Joining the Public Schools Dialogue

Peter Cookson, dean of Lewis & Clark’s Graduate School of Education, moderated a Portland Schools Foundation forum on quality teaching in December.

The event, which was attended by over 60 Portland business leaders and city officials, featured three national leaders in urban education: Rudy Crew, the former chancellor of New York City Public School and the current director of District Reform Initiatives at the Stupski Foundation; Barnett Berry, the executive director of the Southeast Center for Teaching Quality at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and Barbara Byrd Bennett, the chief executive officer of the Cleveland, Ohio, School District.

“Great teachers are the foundation of a great school system,” says Cookson. “This forum gave us ways to understand how Portland can support talented teachers through practical steps that have been proven in other urban settings.”

The forum is part of a yearlong series of events hosted by the Portland Schools Foundation titled “All Children Achieving. A Great School for Every Child: How Do We Get There?” Lewis & Clark’s Graduate School of Education is a cosponsor of the series.