Charlene威廉姆斯 is about a month into the monumental job of leading a state education department in the wake of COVID.
她最近搬到了前任的办公室, 柯尔特吉尔, whose tenure as 俄勒冈州教育部主任 was defined by the public health threat of a lifetime and the challenge of getting 30,000名教师和500名,在一年多的时间里，1000名学生离开了pg电子游戏试玩大楼，使用电脑.
Williams’ tenure is likely to be defined by how she helps those teachers and students regain some of what they lost during that time.
在俄勒冈州, 已经被认为在学分方面落后的学生, 大流行前的评估测试和出勤情况, 进一步下降, 根据国家数据. More than 60% of first-time teachers who started in 2020 did not return to their posts the following year, 加剧了该州某些学科和领域的教育人员短缺.
As the newly appointed head of the state education department – the state Senate is expected to confirm her as director in September – Williams, 52, said she will unite the state’s 197 school districts around priorities that include growing and diversifying the teacher workforce, 改善落后学生的成绩，提高识字率, 出勤率和学生心理健康.
威廉姆斯已经证明了她可以做到这一点, 据她在波特兰公立pg电子游戏试玩的同事说, 在领导国家教育机构之前，她在哪里度过了大部分的教育生涯.
她的职业生涯一直被定义为为最落后的学生服务, 而其他成年人和pg电子游戏试玩已经放弃了他们.
在波特兰的17年里, 威廉姆斯帮助成年人获得高中同等学历, 在一所另类高中任教并担任校长，成为该市最需要帮助的pg电子游戏试玩的校长, 表现最差的高中, 在四年内扭转了局面.
Williams, 在威尔明顿出生长大的人, 北卡罗莱纳, 她的父亲和祖父母, 她说她的家人很重视pg电子游戏试玩, 但对她来说，上大学或选择特定职业并没有太大压力. 她的祖母只受过小学三年级的教育, 她祖父六年级后就辍学了, 看到父亲成年后获得学士学位，她深受鼓舞.
It wasn’t until Williams started talking with her high school math teachers about her future that she felt she was set on a career course that led her to the highest education office in Oregon, 担任首位黑人导演.
“I see as exceptional the work teachers do every day to inspire students like myself who may not even know all the options that are available, 但是谁告诉我的, 好好爱我, 足够装备我, 并像他们那样对我倾注感情,”她说。. “所以我只是想把它传递下去.”
扰乱了不公平现象
Williams’ high school math teachers challenged her to think about how her talents could be applied to disrupting inequities in the fields of science, 技术, 工程与数学. 他们让她考虑上大学.
正当她认为她已经下定决心要成为一名工程师时，她却被迫去教书. 在高年级的数学课上, 一个本该教一周微积分的代课老师，实际上一点微积分都不懂. 取而代之的是威廉姆斯，他很喜欢这门课.
那一周之后, 这让我坚定了，如果我真的想要打破不平等, 是时候进入教育领域了,”她说。.
She earned undergraduate and masters degrees in math education at 北卡罗莱纳 State University and Wake Forest University, 大学毕业后的头四年在格林斯博罗教高中数学, 北卡罗莱纳, 在一个教师和行政人员流动率很高的挣扎地区. The principal she worked under became her model for leadership, she said.
他带来了父母, 社区领袖, 教师和pg电子游戏试玩员工定期聚在一起，分享改善pg电子游戏试玩的想法和策略, 哪一个最终获得了巨大的收益, 威廉姆斯说. 这让她明白，领导不是孤立地做决定.
“It’s important to have a range of perspectives that inform your decisions so that you can truly have the community and the school behind what you’re trying to do,”她说。.
Then, in 1998, her husband got a job in Portland for what he and assured her would be a three-year journey before they’d go elsewhere, 但他们留在了西北部.
改变罗斯福
在波特兰社区学院教了几年成人之后, 威廉姆斯于2002年开始在罗斯玛丽安德森高中教数学, a private alternative school in North Portland that’s a sort of “last chance high school” for students who’ve been expelled or dropped out of other schools.
她说，在那里度过的七年是她职业生涯中最重要的时期之一. 她了解到，学生们总是在倾听并内化成年人给他们的标签.
Williams recalled giving a pep talk to students preparing to take a math assessment one day when a student of color interrupted her to say that everyone already expected her and her peers to fail.
“那一刻，我自己决定，再也不要这样了，”威廉姆斯说. “我们不能让学生认为他们是问题所在.”
珍妮Villano, 他是威廉姆斯的退休教育家和导师, 2006年，威廉姆斯在罗斯玛丽·亚当斯中学认识了她. 罗斯玛丽·亚当斯(Rosemary Adams)这样的另类pg电子游戏试玩通常看起来只不过是“信贷工厂”,维拉诺说, 在哪里老师仅仅因为学生上课就给他们加分.
“夏琳不会有这些，”维拉诺说. “夏琳创造了一个真正学习的环境. 她希望她的学生有真正的选择和未来.”
