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Link: http://www.oregonlive.com/education/index.ssf/2010/11/effort_launched_to...

Spurred by Portland State University, a new coalition of government, nonprofit, business and education leaders set out Thursday to get more Multnomah County students to graduate from high school and college.

Their plan is to track students' progress at key points from kindergarten through college graduation and career entry to collect evidence on what programs and techniques keep students on track at each stage -- and which don't.

"Student success teams" will then use that evidence to drive changes in the way schools, community groups, colleges and other youth-serving institutions do their work.

PSU President Wim Wiewel, a creator of the new "Cradle to Career" initiative, predicts it will lead to better outcomes among county students in two or three years. He said improvement won't come from spending more money but from redirecting some of the hundreds of millions already spent on children and young adults to practices that work better.

He said the ethos in Portland is to praise every program and school for its good intentions and never call any approach a failure. But with thousands of teens dropping out of high school each year and thousands more quitting college, that isn't acceptable, he said.

"Getting rid of 'Portland polite' is so important. We've got to break with saying every (program) is OK and everyone can go with their own brilliant idea or flavor of the month. ... We have to get to what really does work to move the dial. Then evidence and good activity will start driving out bad activity and ineffective activity."

The project is modeled on an initiative that has gotten results in Cincinnati. Former University of Cincinnati President Nancy Zimpher, key to launching that city's project, spoke to more than 300 gathered for the launch of Portland's program Thursday at PSU.

Key groups helping form Multnomah County's version include county government, the city of Portland, the United Way of the Columbia-Willamette, the school districts and the Leaders Roundtable, a coalition of local leaders in business, politics and education.

Zimpher said Cincinnati's program led to better outcomes for young people by getting everyone in the community who tries to help children and young adults on the same page, seeking evidence-based solutions. Various early childhood and preschool programs came together, for instance, and agreed that home visits to high-risk infants and toddlers work, and so does enrollment in approved preschool programs. Those were expanded.

Enrolling children in unaccredited day care did not get them ready for kindergarten, so programs had to upgrade and gain approval or they lost subsidies and attendance, Zimpher said.

Currently, high school graduation rates in Multnomah County are low, as is the percentage of students who graduate from college. In the county's two largest districts, Portland and David Douglas, only 54 percent of students in the class of 2009 graduated in four years. At least 38 percent dropped out.

One of the first steps that Cradle to Career might prompt is collection of more and better data about how young people are faring, said Pat Burk, PSU associate professor of education who directs research and data analysis for the initiative.

One of the five milestones the initiative plans to measure, for example, is how many students enter kindergarten with the skills to succeed. But Multnomah schools don't administer a uniform kindergarten-readiness assessment to show where the biggest gaps are -- something Cradle to Career hopes to change.

Similarly, the project is working to get complete and accurate statistics showing how many Multnomah high school graduates enter college and how many earn degrees -- information that is available from a national clearinghouse but that has not been purchased or used locally.