As we start to draw the curtain on another school year, it seems fitting that this year has often felt like watching an edge-of-your-seat thriller—one where each scene builds upon the last, keeping viewers completely captivated. With each passing month, our cast of hard-working students and staff members continues to shine together as they navigate plot twists toward new levels of achievement. Now, as we approach the finale, we're preparing for these final weeks that will leave everyone cheering for the incredible accomplishments of our 17,000+ students.
Like dedicated actors immersed in their roles, I know our students and staff have been turning in brilliant performances all year. I’m so proud of the year-long achievements of our students as they prepare to advance to the next grade, while our seniors prepare for those emotional closing credits as they transition to their next paths.
In this issue of Community Link, we've captured scenes that spotlight our exceptional students and staff. You'll read about our ninth-grade On-Track Teams, who often attend morning "pre-production" meetings long before the school day begins, to analyze student data and ensure our freshmen stay focused on their four-year storyline toward graduation.
You'll also learn about our evolving approach to mathematics instruction, where students work much less as solo performers memorizing tables and facts, and much more as ensemble casts, directing discussions on how to solve real-world math problems through exploration and peer collaboration.
The power of feedback drives another featured article, highlighting how the exchange of ideas between teachers and students can dramatically improve classroom performance. This responsive teaching practice ensures student voices are heard in every classroom scene.
As we approach the final acts of this school year, the story grows even more rewarding. Every frame captured this year—every lesson taught, every challenge overcome, every goal achieved—contributes to the magnificent production we're creating together. And I can't wait to see how the final sequence—these spring months—leaves us as we all cheer through the closing credits!
With pride and appreciation,
Dr. Shay James
Ninth Grade Success is Truly a Team Effort
The first morning bus isn’t set to arrive at Milwaukie High School for more than an hour. Still, a small group of dedicated staff members is already on campus, pushing together a group of student desks to create a makeshift early-morning meeting space within a third-floor classroom. Although each of the team members teaches a different subject, they gather each week to help achieve the same goal—making sure every ninth grader is earning enough credits to remain on track toward graduation in four years.
The conversations aren’t always easy. There’s the student who continually misses first period because he has to ensure his elementary siblings get to school. Or the classmate living with a relative as her family searches for affordable housing. And some freshmen don’t have secure housing at all.
Still, MHS teachers Adrianne Cohen, Kathleen Fuller, Hyacinth Schukis, and counselor Roberto Aguilar forego extra breakfast time once a week as one of four “Ninth Grade On-Track Teams,” each overseeing one-fourth of Milwaukie and Milwaukie Academy of the Arts’ nearly 300 freshmen, coming up with creative ways to keep their students engaged and invested in school so ninth grade attendance doesn’t falter and grades don’t slip.
“He’s incredibly bright and very peer-motivated,” Fuller chimes in as the discussion shifts to one of her Biology students. “Maybe he’s failing other classes because he doesn’t have friends in them.”
“OK, who feels like you have a good enough relationship with him to ask about those classes?” asks Math teacher Cohen, who leads the weekly discussions as the school’s Ninth Grade Coach.
“He’s pretty confident when communicating with me,” adds Schukis, who teaches the student’s English class. “He’s a good self-advocate and I’ll be happy to talk with him.”
Just like at Milwaukie High, every freshman throughout NCSD is strategically placed on an “On-Track Team,” meaning a group of approximately 60-100 ninth graders all have the same teachers for core subjects like Math, Language Arts, and Science. That means their core teachers often know as much about their students’ lives outside of school as they do about their attendance rates and latest test results, which leads to personal connections helping motivate students to succeed in their first year of high school and beyond.
Adrienne C. Nelson High freshman Hank Villa Tapia smiles while telling a story about Ninth Grade Coach Laurie Thurston tracking him down in a hallway while he was trying to avoid attending class. “I even started speed-walking when I saw her coming, but she actually ran after me to make sure I got to class. In a way, that made me feel good because I knew she had my back.”
Every NCSD high school reports that both freshman attendance rates and quarterly grades continue to grow as the teams consistently build personal relationships.
“You can’t teach them until you reach them,” says Thurston as she leads a recent early morning On-Track Team meeting at Nelson, the district’s largest high school with more than 400 ninth graders making up four different freshman cohorts.
On a recent April morning, Thurston and her early-rising teammates spend the first few minutes of the meeting hand-writing encouraging postcards to students who have made dramatic improvements in the past several weeks. When Geometry teacher Bethany Chan shares her latest postcard nominee, the group cheers.
