Oregon Department of Education Well-Rounded Courses Access Update

The Well-Rounded Courses Access Update is the Oregon Department of Education’s (ODE) primary communication tool for topics related to the Well-Rounded Courses Access Federal Grant Program.  In October 2020, Oregon received a five-year, $9.8 million grant to expand access to well-rounded education courses.  More information about this program can be found on ODE’s Expanding Access to Well-Rounded Education webpage.  

Introducing the New Senior Strategist for Well Rounded Learning

In February, Beth Blumenstein was hired as the Senior Strategist for Well Rounded Learning within the Office of Teaching, Learning and Assessment to help lead and coordinate the implementation of the Well-Rounded Federal Grant.  Previously, Beth was on job rotation as a Senior Strategic Advisor for the Office of Teaching, Learning and Assessment, and has been with the Oregon Department of Education in various roles since 2006.  This position is the first of several positions that will be hired to support the implementation of the Well Rounded Course Access Grant.

Well Rounded Courses Grant Research Analyst Position Posted for Hiring

ODE is currently seeking a Well Rounded Courses Grant Research Analyst (Research Analyst 4) to support this work in the following ways:

• Design, develop, plan, and implement evaluation tools, methodologies, and processes to evaluate implementation of the Well-Rounded Courses Grant;  
• Work collaboratively with data collection owners and analyst staff from the Agency, as well as external education partners, tribal representatives, partner agencies, community partners, and business partners, to provide necessary documentation and data analysis pertaining to the Well-Rounded Grant milestones and supporting data collections;
• Identify existing data collections and develop new data collections as necessary to measure against Well-Rounded Grant milestones.

Please view the job posting here.  The deadline to apply for this position is March 24, 2021.

Upcoming Work

The first year of this grant is a planning year, and many of the tasks completed so far have been focused on building a vision and goals for this project as well as identifying the scope of the work for the following four years. Listed below are the first priorities for this project:

• Set a clear vision, identify annual goals, and solidify the plan for the first year of this grant;
• Begin work on a Needs Assessment for Oregon;
• Build a robust team through hiring key positions for this grant;
• Build relationships and engage with community and education partners, with a focus on STEM, STEAM, CTE, Higher Education, and the Arts.

For questions or comments, please email ODE.WRCoursesGrant@ode.state.or.us.