Background
The Student Investment Account (SIA), under the Student Success Act, directs the Oregon Department of Education to “establish an intensive program for school districts with the highest needs in the state.” The Intensive Program is by invitation only, based on eligibility determined by the Department. School districts that accept the invitation must participate in the program for at least four years (ORS 327.222).
Vision
The Intensive Program aims to support districts in advancing equity, authentically engaging their community, and strengthening systems and capacity. Through collaborative leadership and continuous improvement cycles, the Intensive Program was built using research aligned with improvement science and the University of Virginia’s Partnership for Leaders in Education School Turnaround work. Centering in a partnership model between the district and ODE, the Intensive Program provides a systems approach through the following:
- Student Success Team: The Student Success Team is composed of both internal and external personnel. Recommendation and decision making is utilized through the Student Success Team through engaging both a Stewarding Body and an Advisory Body.
- Stewards: Each district is assigned three Stewards who bring external perspectives and deep knowledge and skills in the focal areas of leadership, teaching and learning, and community engagement. Stewards work to leverage trust and dispositions of transformational leaders in order to attend both to climate and culture challenges as well as instructional practices.
- ODE Internal Alignment: ODE staff meet regularly to support Intensive Program districts in an effort to examine ways to reduce burden, align processes, and reexamine policy to dismantle systems that are detrimental to student and district success.