And at each of NCSD’s high schools, teachers aren’t the only ones cheering the success of these dedicated Ninth Grade On-Track Teams. Students who were once struggling say it’s nice to know their teachers truly care about them.
“At the beginning of the year, my grades weren’t very good and I was getting into lots of drama,” explains Nelson freshman Harper Sneed. “But Ms. Thurston kept meeting with me, helping me catch up on assignments little by little, and kept checking on me during class. She’s helped me keep my grades up and now they’re the best they’ve been since fifth grade.”
“We’re teaching kids those habits of mind when it comes to work,” sums up Thurston. “How do I ask for more help? How do I advocate for myself? How do I stay in the work when it gets hard? We’re helping kids identify what that feels like instead of running and avoiding, and there’s no better time to do that than the first year they come into high school.”
Math Confidence Multiplies Throughout NCSD
Spend some time in class with sixth graders Morgan Sturgill and Sophia Demagalski, and the sounds of middle school chatter aren’t surprising—they giggle about something that just happened in the hall on the way to class…they encourage each other about an upcoming test later in the day…and they even plan where they’ll meet in the cafeteria for lunch. But perhaps the most surprising topic of conversation as they enter second period? The two girls LOVE learning math…and thanks to a districtwide focus on improving the way math is taught across all grades in NCSD, they’re not alone.
“I like it a lot more because reading out of math books used to make it boring,” explained Sturgill as she and Demagalski work together to solve a story problem on a large wall-mounted whiteboard. “It’s easier to draw on whiteboards than having to keep erasing on paper, and when you’re up and around and moving you can talk out answers with classmates and find out different strategies for solving the same problem.”
That’s exactly how Sturgill and Demagalski’s math teacher at Rock Creek Middle School, Tedra Heron, plans each of her math lessons. Along with hundreds of NCSD teachers, Heron has attended hours of district-provided training in research-based mathematics instruction, shifting the focus from rote memorization of math facts and formulas to helping students deeply understand and apply math concepts around complex, real-world problem-solving tasks.
“Last week all of my students turned in an answer to a problem I gave them and every one of them had solved it differently,” shared Heron, now in her sixth year of teaching sixth grade math. “So I shared all the answers and asked them, ‘Which one makes the most sense to you?’ Because even though everybody got the right answer, my job as a teacher is to see what they understand. And when they work in groups, they see that it’s not just the (quotes in the air) smart kids that have it right.”
In fact, this new approach to math has many North Clackamas student mathematicians discovering they’re the “smart kids,” especially in high school, where more high school students are enrolling in high level math courses like Advanced Algebra and Calculus than ever before.
“We do have the highest number of students enrolled in our Pre-Calculus courses than we’ve had in the past, including racially and economically diverse student groups,” pointed out Luke Weinbrecht, NCSD Math Instructional Coach. “Another nice trickle to this is having more than 50% of our seniors taking a math course, even without being required to.”
Anyone who grew up learning math memorizing theories out of textbooks might be surprised to witness a math lesson in any NCSD elementary, middle, or especially high school. In a recent Advanced Algebra lesson at Clackamas High, sophomores rarely sat still as they shuffled around the classroom debating classmates about how to best simplify square root equations. So is it possible that students are helping each other learn tough math concepts more effectively than their teacher?
“Oh, absolutely,” quipped CHS math teacher Kristen Faust, “I think nine times out of ten, that’s definitely the case.”
Weinbrecht also helps coordinate monthly “Math Studios,” which allow bands of grade-level teachers time outside of class to view and analyze math lessons in other classrooms, collaborate with each other, and learn how to better incorporate math “habits of mind” for students such as explaining reasoning, sharing multiple pathways, comparing logic, and critiquing and debating possible solutions.
Those habits aren’t limited to middle and high school either. Thanks to the hard work of NCSD’s hundreds of elementary teachers who teach math every day, younger students are seeing themselves as collaborative mathematicians more and more. Just ask them!
“My teacher makes me feel smart and I really love math,” said Riverside Elementary fifth grader Serenity Green. “Like sometimes if I don’t get the answer right away, she says things like ‘Oh I see where you got that part right.’ So she guides me through it step by step but never tells me the answer.”
“I thought I could do zero math last year, but this year I’m doing math and I’m reflecting on my thinking and we make posters together so we can learn from each other,” added the energetic 11-year-old.
