About COREN
“Collaborating with the Central Oregon REN has been a great experience. Through incorporating teachers’ voice and perspective into our planning processes, we are achieving great outcomes that will have a long-lasting impact.”
Central Oregon Regional Educator Network was established in January 2020 with the goal of improving aspects of the teacher experience, including recruitment, teacher development, retention, and leadership building. The COREN is especially focused on improving these experiences for our teachers of color.
The COREN’s Coordinating Body is a volunteer group of diverse stakeholders, including teachers, who are dedicated to supporting Central Oregon educators. We prioritize teacher voice and utilize a continuous improvement process to make changes in our systems that help teachers succeed.
The COREN supports projects (or Change Ideas) that increase the recruitment and retention of qualified and certified teachers who reflect the faces of our students. Support includes coaching, professional development, networked improvement, and funding. COREN funding must support projects that implement change to improve existing programs.
The Coordinating Body has established priorities and the areas we believe will move the needle toward our goal. This group will eventually lead initiatives chosen by the COREN, ensuring that Change Ideas are supported and implemented with integrity.
So what’s a Change Idea? A Change Idea is a concept or idea to improve a process, system or project in order to enhance the teacher experience. Change Ideas are informed by the user (teachers) and start small with the potential to scale up to improve larger systems across the region.
Approved Change Ideas will be led by a team of district/school/community stakeholders referred to as the “design team.” The design team will implement the Change Idea at the local level. We believe those closest to the issue are the best suited to improve it so your design team should include at least one teacher. The COREN will assign a coach who will help you navigate the process of making your Change Idea a reality!
Have a Change Idea? COREN is inviting design teams to join Cohort 2 in the Spring of 2021 so now is the time to submit your Change Idea!
Let’s talk! To get started, you can connect with a Coordinating Body Member or contact our team!
Meet Our Team
Kimberly Strong
Regional Coordinator for Teacher and Student Engagement
For 14 years, Kimberly has worked hard in education. As a middle school teacher for 10 years, she knows the feeling of immense pride watching students grow, coupled with the exhaustion of countless demands. Kimberly joined the High Desert ESD in 2015, working to improve student attendance and engagement across Central Oregon Schools. In that role that she learned how deeply inequity affects all aspects of our educational system.
“It is both my heart for supporting teachers and my commitment to making improvements in the educational system that has historically excluded and underserved our diverse communities that brings me to the work of the COREN.”
Kimberly has a Masters in Professional Writing and is working toward her administrator license through Lewis and Clark College. She has the privilege of raising two bright girls alongside her husband.
Jeannie Bloome
Continuous Improvement Coach
Shawna Smith
Continuous Improvement Coach
