In early November, four public education leaders from Oregon — including Meyer's Equitable Education portfolio director Matt Morton, The Chalkboard Project executive director Whitney Grubbs, KairosPDX executive director Kali Thorne Ladd and Future School Lab founder Vanessa Wilkins — journeyed to Finland in search of solutions to improve schools and outcomes for students within the state.
While abroad, they participated in both Helsinki Education Week and the HundrED Innovation Summit. A new op-ed in The Oregonian highlights learnings from their journey:
Through this experience, we served as teachers as well as students. As a largely homogenous country, Finland admits challenges in meeting the needs of its rapidly growing immigrant population. We proudly shared stories about Oregon’s rich diversity, our focus on data to identify and understand disparities and the deep collaborations between public, private and civic sectors. We highlighted “bright spots,” such as KairosPDX’s model for culturally responsive teaching for African American children, Chalkboard Project’s work to support and elevate teachers, and the Meyer Memorial Trust’s transformation to more equitable and strategic grantmaking.
You can read the entire piece here.