Government-to-Government

Education Cluster

Agency Day

July 28, 2009

Introductions

Brenda FrankKlamath

Danny SantosGovernor’s Office

Vickie MerkelOregon Student Assistance Commission

Keith MenkTeachers Standards and Practices

SonyaMoody-JuradoSiletz

Bev YoungmanSiletz

Myra Johnson-Orange Warm Springs

Lou FarrowUmatilla

Larry CheyneCommunity Colleges and Work Force Development

Pam ShipentowerUmatilla

Laurie DanzukaWarm Springs

Fay HertadoWarm Springs

Ramona Tedi TanewashaWarm Springs

John HarpGrand Ronde

Tom BallUniversity of Oregon

Karen QuigleyCommission on Indian Services

Josh DaviesCoos

Rob LarsonODE

Pat BurkODE

Legislative Commission on Indian Services

Karen Quigley:

Interested in proposing strategies from conversations with the commission.

Stay focused on the G2G process. Get credited on the expertise of the cluster. Strengthen the knowledge base. Enforcement of the cultural laws along with an expectation that education be provided. There seems to be a need to make the G2G process more visible and more valuable. Is there some way to use your expertise more visibly? Wants the other clusters to be aware of other needs and to be willing to help with training.

The Oregon 150 video and letter. Why was the video not a major part of the work of the cluster? Is there something specific that the education cluster wants to do to be a more visible education tool for the legislature and a connection to other clusters? Example: work with tribal remains as they relate to law enforcement officials.

We are charged with creating success for children and families and there may be a need to train with tribal leaders on a broader array of issues beyond just school issues. Examples: veterans’ affairs, stimulus funds, education and health services.

Karen may be proposing to the Commission to hold an executive committee meeting that would include information for all Clusters. A member from each cluster would meet with the Commission to share information across the clusters.

The focus of the Annual Summit will be on water. They are very interested in connecting on the social needs of water. There is a clear interest in water education as a component of this. If there are other facets that have to do with tribal government, we should be talking about how to bridge across the clusters and to other clusters.

Consider projects that can capture it in a media campaign. Example, the recent Portland area video did not adequately portray the role of tribal governments.

Question: Have the other clusters opened up their work to include other participating organizations in the cluster work?

Ans: Karen will consider this and get back. She likes the ideas of subcommittees. There may be ways to expand the work using other groups. Written reports may be a better way to consider. Consider the strengths you have now and what the strengths you want to keep are.

Brenda: the tribes need to meet more often to carry the work to the state agencies. The subcommittee is not working as well. The agency leadership varies and the logistics are difficult. We are considering bringing more work to the tribes.

The date for the Governor’s summit will be in November between the election and Thanksgiving. Karen thought that the Governor’s meeting with tribal leaders should be at the Governor’s residence. Prepare the state report ahead of time and have the state agencies respond to specific questions.

Lou asked about continuation of cross-cluster activities. Karen felt that there was a lot of room for such activities, e.g., health, climate education, public education about cultural resources, training of by other agencies, economic development and workforce training. Clusters talk to Karen about other agenda items. Natural Resources Cluster is interested in having other meetings. We might want to consider something similar.

CCWD Report:

Would like a chance to check for understanding and what is desired before the end of each meeting.

Budget is having a significant impact on campuses. Enrollment is up. Central CC is at 120%. Very crowded. Tuition and fees was sent to the list serve. The AAOT is being revised and will go into effect in 2010. A student gets their general education courses at a CC transfers these courses into a four year institution. A cultural literacy and information literacy will be two new requirements. The information literacy work is creating a lot of discussion, especially among English teachers and librarians. The cultural literacy initiative requires some connection to issues not necessarily each individual cultural groups. Example, power and privilege vs. all individual groups. This requirement will have an impact on making faculty more aware and improve their education by imbedding it in their course work.

Karen asked who the tribal representatives are in the review. Larry responded that the faculty was involved in the redesign. Some faculty members are more open to the idea than are others. Karen suggested that it is helpful to talk with the tribal governments regarding what this looks like in the classroom. Larry said that may be possible. Pat suggested a meeting with key leaders on each campus who will review the syllabi. It is about students coming away with new tools.

Brenda raised the issue of measuring the institution on its ability to sustain levels of quality of instructions and inclusion of accurate and appropriate information. How would we know the quality of the instructor delivering the course work?

