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RECPI envisions every single PPS school led by a leader equipped with the skills to ensure every single student in the building – particularly Black, Indigenous, and other students of color – have access to an excellent academic and school experience. We also envision school leadership corps that reflect the diversity of our student population.

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ABOUT PLL AND RECPI

Within PPS, the Department of Professional Learning and Leadership (PLL), part of the Office of School Performance, is all about cultivating transformational educational leaders across our district.  PLL hosts programs for aspiring and new leaders; we also support all PPS leaders through leading the design of monthly Leadership Institutes. 

Meet our PLL team

Learn more about our PLL Pathways Programs

A central component of PLL’s work is leading the Racial Equity Centered Pipeline Initiative (RECPI), a partnership across multiple institutions and organizations in our city and state, funded by The Wallace Foundation. We believe that racial-equity-centered leadership is crucial for every single student, particularly our Black and Native students, to succeed academically and thrive.

Learn more about RECPI takes a systems approach to leadership developement

RECPI Pipeline by Domain
THE VISION

OUR GOAL

Each PPS student – especially our Black and Native students – should be able to meet their potential and achieve academic excellence
We are aiming to remake Portland Public Schools with equity at its center, through leadership development.
THE BACKGROUND

RECPI

Our Racial Equity-Centered Pipeline Initiative, or RECPI (pronounced like “recipe!”) is an acceleration of work led by PPS’s Department of Professional Learning and Leadership (PLL) since 2018. In 2021, PPS was one of eight districts nationwide to receive the 5-year, 8.2 million dollar Equity Centered-Pipeline Initiative grant from the Wallace Foundation.

PPS’s bold commitments to racial equity and the leadership pathways that PLL had already launched made PPS a strong candidate for the grant.

THE BACKGROUND

ECPI

The ECPI is rooted in 20 years of Wallace Foundation-funded research on the importance of principal leadership to schools and students – it is often quoted that “Principals are second only to teachers in their impact on student outcomes.”

With RECPI, PPS took things further to ensure that RACIAL EQUITY is at the center of our leadership development efforts. We view RECPI as an opportunity to finally put racial equity at the center of our schools in practice, not just in our words.

ABOUT US

PLL

The department of Professional Learning and Leadership (PLL), part of Portland Public Schools’ Office of School Performance, is all about cultivating transformational educational leaders across our district. Our department hosts programs for aspiring leaders and new leaders; we also support all PPS leaders through leading the design of monthly Leadership institutes.

PPS VISION OF OUR LEADERSHIP PIPELINE BY DOMAIN

To achieve our vision, we use research from the Wallace Foundation to guide how we build and refine our entire leadership development pathway – from the moment an educator first thinks about leadership to the time they are a seasoned principal looking towards systems leadership. Wallace has defined seven “domains” of principal pipelines that districts undertake. This section highlights how we envision our ultimate pipeline and links when possible to existing pipeline components.

Learn more

DOMAIN 1

Leader Standards


The Oregon School Leader Standards and PPS Leader Profile will be adopted and anchor every aspect of leadership development across the pipeline domains.

DOMAIN 2

High-quality pre-service principal preparation


Two high-quality, racial-equity-centered principal licensure programs, Portland State University and Lewis & Clark College, will reliably prepare leaders to engage in the PPS Leader Profile Competencies. Additionally, we will have collaboratively-planned and aligned the district-led leadership pathway programs for aspiring leaders to build our hiring pool.

DOMAIN 3

Selective hiring and placement of principals


Strategic administrator hiring and placement will be rooted in identifying leaders who demonstrate the PPS Leader Profile competences. Our pool of qualified candidates will be ample, diverse, and growing.

DOMAIN 4

On-the-job evaluation and support


On-the-job support for both novice and experienced leaders including standards-driven learning series, coaching, mentoring, racial affinity spaces, and learning communities will be rooted in the PPS Leader Profile competencies.We will redesign a differentiated leadership evaluation focused on growth incompetencies. Both levers will support a culture of learning and growth.

