RESJ Professional Development and Learning

Our mission as a public school district is charged with providing equitable access for all of our students to exceptional education. Portland Public Schools aspires to engage in transformative learning cultures where clear assessment of organizational practices are examined at every stage of organizational growth, and adults are equipped with the skillsets and dispositions to serve every student. The Racial Equity and Social Justice Department is committed to building district-wide capacity by offering all employees opportunities for continuous exploration, learning, reflection, and growth. The resulting Racial Equity and Social Justice department's Professional Learning Supports rely on a multidimensional framework that pairs knowledge taxonomy across four core content areas with practical execution at every level of the organization, centering: Identity, Culturally Affirming Organizational Practices, Implementing Strategies for Student Success, and Problems of Practice. Identity: Deepening self-awareness, critical consciousness, and positionality regarding race, privilege, and systemic intersectionality.

Culturally Affirming Organizational Practices: Cultivating institutional environments, policies, and cultures that actively sustain and center diverse learner identities.

Implementing Strategies for Student Success (Closing the Opportunity Gap): Translating equity theory into high-leverage pedagogical interventions at the school and classroom level, designed to eliminate systemic disparities in student outcomes.

Problems of Practice: Utilizing inquiry-based frameworks to identify, analyze, and dismantle real-world, localized inequities in systemic practices.

For more information, contact:

Mariah Harvey (mharvey@pps.net)