And when it comes to a new approach to math instruction, learning from each other has been a key to improving instruction among teachers and mathematical confidence among students…especially squirrelly sixth graders.
“It’s fun to see multiple strategies,” said Demagalski, “and we have to show why it makes sense. It’s not just one method out of a book and the teacher tells us what to do. We work together to solve them on our own and if we need help, our teacher’s right there.”
How Do We Know What They Know? Feedback!
As seen throughout this spring Community Link, it’s no secret NCSD has some of the most dedicated, skilled, and effective teachers across the state. In fact, two of the last three Oregon Regional Teachers of the Year teach in North Clackamas. Often in NCSD, teachers are driven by what may seem like a simple question, but is really quite complex: How do I know my students know what I want them to know? The answer? Feedback! NCSD teachers at all levels often conclude lessons by providing students opportunities to “show what they know.” That can show up in the classroom in different ways:
Student To Teacher Feedback
“I like to give my students ‘Exit Tickets’ at the end of class periods. And I tell them, ‘You’re telling me what you’re picking up from what we just did, and you’re telling me what we need to focus on next’.” -Tedra Heron, Rock Creek Middle School teacher
Teacher To Student Feedback
“When I’m working on reading fluency with the kids, I like to record them so they can listen back and hear themselves. Then we do a little bit of goal setting together and really talk about how we’re sounding and the pace we’re reading at. The recording gives them instant feedback.” -Melissa Anderson, Riverside Elementary teacher
Student To Student Feedback
“The more I give students the opportunity to work with each other and explain their thinking, knowing that as a group we know more than we do individually, that really helps their own understanding. If they can explain something to each other, they know it even better than they think.” -Kristen Faust, Clackamas High School teacher
Putnam Students Make Wishes Come True
When Turner Foster and Daniel Meyers decided they wanted to create a schoolwide participation project to benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation, they knew they’d need to take a unique approach that had never been done B4. That’s why the two seniors organized and hosted the first-ever Rex Putnam High Bingo Night.
“My young cousin is an ambassador for Make-A-Wish,” said Turner, who spent more than a month balancing advanced classes and organization duties. “So I thought about it and decided, ‘Let’s do a Bingo Night, that seems like something we could do.’”
The two National Honor Society members got the ball (or balls) rolling by first contacting local Make-A-Wish coordinators, then publicizing the special event throughout the community via social media and signs throughout the school. They collected prize donations from local businesses and even assigned classmates to call the winning letter-number combos.
“We wanted to create as many positions for students as we could,” explained Meyers. “So we had our NHS members call out the numbers so they could get community service hours too.”
The dynamic duo raised more than $1,500 to help make wishes come true for kids living with serious medical conditions. Wondering whether they have future events planned? Bingo! The two college-bound seniors say they’d definitely organize another fundraising event in the future.
“We only had about four weeks to put this one together,” said Foster, “but it feels good to know we could make a difference in that time.”
Rise Up at Oregon Trail!
🎶Look around, look around at how lucky they are to be alive right now! 🎶 Oregon Trail students got to Rise Up in a big way during a special event in April, when two stars of the touring cast of “Hamilton” performed at an all-school assembly. Jisel Soleil Ayon (“Angelica Schuyler”) and Blaine Alden Krause (“Alexander Hamilton”) then allowed students to perform some of the musical numbers themselves!
"I thought it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," beamed fifth grader Jayden Gonzalez. "It was really cool that they took time out of their day to come listen to us, and then they also performed. The way they could control their voices was unbelievable!"
The surprise singing lessons from the professionals came with a message tied to the Rise Up song: Always stand up for what you believe is the right thing to do.
Building Our Future Together: Community Forums on School Infrastructure
Join us for our ongoing Community Forums series, where parents, educators, and community members collaborate to shape the future of our school district's facility infrastructure. Following our successful March and April gatherings where we provided an overview of how school districts are funded, we invite you to participate in upcoming sessions focused on capacity planning, safety technologies, and long-term facility maintenance.
These forums provide an opportunity to learn about enrollment projections, funding mechanisms, and construction initiatives while contributing your valuable insights to develop a comprehensive plan that meets our growing community's needs. This work will help inform future capital construction bonds and lead up to a Superintendent’s Bond Advisory next fall. Together, we can ensure our facilities support equitable, innovative learning environments for all students for generations to come.
Upcoming Sessions:
Foundations & Futures: Caring For Our District's Infrastructure
