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Portland Public Schools committee previews PowerSchool dashboard, reviews mission measures and portrait of a graduate
Summary
The district's Curriculum & Student Success Committee reviewed new PowerSchool dashboards designed to unify academic data, heard updates that ELA and math targets have not yet been met but show promising middle-school gains, and discussed next steps for curriculum and grading practice alignment.
Portland Public Schools officials on Monday presented a districtwide data review and a preview of a new PowerSchool dashboard intended to centralize academic information and support local decision-making.
"We have set targets that are specifically focused on ELA and math proficiency," said a data-team presenter, noting the district's mission measures call for 70% proficiency in English language arts and 52% in math. The presentation showed the district has not yet met those benchmarks for 2024-25 but reported positive trends, including more than a five-percentage-point increase in middle school ELA proficiency.
Jesse Robinson, director of elementary academics, said the district is in the second year of implementing high-quality ELA curriculum in grades K-5 (ELELA and CKLA) and will hold teacher data meetings and targeted professional development to support multilingual learners. He said math at the elementary level will undergo a redesign led by a representative work group that will recommend a three-year plan for materials, assessments and supports to launch in 2026-27.
Allison Dame, director of secondary academics, said middle schools are deepening their use of aligned ELA materials and that high schools will begin design work this year. She described protocols for bringing teacher-collected student work together so educators can identify gaps and adjust instruction.
Data-team staff demonstrated a live PowerSchool dashboard that aggregates records from Infinite Campus and multiple assessments (MAP Growth, ACCESS, the state summative test and others). "The dashboard syncs nightly," the presenter said, adding that real-time access is powerful but requires careful quality checks. The presenter also warned that inconsistent grading practices across schools make some districtwide course-grade comparisons difficult to interpret.
Board members pressed staff on how to evaluate whether changes in percentages represent meaningful improvement. "We cannot say with confidence that these changes are statistically significant because this is not an experimental design," the data presenter said, adding that the team treats the figures as trend data and has not run formal statistical tests.
Presenters also reviewed the district's Portrait of a Graduate (six competency pillars) and the Portrait of a School Community (eight conditions) developed after a 2022 board resolution and more than 1,000 stakeholder engagements. Staff said the portraits are meant to guide curriculum, instruction and school conditions aligned to the strategic plan.
Committee members and staff agreed to continue using the dashboard in committee settings and to pursue conversations about standardizing grading practices and building assessment systems that better identify procedural fluency gaps in math. Before adjourning, the committee voted in favor of a motion to adjourn.
