Oregon Department of Education Director Colt Gill was the guest on the Oregon School Boards Association’s Sounding Boards Podcast to talk about the Student Success Act as well as a change in how the agency works with school districts.
Gill focused on the new collaborative effort to find where districts need support and work side-by-side with districts to support students. The historic level of funding provided by the Student Success Act will help districts create individual plans that best serve their community to improve mental and behavioral health supports for students. This will also help overcome academic disparities and raise outcomes for students of color, students with disabilities, emerging bilingual students, and students experiencing poverty, houselessness, and foster care.
On ODE’s partnership approach, Gill said, “We’re not here any longer to name, shame and blame. Our accountability model is really about collective responsibility for the success of our students.”
“Our model is to work side-by-side with districts and ensure that they are doing what they need to do to support students and that ODE is doing what it needs to do to support the district and their students.”
While discussing student investment account applications, he described how “our aim is to ensure that every district is successful. We’re treating their applications like student work, so if there’s something that needs more effort, then we’re going to go back to the district, we’re going to support them and help them figure out what they need to do differently.”
Click here to listen to the whole interview.
