Oregon has lost its way on the educational front

A series of national public school learning assessments released recently paint a bleak picture for Oregon, despite an 80% increase in funding since state test scores peaked in 2013.

Driven by such a massive infusion of new funding, the taxpayer would rightfully hope to see scores consistently rising rather than consistently declining over the past decade. And the Covid shutdowns of early 2020s, which eroded learning outcomes for almost 1.6 billion students in countries around the world, fail to explain away Oregon’s steadily declining fortunes.

It’s true that in the U.S., reputable academic studies show educational achievement declined most in states where the most classroom instruction time was lost. The degree of loss was most pronounced in states along the East and West coasts, where Democrats dominate, and that includes Oregon.

However, other states, both red and blue, have managed to mount turnarounds pushing them at or near pre-pandemic levels.

That’s not the case with Oregon. A 30-state study conducted by researchers from Harvard and Stanford ranked Oregon dead last in post-Covid recovery.

The annual congressionally mandated Nation’s Report Card, just released last month, confirmed that Oregon students are continuing to lag behind not only their peak showings of 2013-15, but also their pre-pandemic scores of 2019.

Thanks in part to $190 billion Congress funneled into a national recovery effort, other states are proving more successful, the report suggests. In fact, it indicates Oregon ranks last in both reading and math when scores are adjusted for socioeconomic factors.

In an in-depth takeout on the Nation’s Report Card findings, Oregon Public Broadcasting noted, “What’s more, while these achievement declines were exacerbated by the pandemic, they appear to have begun even before Covid-19, raising important questions about why students are still struggling and what educators and policymakers can do about it.”

A new study conducted by researchers from Georgetown University is even more damning. But leading educational interest groups, including the Oregon Education Association and state Department of Education, have largely withheld comment.

Lead Georgetown presenter Dr. Marguerite Roza told legislators in a Jan. 28 appearance, “When we spend this money and we don’t get the results, we need to change the course.” She acknowledged test scores as only one tool of measurement, but warned, “in aggregate, these scores are telling us something about the health of our system, and I don’t know why we’re ignoring it.”

Mississippi is being nationally heralded for fueling an educational turnaround with an infusion of new spending. But Mississippi is beginning to achieve nationally elite test scores with a spending surge to $12,500 per student, compared to Oregon’s more than $17,000.

The studies suggest an array of factors contributing to discouraging reports on student achievement, some stubbornly endemic, others more amenable to corrective action. They include:

n Researchers are unanimous in identifying classroom instructional time, something lost in significant measure during the pandemic, as a key contributor to educational success. However, just as many parents seemed reluctant to return to the office when the pandemic ebbed, many students seemed unwilling to return to the classroom, fueling a worrisome surge in absenteeism. And Oregon was already notorious for its compressed school days, weeks and years.

n Summer school and individual or small-group tutoring has proven effective elsewhere in serving to further increase instructional time. However, Oregon leaves that largely up to local districts, with no real statewide push.

n Another oft-cited factor is over-reliance on digital technology. “If you’re sitting and working on an iPad or Chromebook all day, you’re really not engaging in learning in the same way,” one researcher noted. Students may be holding themselves back outside school as well by substituting digital screen time for reading, socializing and interacting.

n Finally, researchers point to rigorous spending accountability, a hallmark of educational resurgence in Mississippi. Mississippi has established benchmarks that must be met every step of the way, and instituted rapid response remedial measures for districts falling short. More laissez-faire Oregon has done neither.

Of the potential remedies for Oregon’s educational malaise of recent years, two strike us as most promising:

First, taking steps to increase direct classroom contact without an electronic intermediary, which starts with a crackdown on rampant absenteeism and extends to increased tutoring, more individualized or small-group instruction, and longer school days and school years.

Second, emulating Mississippi’s accountability approach with what one researcher termed “a laser focus on clear academic goals” augmented by “data-informed course corrections” that are mandatory rather than advisory.

We’ve simply tried pouring ever more tax dollars into a system that’s been rewarding our investment by continuing to fall further and further short.

It’s time we put less emphasis on the generosity of our input and more on the quality of the output we’re getting in return. It’s time to demand, “Show us the results!”