Carla has nearly 20 years of experience working with students who have disengaged from school before completing their secondary education. She began her career as a teacher in Nevada, working as a reading specialist with elementary aged students and struggling high school students. After spending some time living in Africa, she returned to earn her Master of Social Work degree with an emphasis in social and economic development. She studied Spanish in Central America and then settled in Portland, Oregon to begin working with at-risk young people in the education field. She is passionate about building equitable education systems which offer a range of rigorous, engaging programming for ALL students. Carla spent the last nine years working on the outreach, re-engagement, and alternative school options for disconnected youth in Portland Public Schools. Additionally she has led local and statewide efforts to create systems for alternative accountability, reengagement, and early interventions. She has recently begun a new role as the Director of Early Warning Systems for the PPS District.
Carla holds a Master of Social Work from Washington University in St. Louis, MO and an Administrator’s License from Portland State University. In her spare time, Carla enjoys spending time with her family, playing in the outdoors, reading, and traveling. She lives with her wife and their two children in Portland.
Early Warning Systems and Alternative Accountability An Early Warning System in a school district provides opportunities to look at key indicators or ‘signals’ to identify students who are at risk of dropping out. Once students are identified, the EWS uses multi-tiered student supports and interventions to interrupt the progression of dropping out. In an ideal system only 5% of students require a different setting or an individualized approach as a part of the intervention options to drop-out prevention. That 5% (and in some cases 55%) of students need their own set of multi-tiered supports and accompanying accountability metrics to ensure they are on a path to a successful future. This session will address the intersection of an Early Warning System and dropout prevention/recovery accountability metrics. Participants will leave with a systemic understanding of how dropout prevention and recovery efforts should be a part of an overall Early Warning System rather than an isolated set of strategies removed from the traditional school system.