DOMAIN 5

Principal supervisors


Our entire Office of School Performance (including Principal Supervisors, Regional Supts and Principal Coaches) will be equipped to coherently coach and develop capacity of all school administrators in the PPS Leader Profile competencies, supporting leadership growth that positively impacts academic outcomes for Black and Native students in schools.a culture of learning and growth.

DOMAIN 6

Leader Data System


A strengths-based Leader Data System will help us map our leadership talent and capacity along the competencies in our Standards and Profile throughout the pipeline.

DOMAIN 7

Systems and Sustainability


We will create a collaborative, inclusive, learning-centered, unflinchingly courageous culture across our school district, partnerships, and community, which will allow our racial-equity-centered leadership pipeline to thrive. In addition to culture, stewardship of our pipeline vision will also include long-term financial investment, data-driven talent management strategies, and co-ownership of pipeline activities across our district ecosystem.

LEADERSHIP PATHWAY

Professional Learning and Leadership provides several pathway programs that support leaders at different points in their career to take the next step on their leadership journey in PPS.

Learn more
YOU!
YOU!

Aspiring Leadership Program

This program is for teacher leaders and other experienced certified staff who want to take the first step in exploring what leadership and administration look like in PPS.

You are an Assistant/Vice Principal!
You are an Assistant/Vice Principal!

AP/VP

Induction Program
As a first and second year Assistant or Vice Principal, you receive onboarding, leadership coaching, and get to learn monthly with a network of peers.

Partner University Administrative Licensure

To take the next step toward a leadership position, PPS aspiring administration enroll in a licensure program at one of our partner institutions: Portland State University or Lewis & Clark Graduate School.

YOU ARE A PRINCIPAL!
YOU ARE A PRINCIPAL!

Principal Induction Program

Principals in their first three years on the job receive individualized coaching, monthly learning in collaboration with peers, and continued onboarding.

Principal Induction Program

Principals in their first three years on the job receive individualized coaching, monthly learning in collaboration with peers, and continued onboarding.

YOU ARE A DISTRICT LEADER!
YOU ARE A DISTRICT LEADER!

School-to-District Leadership Cohort (Coming Soon!)

Stay tuned for more about an upcoming cohort of principals interested in district-level leadership.

PPS Leadership Institute

All school leaders in PPS engage in monthly development with their peers, focused on current district priorities, racial equity, and other leadership topics.

Principal Labs (Coming Soon!)

Hear how one leader experienced this pathway

GROUNDING STANCES

Undergirding all of our work are two key definitions, our working definition of equity, and our PPS Leadership Profile, which articulates the competencies and practices our community views as important for school leaders to have.

Our Working Definition of EquityHeading

What do we mean by racial equity? Our initiative’s working definition of equity is rooted in the formal PPS definition and contains three parts:

1. THE VISION of what would be true for our schools if racial equity were achieved.

2. THE ACTIONS we must take to enact our vision of racial equity.

3. THE APPROACH we must take when engaging in racial equity work. Our working definition of racial equity includes three sections:
1

OUR VISION

of racial equity is creating an educational community where race, along with other intersecting identities, no longer predicts which students thrive and succeed in school.

 

We must take to enact our vision of racial equity.

Put simply, we envision schools that empower each PPS student – especially our Black and Native students – to achieve the academic excellence, critical thinking, and interpersonal intelligence that poise them to become our next generation of social justice leaders.

