Updated Portland ODE Guidance For Grades 9, 10 And 11

Press release from Portland Public Schools:

April 21, 2020

On April 15, the Oregon Department of Education updated its Distance Learning for All guidance with a new section: Supporting our Students in Grades 9, 10, and 11. The updated guidance includes information about credits and essential learning.

Similar to the work we have been doing with our seniors, and by incorporating our home-based distance learning platform, PPS-HD, we will focus our instruction and work with our high school students on care, connection and essential learning. Students will receive credits for the spring semester on a Pass/Incomplete basis based on the essential learning teachers are providing this spring through PPS-HD and work completed through March 13. Our teachers will align new instruction this quarter on key standards students need going into next school year, as well as critical thinking and collaboration, all while weighing student interest and making room for cultural knowledge.

We expect teachers will plan engaging activities for student learning for the remainder of this school year and will focus on providing students with rich feedback on their mastery of the content being taught. We fully understand that instruction will look different than it would if students and teachers were meeting in a face to face environment, and as teachers always do at the beginning of a new school year, we expect that teachers will assess their students at the beginning of the next school year to determine gaps in learning and plan instruction accordingly.

This work, like all academic learning, requires teacher-student connection. We will continue to make every effort to reach every student and to provide them access to continual learning opportunities; this includes making sure students have computers and internet access at home. We will also finalize and communicate ways to support students who have earned Incomplete marks.

We thank you for your patience as we awaited this guidance from ODE. We will be in touch soon with more specific information; in the meantime, you can find information about PPS-HD and resources available to students and families on the district’s website.

We wish you health and wellness as we all work through this unprecedented situation.

Joe LaFountaine

Regional Superintendent

This press release was produced by Portland Public Schools. The views expressed here are the author’s own.