What's Going On with Portland Public Schools?
This week, City Club President Susan Hammer will interview Vicki Phillips, superintendent of Portland Public Schools, and will ask probing questions about what we can expect to happen in the state's largest district. The interview will cover a host of topics, including the need for high school system reinvention, school closures, K-8 mergers, shrinking student populations, as well as proposed curriculum changes and expansion of full-day kindergarten. After the interview, City Club members will also have an opportunity to ask questions of Phillips and explore what changes lie ahead for our schools.
Phillips has never shied away from controversy, and her recent "core curriculum plan" is no exception. The proposed plan will standardize testing and curriculums in an effort to ensure that all students have access to high-level materials. Critics, however, claim that Phillips' plan will severely limit teacher autonomy, inhibit high-achieving students and create a “McSchool” model that does not fit Portland’s tradition of uniqueness.
Phillips has spent more than 20 years working in education as a teacher, in state government, as leader of a non-profit education foundation and as superintendent of Portland Public Schools since 2004. Phillips also served as Pennsylvania's secretary of education/chief state school officer and was superintendent of Lancaster schools from 1998-2003. She is a graduate of Western Kentucky University and the University of Lincoln, England.
Come ask your burning questions about the future of Portland Public Schools.