2

TAKE ACTION

to carry out the PPS Mission:

 

We provide rigorous, high-quality academic learning experiences that are inclusive and joyful for each student, and we disrupt racial inequities to create vibrant environments for each student to demonstrate excellence.
2

OUR APPROACH

Racial equity work is complex and challenging but should not be considered hard. It is policy, practice, critical pedagogy and interpersonal heart work that reaps amazing results. Engaging in racial equity work allows us to look at ourselves in the mirror and surface conscious and unconscious biases that get in the way of understanding and connecting with students.  It means holding self-compassion and grace as we acknowledge our intentional and unintentional actions that have had and still have harmful impacts. It means acknowledging and learning from our imperfections as humans, moving from “Portland nice,” and striving to be a better educational system that enables us to clearly see the students and families that we serve in all their brilliance. For all these reasons, equity is a gift we all embrace.

PPS LEADER PROFILE

Continually interrogates own racial and cultural positionality and how it influences all interactions and decisions.

Uses antiracist core values to guide decisions, tending to whose ancestral knowledge is being valued.

Knows and continues to learn Oregon and Portland history, connecting current socio-political culture to historical harm to inform just decisions.

Commits to continual deepening understanding of the adaptive, emergent nuance it takes to lead through evolving socio-political context.

Practices and models self and community care, healing, and restoration to support the sustainability of such complex work.

Co-creates and champions a shared vision of a racially equitable school through understanding context, audience, and community partners, centering ones often marginalized by schools.

Catalyzes and collaborates with teachers and partners to create a culture of accountability to the vision that yields equitable academic results.

Engages BIPOC stakeholders and their White co-conspirators from the broader school community in core decision-making, to incorporate“inconvenient” voices.

Reflects equity capital, intelligence, and emphatc critical consciousness.

Develops strategic partnerships, networks, and collaborative cultures to advance school’s equitable vision and goals.

Redistributes power to elevate the identities and needs of Black and Native students and defines success based on their academic outcomes and well-being.

Engages partners from a strengths-based stance and connects genuinely, emotionally and experientially to communities most impacted by disparities.

Models and practices strategic reflective inquiry-about self, school, and system- that disrupts white supremacist culture in school.

Identifies, interrogates, and interrupts all instances of inequity, harm, or oppression through adaptive action that centers the well-being of those most impacted.

Cultivates a culture of safety, care, inclusion, and high expectations that promotes the academic success and well-being of Black and Native Students.

Leads systemic change by seeking out and holding self and others accountable for redressing the enduring struggle of education: historical harm.

Uses a wide array of qualitative and quantitative data to drive instructional improvement cycles and cultivate accountability for equitable academic excellence.

Engages teams to continually interrogate and develop their critical instructional practice and critical self-awareness.

Cultivates a culture of learning and community of practice among school personnel and partners to develop collective efficacy in critical pedagogy.

Intentionally advocates for and allocates equitable human, instructional, and partnership resources for school through the system, policies, and practices.

Seeks and uses multiple perspectives to respond to urgent issues while maintaining the priority of working towards a collective vision of anti-racist schooling.

Generously, humbly, and actively listens; seeks feedback; and builds a culture with processes to ensure collaboration and engagement from diverse voices that have not been at the table.

Improves relationships through conflict engagement and leads with trust to co-construct a culture in a school that normalizes productively working through challenges in pursuit of shared equity goals.

Models transparency and intentionality when sharing or coaching about what it means to make decisions and grow through a lens of racial equity.

Continually interrogates own racial and cultural positionality and how it influences all interactions and decisions.

Uses antiracist core values to guide decisions, tending to whose ancestral knowledge is being valued.

Knows and continues to learn Oregon and Portland history, connecting current socio-political culture to historical harm to inform just decisions.

Commits to continual deepening understanding of the adaptive, emergent nuance it takes to lead through evolving socio-political context.

Practices and models self and community care, healing, and restoration to support the sustainability of such complex work.

NEWS

With $102 Million in Grants, These Districts Plan to Train Principals With a Focus on Equity

The five-year grant will pour about $8.2 million into each of the districts for their projects. The new efforts include creating partnerships with local universities to fine-tune principal-preparation programs to emphasize equity, developing equity-focused professional development opportunities for current principals, building human resources systems to track how districts recruit and

GET IN TOUCH

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