Oregon school districts continued to improve in their English, math and science proficiency, but are still below pre-pandemic levels, according to newly released data from the Oregon Department of Education.
Junction City School District in Lane County was one of a few districts that saw more significant gains – especially in English language arts.
Coming out of the pandemic in the 2021-22 school year, roughly 30% of Junction City third graders that participated in standardized testing were proficient in reading and writing. When students were tested near the end of last school year, nearly 52% were proficient, according to the new data.
Statewide, about 41.5% of last school year’s third graders were proficient in language arts according to ODE data, a slight increase from last year. In 2019, about 47% of third graders statewide were proficient in reading.
Junction City Superintendent Katie Dawson said her district has used a research-backed method, known as the science of reading, to teach language arts. She said the district is also focused on using data to make decisions and supporting collaboration and professional development between teachers.
“We’re just doing a few things, but we’re going to do them really well,” Dawson said.
She said last year there was also a heavy emphasis on tutoring.
“Kids who are needing a little bit extra support really get targeted, intensive support,” she said. “I do think that was really helpful.”
In a virtual press conference this week, ODE Director Charlene Williams said the state is focused on steady, incremental improvement.
“Meaningful change doesn’t happen overnight, and yet we need to act with urgency,” Williams said. “We need to keep our foot on the gas.”
Oregon students made incremental progress in math and English according to standardized tests results. But the results are nowhere near the targets the state expects to reach during the 2029-2030 school year.
Under a new accountability system, that’s when school districts are supposed to meet performance growth targets set by the state. At the same time, Oregon’s policy allowing students to opt-out of these tests raises questions about whether these results are an accurate assessment of student learning.
Still, ODE officials said about half of Oregon’s school districts with strong participation saw “growth” in ELA, and 102 of them saw “growth” in math.
Junction City, Bethel and Springfield School Districts had more than 90% of students participating in standardized testing last year for English language arts. Participation in Eugene 4J School Districts was about 84%. Participation in math standardized testing was a few points lower for all those districts.
ODE officials said the state spent roughly $93 million in grants to help school districts move to research-backed science of reading style instruction.
The state has also set aside money for summer learning, improving access and tutoring.
Eugene and Springfield also made some progress in reading and writing, with Eugene 4J seeing its scores improve by nearly 4 points with roughly 48.3% of its third graders proficient and Springfield seeing a 3% improvement with 41% proficient.
Bethel’s reading scores declined slightly this school year with 29.2% proficient, but the district did see an improvement in middle school math scores. About 27.5% of eighth graders were proficient for their grade level, compared to 21% last year.
In Springfield, 28.1% of eighth graders scored proficient in math for their grade level compared to 24.1% last year.
Eugene 4J School District’s math proficiency improved by about a half-percent, with 35.7% of eight graders proficient.
On average, 30% of Oregon’s eighth graders are proficient in math for their grade level.
OPB reporter Elizabeth Miller contributed to this story.