威廉姆斯升任pg电子游戏试玩的教育主管，同时继续在上午教授数学. In 2010, she took a job as principal for one of three small high schools that collectively made up the campus of Portland Public Schools’ Roosevelt High School.
自20世纪80年代初以来，该州一直认为罗斯福是一所表现不佳的pg电子游戏试玩. 它的流动率很高，学生的阅读和数学成绩远低于全州平均水平. 该校招收的低收入家庭高中生比例是该区最高的, 近80%的学生有资格享受免费或减价午餐.
罗斯福也是该区最多元化的pg电子游戏试玩之一. About one-third of students were Latino — the largest proportion of Latino students in the district — about one-quarter were African American and another third white.
罗斯福校园里的三所小pg电子游戏试玩准备合并成一所高中, Williams helped apply for funding under an Obama-era program to help the lowest-performing schools in each state and brought in nearly $8 million. 她被提升为联合中学的校长.
有了钱, 她有能力购买新的电脑和技术, hired six nonacademic employees to help with college and career readiness and outreach to families and brought on a behavioral health coach. 她还用这笔钱聘请了更多的教师, so that high-performing teachers could spend part of the day coaching their peers one-on-one and in groups.
以提高入学率和社区家庭的支持, many of whom had sent their kids to other schools in Portland given Roosevelt’s reputation over the years, she held frequent community informational meetings and organized events to hear about families’ concerns.
People who most vehemently opposed or questioned Williams were invented to meet with her regularly in the school to talk, Villano说.
“当遇到阻力，你的观点和策略受到质疑时, 大多数人都处理不好,维拉诺说. “事实上, Charlene brings that person onto her team so that they can see what’s really happening as opposed to making assumptions.”
威廉姆斯于2010年接任校长, 大约有700名学生在罗斯福大学注册, 只有39%的学生按时毕业, 根据俄勒冈州教育部的数据. 到2014年威廉姆斯离开时，入学人数增长了30%，达到900多名学生.
2012届毕业生的准时毕业率上升至近64%, 但在2014年降至53%, 但仍比威廉姆斯担任校长时高出近15%. The overall completion rate — anyone who earned a regular or alternative diploma or GED within five years of entering high school — was 77% by the time she left.
艾莉森·泰勒, 罗斯福高中的老师, 威廉姆斯还努力争取pg电子游戏试玩老师的支持, 谁习惯了管理员的到来, 把东西抖抖，赶紧离开.
“发生的事情是老师们说, “你两年后就要离开了，所以我只能等着你离开.但她没有. 她在那里. 她留下来了，”泰勒说.
Williams was promoted to the Portland Public Schools’ central office as senior director of school performance, where she continued to make improvements at Roosevelt and model similar changes across several other schools. 在此期间，她还获得了刘易斯大学教育领导专业的博士学位 & 波特兰克拉克学院.
在波特兰公立pg电子游戏试玩待了14年, 威廉姆斯离开了pg电子游戏试玩，成为了卡马斯学区的助理督学, 华盛顿, 后来成为温哥华常青公立pg电子游戏试玩的副校长, 华盛顿, 威廉斯现在住的地方.
开始工作
今年早些时候, Williams was contacted by a head-hunting agency that Kotek’s office hired to find candidates for state education director. 威廉姆斯说，她很惊讶自己也被联系上了. 和她一起工作的人不是.
Elisa肖尔, 在威廉姆斯手下工作的前罗斯福副校长, 她说，如果威廉姆斯能像她在波特兰为国家所做的那样，学生们将受益.
“如果她能在所有这些不同的地区都做到这一点, 它们都有自己的特点, 对孩子们有力量, 我觉得我们的关系会很好,肖尔说.
克雷格·霍金斯, 俄勒冈州pg电子游戏试玩管理者联盟的执行董事, said Williams wasn’t on his radar until her name surfaced as a potential candidate for education director. He talked with people he knew in 华盛顿 who knew Williams from Vancouver and Camas and felt confident she’d be good for the job.
“Everything about those conversations leads me to believe that she’ll be committed to the success of each and every kid in Oregon,他说.
与她见面后，他对她提出好问题和倾听的能力印象深刻. 他希望她能像吉尔那样在教育部门待上几年. 与他的前任相比，吉尔担任导演的五年时间特别长, 在过去的十年里，他们中没有一个人在办公室工作超过三年.
“我真的很支持Dr. 霍金斯说:“威廉姆斯将在那里工作五年或更长时间。. “这对建立人际关系很有帮助, 这种信任实际上会加快事情的速度，让你做得更多.”
这也将有助于pg电子游戏试玩扭转因COVID而遭受的多年学习挫折.
Williams, 谁的收入是250美元,1万美元一年, 今年你会继续在州内的地区巡游，与pg电子游戏试玩领导建立关系吗, teachers, 父母和孩子一起讨论未来几年的计划.
“大流行是一记重拳, 我们正在恢复，我们正在学习如何深呼吸,”她说。. “我们必须重新站起来，正视学生的紧迫性, 学习他们需要学习什么才能成功.”
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