Oregon’s bad grade sparks scrutiny of professional development

Usually, nothing gets the attention of Oregon policymakers quite so fast as getting a big, fat “F” on a national report card. So, it was par for the course when Republican lawmakers in Salem pounced recently on a national survey done by the research center affiliated with Education Week, the well-respected weekly newspaper, that assigned a “F” to Oregon over teacher licensing, preparation, training and evaluation.

To address that, a bill is being pushed to set aside $400,000 in public money to create an oversight commission, to track and promote the best professional development opportunities for teachers. But the effort has encountered some pushback, including questions about whether the survey made implicit value judgments, favoring state-imposed mandates on how money should be spent over Oregon’s time-honored tradition of local control for each of its 198 school districts. Read more at OregonLive.com