Friends:
Below is a copy of the "Step 3 complaint" that was submitted by a group of PPS TAG families to the PPS school board.
It seems likely that the School Bioard will consider the appeal at its next meeting on August 13th.
Margaret
July 22, 2019
To the Portland Public Schools Board of Directors,
This letter serves as the Step 3 appeal of our complaint regarding ongoing violation of the Oregon
TAG legal mandates.
The 27 families who signed the complaint state that Portland Public Schools (PPS) has been out of
compliance with Oregon TAG law for most of the last 20 years and that this represents a pervasive,
long -term, district-wide pattern of non-compliance with state mandates. We raise these issues on
behalf of all students who are or should be identified as talented and gifted (TAG) or whose rate
and level of learning requires above -benchmark instruction. There were over 5,200 TAG -identified
students in PPS, as of October 2018, per district Enrollment Characteristics reports. After
considering the known inequities of underidentification of low-income and minority students and
of students impacted by learning disabilities, it is clear that an even larger number of highly
capable children are represented by our advocacy.
At every grade level, PPS is currently, and has been for years, in violation of state rules concerning
rate and level of instruction for above-benchmark students. PPS has failed to meet the basic
scholastic needs of gifted and talented students, much to their academic, social and emotional
detriment over decades. PPS has further routinely and repeatedly failed to implement its own
mitigation and compliance plans or to provide the "ongoing effort" recommended by the state
Department of Education when it last released PPS from its compliance order in 2011. Parental
right to participation in their highly capable child?s public education has long been reduced to a
struggle for mastery of advocacy and complaint procedures.
In Step 1, the district response is overwhelmingly in agreement with our statements detailing the
insufficiencies of staff, training, budget, consistency of offerings, and equitable access to education
at rate and level. The Step 1 findings close with the statement that ? PPS will again self-report being
out of compliance in the Division 22 area of meeting rate and level of TAG students in the
instructional setting ?. In Step 2, the Superintendent?s Office provides no discussion of mitigation
but instead points to PPS? five-year plan and references current staff allocation levels and current
inequitable high school offerings as assertions of eventual improvement.
The district?s Step 1 response draws the following conclusions:
-- There is ?not currently sufficient staff in the central TAG department to support a system-wide
approach to instructional practices for talented and gifted students in classrooms across the
district.?
-- School-based TAG facilitators and district Teachers on Special Assignment (TOSAs) ?have had
some training and will benefit from additional training in the future.?
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-- There ?is not sufficient budget to support a system-wide approach to instructional practices for
talented and gifted students in classrooms across the district.?
-- The ?schools are not supported enough to consistently implement a system-wide approach to
instructional practices for talented and gifted students in classrooms across the district.?
-- Regarding our concern about a lack of commitment among educators to write and implement
individual student TAG plans, the district found that ?...TAG facilitators are paid for extended
time to provide services and are provided training.? and that ?...individual TAG plans are not
required by state law or district policy.?
-- ?...[B]uilding-level TAG plans need to be updated.?
-- Regarding our statement that PPS lacks appropriate high school TAG services, the district allows
that ?...[E]nrollment in an IB, AP, or Honors class does not automatically show that a TAG
student?s rate and level of learning are being addressed.... [T]he finding regarding this
complaint is that services vary by campus.?
-- There are ?inconsistent practices across the district? regarding access to services and to
appropriate classes at every level. ?The district has plans to address access for students? by
creating the guaranteed and viable core curriculum; pilot units of study are planned for the
2019-20 school year.
-- Regarding our assertion that the district consistently fails to evaluate its TAG services, PPS says
that ?there are inconsistent practices across the district? and that it ?has created a plan to
address implementation and evaluation in the future.?
-- ?Communication of TAG updates, information, processes and procedures to families are
accessible on the district site.... Communication is currently adequate and could be improved.?
-- Regarding our point that single subject acceleration in Math (SSA) is overly complex,
inequitable and undersupported, PPS found that ?... there is a district process for SSA that is
communicated on the district website.?
-- Regarding our frustration with PPS? dysfunctional complaint process, PPS found that ?... parents
receive responses to their complaints that are consistent with Division 22 requirements.?
The district?s Step 2 response draws the following conclusions:
-- ?...[T]he district has allocated FTE, created a plan of action, and has a timeline of professional
development planned in order to meet measurable full compliance of Division 22 TAG
requirements in the next five years.?
-- ?...Portland Public Schools offers accelerated options for high school TAG students through IB,
AP, and dual credit course offerings.?
-- ?...[T]he new core curriculum being developed by Portland Public Schools will include rate and
level descriptors and enrichment opportunities for students in every unit in order to meet
measurable full compliance of Division 22 TAG requirements in the next five years.?
In the last three years, the district has reduced central TAG staffing FTE, maintained a flat TAG
budget, given lip service to equity, pointed to websites and training schedules, and generally made
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no progress. Teachers have never had accelerated curricula. Students have not been equitably
identified or served. Out of grade-level acceleration is functionally impossible in math and is not
offered in any other subject.[note]1 Students are assigned to schools by geography and transfer is almost
impossible, particularly at the high school level. There is no parity of offerings between the
district?s high schools. International Baccalaureate, Advanced Placement and dual credit classes
are not designed to be TAG services.. That aside, the majority of students do not have access to the
foundations needed to prepare for these courses. Finally, these courses are not generally available
to 9th graders nor are they available to all older students. In a district where each school offers a
different depth and breadth of coursework and where students have no transfer options,
educational opportunity is governed by street address.
To address these layers of inconsistency, PPS is investing heavily in the development of a
guaranteed and viable curriculum (GVC), and requiring all students of the same chronological age
to receive the same content in the same quarter, even as a high school freshman or sophomore. As
a result, the district is moving further away from offering all students an appropriate education. In
short, PPS does not, and has no substantive plan to, ?accommodate [students?] assessed levels of
learning and accelerated rates of learning.?[note] 2
PPS has had stronger plans, as well as more staff, dedicated to serving TAG students and yet has
repeatedly failed to provide consistent and equitably available services. Moreover, PPS fully
acknowledges that it is currently out of compliance, has been out of compliance, and will remain
out of compliance for the foreseeable future?failing to provide services to the 1st graders of
2019-2020 for fully half their public education, and denying 2019-2020's 8th graders any chance of
services. The district offers no immediate mitigation for students who have never received
services. Without a targeted investment in budget, training, staff, and district culture, PPS? track
record of failures suggests that quantifiable improvement continues to be exceedingly unlikely.
We ask the PPS Board of Directors to review the related materials and to issue a final decision
that provides immediate and substantive mitigation measures to meet the rate and level of
learning of its students.
Respectfully,
[signatures omitted]
[note] 1 In 2016, of 81 students tested, 8 achieved the recommended score of 90%.
[note] 2 OAR 581-022-2800(4)