Larry responded that the key is the accreditation of the campus through the Northwest Association. The assurance goes to accreditation. There was not a group that existed to funnel cultural literacy.

John: the notion of the AAOT was that the core content of certain, identified courses that would be common across courses. Now you are adding an additional layer of cultural competence and literacy. How do you make it the same across schools? Very ambitions.

Pamela: there are courses at the college level that already fit the need. They could identify some of those existing courses.

Larry: yes, campuses are looking at this and there will be responses. There was concern that too much of the focus was on English.

Keith Menk: is the intent passing on cultural content or the improvement of student achievement in the course. There may be a way to measure student growth.

Pat suggested the work could be discussed by Post-=Secondary Committee.

OSAC—Vickie Merkel

New material being prepared for OSAC presentation. This is the first group to see this.

We have 31 workers, 400 donors, work with campus all over, 1500 volunteers in ASPIRE and touch many lives through the Opportunity Grant.

New changes in the Opportunity Grant: less money available. It used to be year round funding. This year, enrollment is way up. FAFSA applications are way up. State budget is down, but Pell Grants are up and tax credits are available. The federal tax credits require the students to file fed tax. The deadline is August 15th for the Oregon Opportunity Grant. There might be a winter application IF there is additional funding available. For next year, file the FAFSA as soon as possible after January 1. The increase in Pell lowers the amount of OOG. Tax credit is up to $2500. Even if they do not owe tax, they must file a tax form. Have to file to get the credit. The state considers this part of the student resource in the award of the OOG. The student will lose this amount since OSAC assumes that the student has filed their federal income tax.

Brenda and Karen: how will students be notified? Vickie said that they will reach out to many stakeholders. The student will not get the funds until the spring term. The tax credit model is new. It is brand new model and will take some time to get all of the information out.

Brenda: some non-traditional families will not understand this and many students do not attend college day and other forms of communication. How do we get information out to these students? How do I do that with what I am working with?

Key message: Get the FAFSA filed by August 15th to qualify for financial aid for 2009-10 school year.

Questions were surfaced on working with non-traditional families and students. There may be more hurdles. How to figure it out.

Vickie: there were some additional changes related to half time awards (non-limited for the rest of the year). The estimator awards will be the amount in the award letters.

Funds available will be going down.

Scholarship and Access Report which provides data on donors, private scholarships and awards by high school.

Karen asked if an amount can be targeted to tribal students. The AG indicated that they are not able to do it. The Oregon Community Foundation has taken back state grants for native students and can administer those.

99.5% of students file online. A paper application is available but it is easier to do all of this online. Access to scholarships goes through the online system. Workbook available in September. Use the workbook as a tool to work with students prior to going on line.

Deadline: March 1: February 16 for “early bird” applications. The early bird will be reviewed and if there are errors, students will be notified and barriers removed. The e-student portal will tell them if they have been awarded and can be picked up online. They will be notified in their e-student portal on the status of their application and award.

Wrapped around when the transcript is available. The earlier transcript is a major benefit.

Not all donors are need based awards. Many are based on transcripts, activities and the short essay answers. The OSAC application process encourages donor committees to look beyond test scores. The questions are based on factors that research indicates prepare a student for success. Robert Byrd scholarship is a merit-based application in each Congressional district.

Brenda asked if we have ethnic breakouts of the awards given. We collect the data but do not give it to collection committees. It is in the Key Performance Measures for the agency.

Student child care grant will continue. $1M a year.

Chaffee grants for former foster youth are awarded.

Opportunity booklets are available. Good information for financial aid.

Project ASPIRE made it through the session with full funding.

College GoalOregon should continue in January. College Goal Oregon sites can still be added. Community Colleges should be contacted. Contact OSAC if there is interest. If the CC is not scheduled, contact the financial aid office about interest. Tribes can be a resource for the entire community.

Rob Larson: asked for the difference between students who apply and the number of graduates in the high school. Are more students eligible that could be identified?

Vickie, yes. There are ways to reach more students in a wide variety of high schools and how different they are. College and career centers vary; voc tech varies; the emphasis has been on the door to exit. ASPIRE works with the ramp up. The real work needs to be at the middle school level. We are working to include the Career Information System data and transcript information uploaded.

Bev: Will there be more ASPIRE sites? Vickie: a Texas partner is providing some new funds but these will support existing programs. We are not capable to add new ones at this point. We want to go to an online application process. We can serve sites that serve high school students. Tribal centers that serve high school students can serve more native students.

