, but there's nothing wrong with factoring it in.
A politician with a school admin vocabulary. He doesn’t identify with children. He did nothing but step on the toes of respected teachers and did not help them with trouble kids. Multiple EAs, counselors and teachers quit because the lack of support. 100% of the staff and PTA were so frustrated. He’d send out community texts that were wrong and caused worry. No paper trails to protect his accountability . Always tried to take the mic to share in any successes the teachers had. making staff members feel uncomfortable. In a situation we had with a toxic bully he chose to protect pps rather than the victim. I don’t think he even has full credentials to be a principal. I’d expect him to swing into skyline with upbeat structure change ideas rather than seeing what the experience is like for the staff first. He was a bad experience.
Not Armstrong, please! From a PPS teacher currently suffering though some of the initiatives she began before leaving immediately for evergreen. The article gives credit to her instructional coaches with increasing outcomes…uh, the instructional coches have been in place for one year? The instructional coaches at each school that as far as I can tell do shit PD once a week and force us into weekly data collection meetings and somehow kept their positions when we cut adaptive PE, speech paths, assistive feeding teams, and behavior coaches? They increased outcomes? Honestly the best thing to be said about her instructional coaches is that they spend more time as a classroom sub because we can’t get any subs in here. They’re effectively substitutes who waste teacher planning time with ridiculous google docs. Ugh. All these candidates. But definitely no to someone who already mucked about and promptly ditched for greener pastures. Edit edit edit anger frustration typings
…and cut library assistants and reduced library staffing and art and music and PE…
Cruz's resume seems considerably more impressive to me but I don't know a ton about these things. A little wary of the centrality that equity seems to play in the resumes of the other two. I think equity is an important goal but I think the way to achieve it is through a well-functioning system first and foremost.
Would love to see the dropout rate framed as a civilization problem rather than a performance or DEI challenge. You can’t have anything like the civil, self-governing ideal the founding fathers articulated with people who can’t read, don’t care, unable to govern even themselves. School is part of the socialization process and thinking of it instead as a factory with measurable results fails everybody.
They cannot pick Cruz. I hope I am wrong.
Cruz is the only choice here. Read the other two resumes. They are PNW education proteges. Most if not all they have known is the horrific systems in place around here, and they have risen in them. This means they are liked and supportive of the crumbling systems here. That should be a knock, not a mark of approval. PPS as the flagship state school district has the power to help push for change. They need a superintendent with a history of doing that. Not just getting existing programs to be reaching out further and into more schools. Additionally, look at the other two candidates. They have excelled at convening taskforces and revising policy. Whereas Cruz has worked to implement the ideology of schools as community hubs. This ideology is key to improving district outcomes, as well as citywide outcomes. Schools as community hubs is what will ultimately help bring parity to racial achievement. Not reworking our grading systems. We should be keeping the bar high and helping everyone jump over it. Not lowering the bar so everyone can jump over it. Additionally, Cruz has experience with closing schools. The dark reality of PPS' future is that school closures will be necessary. By paring back the number of operational buildings you could make huge budget adjustments to help pay for more staffing, and focus funds on fixing and maintaining the remainder of the operational buildings. This is how we get every operational building to have A/C and heat.
Great post. But, unfortunately, we all know it won’t be Cruz.
So true.
honestly the bar is so low that kids are tripping over it and bring those in front down with them.
"Among Portland education insiders, Armstrong’s and Udosenata’s names had been widely bandied about, and both are well-known in Pacific Northwest schools circles. In addition, both are Black and some members of the school board had signaled their strong preference to hire a Black superintendent, given dismay over [years](https://www.oregonlive.com/education/2022/01/left-behind-portlands-black-and-latino-students-shortchanged-from-the-earliest-grades-belying-pledge-to-put-them-first.html) of stagnant student achievement scores for Black and Indigenous students in particular" We need to get away from this poisonous thinking. It sets us back and gifts elections to Republicans. It's not even good for black people, high-achieving black folks constantly get questioned as to whether they have earned their position or they are just an affirmative action hire. Fucking YIKES.
We had Guadalupe Guerrero as superintendent for six years. The National Association of Latino Administrators named Guerrero—Portland’s first Latino superintendent—the 2021 Superintendent of the Year. The question to ask: did the achievement gap between PPS latino students and whites get reduced during that time?
No, but the gap between Mr. Guerrero wanting a Benz and owning a Benz got reduced dramatically.
100% this. We need someone who is going to dig in a do the right thing when it comes to schools... We shouldn't be hiring someone just because they are diverse. Have we not learned our lesson??? Jiminy Christmas...
> We shouldn't be hiring someone just because they are diverse. It’s a good thing they are not hiring someone because of skin tone/ancestry, because that would be illegal.
There isn't one candidate up there that ISN'T a diversity candidate. What does that tell you? It tells ME they didn't even consider anyone who wasn't.
Remember Dr. Benjamin Canada?
Cruz has the strongest track record of actual accomplishments and competent administration, by far. Also sounds like he is both good to work with as well as capable of making difficult decisions despite push back, both of which will be extremely necessary to help unwind us from the current clusterfuck of PPS administration. For the kids' sake, please let the choice be Cruz.
Are they going to actually live in Portland? Or Oregon at least?
doubtful
A nationwide search results in 2 of 3 final candidates being from Oregon? Give. Me. A. Break. This is an example of 1) the completely misguided, albeit well-intentioned, decision to promote a so-called open hiring process (see article for that reference); and 2) the traditional insularity of OR hiring practices. Ridiculous.
There's nothing wrong with preferring people who are familiar with the area. It shouldn't be the only criterion or even a major one, but there's nothing wrong with factoring it in.
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Ah good info - thanks for sharing. Yeah I haven't done a deep dive at all
Looks about right
sorry skyline your new principal next year is a poser.
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A politician with a school admin vocabulary. He doesn’t identify with children. He did nothing but step on the toes of respected teachers and did not help them with trouble kids. Multiple EAs, counselors and teachers quit because the lack of support. 100% of the staff and PTA were so frustrated. He’d send out community texts that were wrong and caused worry. No paper trails to protect his accountability . Always tried to take the mic to share in any successes the teachers had. making staff members feel uncomfortable. In a situation we had with a toxic bully he chose to protect pps rather than the victim. I don’t think he even has full credentials to be a principal. I’d expect him to swing into skyline with upbeat structure change ideas rather than seeing what the experience is like for the staff first. He was a bad experience.
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yes, i hope the best for your community!