Sept 2000

Larry Sears, PGE Quality in Education Program
E-Mail: larry_sears@pgn.com

The Portsmouth Middle School is successfully using the Baldrige Criteria to improve academic achievement, thanks to a principal with a never-give-up attitude and a partnership with Portland General Electric.

"We were going to do whatever it took," said Principal Tom Pickett, noting he had been exploring various management approaches for the past seven years and decided on the Baldrige Criteria because it was "data-driven and customer-focused." Two years ago Pickett learned about PGE’s education outreach program, Initiative for Quality In Education (IQE), and signed on. Critical to his success has been a staff with a vision to match his own.

BACKGROUND: "Baldrige" provides educators and their business and community partners with a framework to transform their education system so that it has the capacity to meet ever increasing expectations for student performance.

PGE offers help to any school district in Oregon; Portsmouth was the first to enroll. Concepts are based on the Baldrige Criteria -- and if this sounds familiar, OSBA featured this method at its Summer Board Conference, which drew rave reviews and a request for more assistance using this method.

"The summer workshop was hugely successful, so OSBA will continue helping districts learn more about the approach," said Leadership Director Jim Carnes, "We’re proud to highlight a school that has succeeded in using it."

The Baldrige Criteria is a new "customer-driven" approach to managing a system – such as a school or business – that focuses on measurable results. For details check out this site:

• National Institute of Standards and Technology

WHAT THEY DID: Staff receive training in how to analyze (self-assessment) where they are and where they want to be -- then, how to get there. Performance is driven by data, not just tradition or assumptions.

At Portsmouth, staff wanted students to perform better in school. They were lagging behind in language arts and math. So, how to get "there" from "here?" Start with reading proficiency, since data shows that if students can’t read, other school performance suffers.

What resulted was a system-wide change in how Pickett and his staff run the school and allocate resources to focus first on reading proficiency . . . and later in math proficiency. "We ended up breaking the bones of our system with a focus on doing whatever it takes to improve reading, even if that meant we didn’t participate in district-sponsored inservice programs. Instead, we would focus on securing training on how to help our teachers teach reading."

When Portsmouth staff realized their students’ reading skills were low, they started with putting students through blocks of basic instruction -- which is not the usual approach in middle school since students are to have mastered basic reading proficiency in elementary school. And, because one of Portland Public Schools’ missions is to help all students improve (e.g., an objective is "100 percent of students will demonstrate significant growth every year toward achieving rigorous academic expectations") Portsmouth tied their approach into the district’s strategic plan by evaluating how all students read, not just the low-performers -- and, to help them all grow in reading proficiency.

RESULTS: As an example of Portsmouth’s success, here are some scores:

• 1999 writing: 48 percent of students met state standards, but in 2000, 67 percent met standards.
• 1999 math problem solving: 40 percent met state standards, but in 2000, 52 percent met standards.

A strong focus has been on helping teachers become more proficient – and on teachers being the driving force behind evaluating what works, what doesn’t, how to measure progress and how to improve based on those measurements. After all, they (and their students) are the customers in this system, Pickett notes.

HELP FROM PGE: All schools are eligible for PGE assistance; about a dozen are involved now. Sears will conduct one of OSBA’s Saturday breakfast Hot Topic Tables at the 2000 Annual Convention. When a school partners with PGE for Baldrige, teachers volunteer to receive a two-day training; PGE is also creating a six-credit graduate level course on the Baldrige Criteria for administrators and teachers.