TIP SHEETS: Vickie presented a sheet where people can go to download tip sheets. They include

  • Tips for major losses in income
  • Student loans
  • Job loss
  • Financial aid award letters
  • Foster care
  • Avoid scams

The tribes can use these in their own newsletters.

Tribal Residency: Vickie distributed a sheet that identifies tribal membership lists that qualify for “Oregon Residency” for the Oregon Opportunity Grant.

Karen asked if the funds were targeted to Oregon Federally Recognized Tribes first. Was that maintained? Vickie that is

Keith Menk TSPC:

Accreditation is changing. Including the use of data to improve practice. Huge movement for the use of data on teacher preparation. This raises the issues of standards that are being applied. They are looking at standards on cultural competency. TSPC will be aligning to the national standards. Embedding the dispositions is hard. Working to implement all of this in rule by 2010.

The Civil Rights test update: you have to demonstrate knowledge of basic Civil Rights laws. We have approved courses and workshops. In reviewing them, the delivery and topics varied greatly. Some were excellent, some were weaker. There was no measurable benefit. We developed a test to demonstrate competency. This impacted native language teachers. How do they demonstrate? The TSPC decided that native language teachers must demonstrate. If a person goes through a workshop up to September 1, TSPC will continue to honor that.

There was a change in the law around background checks and fingerprinting. The authority only applied to graduates. This was changed to include students in student teaching and preservice before licensing. Just because something is on their record, does not prevent someone from getting a license. Keith would like to be called.

Lou raised the issue of an incident at UofO regarding something that happened in the College of Education at UofO. Waiting to resolve the issue. Keith: this is good information for TSPC to have. It relates to the cultural competency of staff.

Danny suggested that a communication go to the Chancellor as well. This can also be a topic at Oregon Independent College Association.

Danny Santos: Governor’s Office

Danny Santos: Jim Sager gone, Marjorie Lowe has education. Danny is key contact on head start and community schools.

Danny reviewed the 2009 Legislative Update:

(See Lengthy Handout)

Revenue issues include the increase in the corporate minimum to make a permanent increase in the minimum. In addition a 2% increase in income tax for families earning more than $250. There will be a vote and a likely very difficult campaign. There will be a lot of money spent on the campaign. Vote is January 26, 2010. The legislature will come back in February, 2010. We will have more financial information, revenue and the results of the ballot measures. We may have to make up lost revenue.

Senate Joint Memorial 10 is available online.

Federal stimulus packages are out. A wide range of funds are out there.

The committee work is a good idea. The issue is the leadership structure of the committee and making the groups come together.

The Governor’s interest in a “reset.” Discuss with policy makers and wide range of state services: education, safety, transportation and economic development. Probably start around labor day. Some suggestions in February, but more likely in January, 2011 and the new Governor.

Bev: frustrated by absence of OUS representative at state day. Danny and Pat will follow-up with Chancellor Pernsteiner regarding regular attendance.

Lou Farrow: sharing the responsibility with state agencies needs to be discussed.

Pat reminded group that the Joint Resolution language was

Pat Burk: Head Start

Pat reviewed the report from Dell Ford. Dell will be asked to come on an as-need basis.

Tribal Report:

  • 7 of 9 tribes were present.
  • Higher ed enrollment up. Summer youth programs are up. Summer youth employment is up. Concerned about the loss of the Indian Education Specialist position.
  • Ongoing process to simplify the Needs Assessment form for use among the tribes. Interest in using a single NAS form with funding offices.
  • Concerned about representation by state agencies present.
  • Tribal indicators report was discussed. Complexity of the data structure is making this difficult. We want to pull the data from the tribes together for reporting. Not all tribes participate.
  • Scheduling dates: 6 tribal cluster meetings year and 4 agency days
  • September meeting in LincolnCity. November prior to the summer. Dec.2 in Portland, possibly at PSU. The NativeAmericanCenter.
  • Reviewed the annual work plan
  • Updated the cluster contacts
  • Cluster Committee on language preservation may mean that people come from outside the cluster

Karen felt that the Cultural Resources Cluster could be included. Place on the September agenda. Karen indicated that Cultural Resources meeting in Siletz meeting might be a good place to go. Karen expressed concerns about size, and management of authorized representatives. She reminded people that the cluster is designed to keep state agencies connected to tribal governments. The cluster framework should remain on the same page. Advantages to ask people for guests and