As we welcomed teachers, near peer mentors, parent leaders, students, and staff into the new school year it was a humbling reminder of our shared humanity and values. The past three years have challenged all of us at new levels, and compelled many of us to reach toward each other in the hopes that our collaboration, creativity, and deepened commitment to fortifying the values we espouse in our work will transform our educational spaces in the ways we all need -- staff, students, and families. GEAR UP is a federal funding resource for a greater purpose -- mobilizing a community of like-minded individuals across roles, backgrounds, education, experience, neighborhoods, and skills to Engage, Empower, and Elevate the voices and needs of those most impacted by the decisions of our educational system. The set of practices you will learn more about in this newsletter reflect deeply held values about the power of community -- bringing together families, students, and educators for the shared purpose of improving all of our lives through education. This requires an endless amount of curiousity, courage, and commitment. Join us.
~ Angela Nusom,
GEAR UP Project Director
Assistant Director of College & Career Readiness
They work closely with high school teachers who are implementing the following classroom-based interventions. Each are aligned with the Educator Essentials and Instructional Framework focus on integrating culturally affirming, deeply engaging, grade level/ standards aligned, and data-driven instruction, and reflect our commitment to the research-based Developmental Practices (see link for details) that promote youth voice and readiness.
- Near-Peer Mentors (NPM);
- Parent Teacher Home Visits (PTHV);
- Parent Learning Walks (PLW); and
- Youth Voice Data for Continuous Improvement
On any given day you can find our TOSA/Instructional Coaches meeting with teachers for individual coaching, visiting classrooms to learn more about the learning environment, co-facilitating instruction, joining a team meeting to review student data and share culturally responsive strategies, conducting observations to highlight teacher practices, advocating for teachers and students, accompanying a teacher on a home visit with families, supporting Partner Teacher and Near Peer Mentor collaboration, or leading professional development. TOSAs organize their time around promoting and building capacity around strategies that integrate the district vision, Educator Essentials, and Instructional Framework in order realize the our collective belief that classrooms can and must provide nurturing environments, enriched experiences, and positive relationships for all students. In future newsletters we will share more examples of how the TOSA/Instructional Coach and Partner Teacher relationship builds capacity and inspiration for the work.
Imagine the vibrancy of a room full of educators, college student alum of their schools, parent leaders, and district program staff all learning, leading, teambuilding, and planning together!
For four consecutive days in August, an energetic, passionate, determined team of nearly 60 Partner Teachers, Near Peer Mentors, Parent Organizers, and program staff gathered together in a Community of Practice to learn more about each other, collaborate around plans to create nurturing, productive, community-driven classrooms, and to center the HEART work of education. Through a series of interactive, relational activities, participants learned about the history of PPS’s GEAR UP program model, took a deep dive into strategies that leverage youth voice to inform instruction, and engaged in multiple planning sessions across roles to think strategically about how to transform the district vision and instructional framework into daily action in their classrooms.
Participants described how this work aligns with their values and experiences as educators, commenting that “I want my classes to be collaborative and engaging learning spaces and I think GEAR UP strategies will help me further those goals” and “this work aligns with my values of student-centered, culturally responsive, and meaningful relationships being the foundation of a classroom.” One participant highlighted their excitement about Near Peer Mentors saying “learning should be focused on the student first and foremost, so having a peer mentor in the classroom allows for a level of collaboration between student and teacher that is otherwise not possible.”
Participants also reported being excited to get a “new generation of students to fall in love with learning” and voiced that “being able to have a multi-tiered support system where I feel like my voice matters and where I can prioritize student needs and interests” is imperative for the work. Other participants commented on feeling inspired by the “place-based, communal nature of this work and the energy of my peers who have opted in to share this work and space”.
Collectively, participants felt they walked away from the four days together with a deeper sense of community, and a more nuanced understanding of the core strategies of the work. One Partner Teacher commented that GEAR UP is “Relational, transformative work - can’t wait to get started!” Another said they were eager to work with the team to create “Engaging and vibrant classrooms, healthy relationships with students, and nurturing classrooms. I’m excited to deepen my skill and practice of creating vibrant classrooms.” More specifically, participants made multiple comments about what they found valuable about the collective time together:
“This was energizing and engaging work. I appreciated the emphasis on us being able to talk with each other and not having to be on computers or constantly producing ”deliverables” that don’t feel connected.”
“Talking to the teachers and peer mentors has been so beneficial. Being in a room full of people just as passionate as I about a cause is so motivating and enriching.”
“Thanks everyone! It’s exciting to be a part of something that centers students, families, data, and growing our practice as educators. Go team!”
“It is so important to catch teachers in the summer when they are still fresh and have time to think, plan and just be!”
“I enjoyed being able to engage with people from diverse perspectives (across multiple domains). In previous PD it was mostly centered around teachers instead of student impact and drive. There were not very many chances for us to find ways to practice what we learned or how we could express understanding. I liked being able to engage and participate and express my understanding or lack thereof in specific contexts.”
