About This Site

In the Fall of 2000, the Portland Public School District and the Portland Schools Foundation combined grant funds from the U.S. Office of Education and The Carnegie Foundation to begin the work of increasing achievement in the ten comprehensive high schools and two alternative schools. During this first year of active reform work we focused on asking questions and gathering data about our student performance. We visited sites around the country and invited noted scholars to our schools. Among our first conversations we talked with the following: Tony Wagner, Harvard; Bill Ayers, University of Illinois; Small Schools Workshop; and Rick Lear, University of Washington. These conversations spawned many of the changes that we see today.