Oregon Students Lag in Academic Acumen for the Third Successive Year
Oregon students’ sluggish academic recovery from pandemic setbacks extended into a third consecutive year in 2024, disappointing expectations that they would finally make notable strides in math and English.
The latest data, drawn from assessments conducted last spring and published earlier this week by the Oregon Department of Education, reveal only slight improvements in math for elementary and middle school students, along with a discouraging decline in reading and writing for the third year running.
Only 42% of Scholars Attained Proficiency in Reading and Writing Tests
The data reveals that only 42% of elementary and middle school scholars attained a ‘proficient’ level on Smarter Balanced reading and writing tests. This is 9% lower than what was achieved pre-pandemic in 2019 and reflects the lowest score in years.
A proficient score illustrates that a student grasps and can apply grade-level skills they need to understand if they are to enter college or the workplace after graduating from high school.
Middle schools are pivotal for many students and saw the most significant overall improvement in math last year, with seventh and eighth graders boosting their scores by nearly a full percentage point compared to 2023.
However, these same students experienced the steepest declines in reading and writing. This presents a tough challenge for middle school teachers now facing the task of reinforcing fundamental English skills that students were expected to master by the third grade.
Meanwhile, high schools results remain enigmatic as many students choose not to take state tests in the 11th grade. Results, therefore, are not a reliable assessment of a school’s successes and failures.
Oregon Remains one of the Few States Where Students are Experiencing the Biggest Setbacks
In 2022 and 2023, Oregon ranked among the states where students experienced the greatest setbacks due to the pandemic, and it remains one of the few states where students have yet to show any significant signs of recovery.
However, Oregon is not alone in under-performing student statistics. From Massachusetts to Colorado and Texas to Oregon, students are stumbling, according to Megan Kuhfeld, a senior research scientist at NWEA, a Portland-based testing company whose standardized tests are used nationwide in thousands of school districts.
She says while only 25% of states have released test results from last spring, early data indicates stagnation.
An eye-watering number of Oregon students will battle to transition from middle to high school and there are no quick remedies. Kuhfeld says that more successful schools have slammed down on chronic absenteeism, used highly rated math and reading curriculums, and provided targeted tutoring to small groups.
Unlike Tennessee, Oregon failed to incentivize school districts to concentrate on small-group tutoring with their share of the $1.7 billion federal pandemic relief funds – a source of income that has now run dry. Instead, the 197 school districts in Oregon are given leeway to break free of state recommendations and select their curricula.
Charlene Williams, chief of the Oregon Department of Education points to several initiatives to improve student performance in future years. These include a $11.5 million federal grant to overhaul early literacy instruction in the state.
Williams has also expressed the hope that lawmakers will allocate more funds for summer schools and after-school programming.
But lawmakers are wary about granting substantial funds to summer programming following abysmal performances in 2021 and 2022.
Those millions of dollars could be used more effectively for needs elsewhere. Oregon has only set aside $30 million in 2024 for summer programming and was channeled into districts with high percentages of students needing assistance.
In Oregon, the biggest losses in reading proficiency are among Asian American middle school students.
Black Students Showed Positive Performance Trends
But Black students showed positive performance trends in math and fourth-grade proficiency reading, attained a 3% improvement on 2023 figures with 19%. Nevertheless, fewer than 20% Latino and Black students achieved proficiency in math, unlike Asian American students at 55% and white students at 40%.
White, Latino, and Asian American middle school students lag significantly behind pre-pandemic performance levels.
Portland, Oregon’s largest school district, retains flatline proficiency levels apart from in reading where a 3% drop was recorded in the fourth grade and a 3% increase in the sixth grade.
Elementary reading proficiency rates have returned to 2019 levels and remain below those achieved in 2018. Math proficiency flatlined apart from a 2% improvement in the sixth grade. Seventh and eighth graders show less mastery in math than before the pandemic.