(Photo credits: Angela Nusom)
Jennie Cha
Program Supervisor
she/her
Served as GEAR UP Coordinator from 2016-2019 and Near Peer Mentor from 2013-2015
Roosevelt Class of 2011
Simone Frison
Professional Development
she/her
GEAR UP AmeriCorps Member since 2022
Served as Near Peer Mentor from 2015-2019
Roosevelt Class of 2013
We are excited to announce that we are collaborating with 33 Partner Teachers (19 new) and 30 Near Peer Mentors (15 new) across the high schools! As a culturally sustaining practice, this classroom-based strategy enables Near Peer Mentors and Partner Teachers to co-create a learning environment that culturally affirms students, integrates college and career conversations into content areas, and leverages the power of community and youth voice.
Check out the mentors (scan the QR code for mentor bios) and our Partner Teachers!
Strong teacher and mentor relationship...
At Cleveland HS, partner teacher Paige Hazard and her mentor James teamed up to dress up as twins during the school's spirit week. Their partnership has created a positive dynamic that influences the classroom environment. How cool do they look?
(Photo credit: James Stewart)
Engaging student interests by incorporating horror stories to explore story elements
At Franklin HS, mentor Ash facilitated a week long workshop and activity with their Partner Teacher KB Bolden's freshmen students. Their main objectives were to learn more about story analysis and to build their academic skills for college level English courses. Students were introduced to the activity by watching a 2019 supernatural horror film, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark while keeping a close eye on the main characters, the villain, the climax, and the message of the story. Their next task was to apply their observations to writing their own horror stories incorporating these elements. The result was students deeply engaged in creating descriptive alternative realities, intriguing plot lines and animated characters.
(Photo credit: Jennie Cha)
Roosevelt Ethnic Studies students explore the intersections of identity and education
New Near Peer Mentor Karina and her Partner Teacher Casey Holland collaborated to offer a special window into the origin of the ethnic studies course for their juniors. As an ethnic studies major herself, and one of the many students who fought for the course to be taught in PPS schools, Karina facilitated a workshop centering identity and education, connecting that with the history of how ethnic studies came to fruition starting from the Arizona ban in an Mexican-American studies program at Tucson Unified School District. Karina had students review snippets of articles from history where people fought for social justice and made connections between that and the In Lak'ech poem.
(Photo credit: Jennie Cha)
Bringing Families and Teachers Together for Students
Parent Teacher Home Visits was co-created by parents and educators using the community organizing principles of shared leadership and recognizing the inherent dignity in all people.
The success of PTHV relies on training teachers and staff to develop meaningful relationships with families of their students, starting with voluntary home visits. These are short, 30-40 minute conversations, in which educators listen, ask questions, and make observations that they can take back to their classrooms to improve instruction for the learner.
To advance this work district-wide, Parent Teacher Home Visits (PTHV) now lives within the Office of Student Learning & Family Engagement and is linked to the developing mission and strategy of the department. This crucial move embeds and leverages the school-based strategy to demonstrate the value we place in the partnership of families in the education of their children.
We kicked off the 2023-24 academic year with over four dozen newly trained classroom teachers and building support staff, bringing our total number across the district to over 800. These educators are launching the year centering relationships with their students and families using the PTHV model as their guide.
At the end of last year, our GEAR UP Community Researchers interviewed nine teachers from McDaniel High School who have been conducting home visits as part of their 9th Grade Success Team strategy. Here are a few highlights from their reflections:
"It's been a huge positive. Yeah. In every, in every single case."
“It's helped teachers be more culturally relevant because they really get to hear from students and families.
"I think it just reaffirmed my belief in the importance of connecting with families and allowed me to be a better teacher because I am able to know more about a student."
"I think the parent was really grateful and surprised that we had a coordinated way to just have an informal conversation about supporting her kid."
"I definitely have seen teachers really shift their instruction based on what they're hearing from parents."
"I think it disarms people and every parent ... that I've talked to has been kind of surprised. And you know, maybe, I don't know if delighted is a strong word, but excited to talk about their kid and what they want for them."
"In every single case, it's strengthened the relationship with the kid and with the family and I think made the student feel a lot more supported."
BUILD is rooted in models of community organizing that center the voices of marginalized communities in change processes. BUILD was developed by our team at the inception of the the PPS GEAR UP program in 2015 and has been strengthening networks between families and increasing their capacity to engage with the educational system since then. BUILD supports parents navigating the school system by engaging low-income, immigrant & refugees, and diverse communities in leadership development training, college and career readiness, and advocacy to promote student success!
Working behind the scenes and using participatory learning methodologies and community expertise, BUILD empowers families to understand and engage with different levels of the educational system, ranging from topics like "how to engage in student conferences" to "advocating for your child" to "understanding and using Parent Vue" to "disrupting inequitable access to resources" among many others. Since inception, countless parents have graduated from the school-year-long leadership development program, including one of our Parent Organizers.
