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The independent student media site of West Linn High School

wlhsNOW

The independent student media site of West Linn High School

wlhsNOW

From teaching government to working in government: WL teacher is recruited by Kitzhaber’s office to improve education standards

Todd Jones, social studies teacher, is taking a sabbatical from teaching to work with the state government to make Oregon’s education system better. For 14 years, Jones has taught classes at West Linn such as AP Government and International Relations. Now, as a staff member serving Gov. John Kitzhaber’s office and the Oregon Education Investment Board, Jones is helping the state government serve the needs of school districts across the state.

The OEIB was created by Oregon Senate Bill 909, with the purpose of improving Oregon’s public education system. Currently, this goal includes reorganizing the state education budget and improving education standards. The long-term goal is ensuring that all Oregonians have a high school diploma or an equivalent by the year 2025.

While Jones is not a member of the actual board, his work as a staff member is crucial to helping it make decisions about how to improve Oregon’s education.

“My primary responsibilities include outreach, traveling the state to tell people what we’re up to and learn their questions and ideas, and policy research,” Jones said. “[I’m] discovering the ‘best practices’ in Oregon, around the country and around the world from which we can learn as we develop our system.”

Jones was selected to work in the state government by Kitzhaber’s chief of staff through the Chalkboard Project, an Oregon-based organization dedicated to improving public education.

“[Kitzhaber’s] office asked the Chalkboard Project if they would recommend someone to serve as a policy coordinator, and Chalkboard recommended me,” Jones said.

Jones recognizes that in working in state government, he is quite close to those the OEIB’s work will affect; this connection may not exist if he were in national government. He has taught the theory and practice of national government for several years, and is now becoming more familiar with that of state government.

“State government is closer to the people – people can engage with state government more, impact it more,” Jones said. “We have a citizen legislature, and our legislators live in their home districts and are, by and large, very responsive to their constituency.”

Jones’s work as a teacher has helped him develop his own philosophy about education improvement, centering mostly on “quality teaching… recruiting great people to teach, thoroughly preparing prospective teachers, providing mentorship for new teachers, and supporting the professional development of experienced teachers.”

To Jones, however, the government work is crucial to his development as a teacher, more so than his teaching experience helps him as he works for the state.

“It’s not so much what I’m learning about government as what I’m learning about teaching,” Jones said. “In these first six weeks I’ve had the opportunity to travel the state a bit and discover exciting work other teachers are doing. I can’t imagine how much more I’m going to learn over the coming months.”

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Elise Brown, Co Editor-in-Chief

Elise Brown, senior, has always felt comfortable standing up and giving her opinion in front of everyone and for the most part, she enjoys it very much.  That is one of the many reasons why she heads the debate team, and also why in June she earned a place in the National Speech and Debate Competition in Indianapolis.

Out of the 250 people entered in the competition, she finished 151st in the country.  Before she earned her rightful place in Nationals, however, she needed to prove herself in Districts and State.

Her 10 minute long speech about socialism and its benefits took first and second in Districts and State, respectively.

“In the National competition the judges didn’t appreciate politics or controversy as much as they did in Districts and State,” Brown said.  This was confirmed from one of the judges she conversed with in order to find out what she could do better.

Brown’s interest in current events started in the eighth grade.  She then did the Amplifier, the high school newspaper to help communicate her ideas about the world with her fellow peers, she also did the debate team to better understand the problems throughout the world and learn how to solve them somewhat.

“Debate involves knowing what is going on in the world,”  Brown said.

This year for upcoming competitions, she has a speech in the works that she feels will top her last one.  This year’s speech is about interdependence inspired by the “you didn’t build that debate,” caused when President Barack Obama told business people that they did not create their businesses on their own.

Brown’s passion for debate has influenced what college she will go to, what she will study in college, and what she wants to do in her life.  Brown’s goal is to graduate high school and then travel to Massachusetts and attend Wellesley College, a very well known and prestigious college, where Brown hopes to study political science.

To achieve this goal she has taken part in a number of rigorous courses and activities such as Speech and Debate, AP Government, AP Economics, Honors Law, AP English and journalism.  Once Brown achieves her education goals, her next goal is to become a political commentator.

“I want to change people’s minds,”  Brown said.  Brown has chosen the path to become a political commentator because she believes political power lies with the media.

Brown has worked very hard throughout high school and continues to work hard through her senior year.  She has taken many challenging courses to achieve her goal of going to Wellesley, and will need to continue down the very rigorous path to success to accomplish her goals.

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From teaching government to working in government: WL teacher is recruited by Kitzhaber’s office to improve education standards