Read more about Jameelah Rasheed, a BUILD program graduate who is now the Parent Organizer for Roosevelt and Jefferson, featured on the Unite Oregon website: She embodies the vision and values of the community-centered leadership model and we are proud to have her as part of our team. BUILD is currently seeking participants for the 2023-24 school year. Please refer parents and/or share information about how to access the program.
Jessaca Willis
Program Evaluator
she/her
Served as GEAR UP Coordinator from 2016-2019, AmeriCorps from 2013-2014, and Student Founder of Program from 2008-2010
Participatory Evaluation is rooted in the belief that the data we collect to better understand the activities, experiences and results of any program or practice belong to the people we seek the information from. This underlying value is woven through a set of carefully selected strategies that center the voices of our families, students, and educators and inform our daily practice. As an evolving design, each year we learn more about how to implement inclusive, responsive, and equitable strategies, intentionally engaging others in the refinement of tools, examination of data gathered, and any conclusions and recommendations that result. Over the course of the school year, our team will utilize the following data collection strategies (and others still in development), which include both quantitative (numbers) and qualitative (stories) information to inform our work:
Understanding the Learning Environment | Surveys
Twice a year (fall and spring) we ask students, Near Peer Mentors, and Partner Teachers to complete a short survey with scaled questions that ask them to rate the degree to which specific Developmental Practices exist within their classrooms. This information is then compiled and shared back with all participants through a variety of tools and methods, including a Partner Teacher Profile (with summarized quantitative responses from all survey completers, across roles -- see example from last spring), an interactive Learning Environment Dashboard that allows Partner Teachers to look at how students of different demographic groups, grade levels, and achievement levels experience their classroom environment, and lesson plans that invite students and teachers to reflect upon and make recommendations from their data together. Stay tuned for more examples when these tools are released from this year's survey results!
Highlighting Partner Teacher Instructional Practices |
Classroom Close-Ups (Observations)
At least three times a year our TOSA/Instructional Coaches conduct what we call "Classroom Close-Ups" to take a deeper observational look at how the Developmental Practices are woven into the classroom environment. We celebrate these highlights in a "Classroom Spotlight" poster (see example from last spring on the left) that features stories, examples, photos, and quotes that reflect the experiences of students, Near Peer Mentors, and Partner Teachers. The goal is to celebrate, motivate, and encourage everyone to focus on building upon what is working, continuing to innovate, and honoring each other.
Exploring the Impact of Family Engagement on Instruction |
PTHV Reflection Tools
When Partner Teachers conduct Parent Teacher Home Visits to learn more about the hopes and dreams of their students' families, they complete a reflection form that describes what they learned from families and how they can apply the knowledge to their instructional practices. Teachers on the 9th grade success teams at McDaniel HS discuss how to weave their new understanding of students into improving strategies for engagement and learning. We will soon launch a complementary quick QR-code survey to parent participants so they can share their experience of engaging with the teacher. Both tools help us track the frequency of visits and understand the human experience and impact of the strategy, while also helping us tell the story of why and how PTHV matters to our shared district vision.
Leveraging Student Voice Data to Ignite a Passion for Learning
In September, nearly 1,400 students accepted the challenging of sharing their perspective about the classroom learning environment by completing the Student Voice Survey. During October and November, Partner Teachers will have opportunities to delve into this data, while working closely with a TOSA and consulting with their students to identify key leverage points for instructional improvement. We will share many stories from the classroom in the coming months as they begin exploring their data together. Below is an example of what this looks like in action after last spring's survey results were shared.
After receiving the Partner Teacher Profile and survey results, one of our science teachers led each of their classes in an interactive activity to discuss their student survey responses. This allowed the students to engage directly with their teacher about their honest feedback. During these discussions between teacher and students, they decided together that visiting OMSI for the ORCA exhibit would bring the content alive in the real world. The Partner Teacher, Near Peer Mentor, TOSA, and GEAR UP staff quickly galvanized into action and coordinated the visit, incorporating a local marine biologist to speak with the students about her career trajectory and answer questions. Not only did students connect science to real life, see their voices translate into immediate classroom changes, but they also experienced an engaging opportunity to fulfill one of their graduation requirements - a Career Related Learning Experience (CRLE). This example embodies the practices we hope to encourage by gathering youth voices, quickly turning around data, and supporting teachers to make immediate, and visible adjustments to their instruction in response to student perspectives. This builds a sense of connectedness and trust within the classroom -- everyone's voice matters.
Margarett Peoples
School Climate Specialist
Tubman Middle School
Served as GEAR UP TOSA/Instructional Coach
from 2019-2022
Anjene Bryant
Assistant Director Middle School ELA & Social Sciences
Served as GEAR UP Program Associate from 2019-2021
Abby Pasion
AVID/Ethnic Studies Teacher
Roosevelt High School
Served as GEAR UP AmeriCorps 2019-2021
Roosevelt Class of 2014
Rakiyah Perry
Student Success Advocate and Cheerleading Coach
Roosevelt High School
Served as GU Community Researcher from 2023-Present, Near Peer Mentor from 2017-2018 & 2020-2021
Roosevelt Class of 2015
