Annual At-A-Glance profiles show progress, barriers for Oregon schools

Across Oregon schools, more ninth graders are on track to graduate high school, many districts have rebounded in hiring staff, and class sizes are smaller.

These are some of the key takeaways following the release of Oregon's 2021-22 At-A-Glance school and district profiles.

Following two consecutive years where the profiles were modified due to COVID-19, this year's release marks a return to the inclusion of nearly all data.

The At-A-Glance report cards, released annually by the Oregon Department of Education, provide key information to local communities and are meant to inform families and educators about what is working and what isn't within their public school districts.

As Tim Boyd, ODE's district and school effectiveness director, said in a news webinar Wednesday, it's like a check engine light.

"Data doesn't tell us the answers," Boyd said. "It helps us ask better questions."

Is the ninth grade on-track uptick enough?

The rate of Oregon ninth graders on track to graduate high school in four years has increased substantially, reaching 83%, according to data released Thursday.

However, that is after an 11 percentage point drop the year prior. The latest rates are still not back to pre-pandemic levels, still two percentage points below what it was in 2018-19.

One of the biggest factors in the drop in the number of on-track ninth graders was the transition to remote learning, ODE Director Colt Gill said in an interview Tuesday. Subsequently, the return to in-person has boosted those numbers.

"(Online learning) oftentimes made it a lot more difficult to provide levels of support for every student," Gill said, adding the specialized attention that teachers, staff and on-campus mental health specialists provide is key to this growth.

The ninth grade on-track rate is an important predictor of graduation outcomes and refers to students who have earned at least one-quarter of their required graduation credits by the end of ninth grade. ODE officials said these rates help inform educators which students need additional support.

Gill said additional funding sources such as federal COVID-19 funds have been instrumental in allowing districts to hire more teachers and counselors. This, plus more specialized career and technical education courses and summer bridge programs, have better prepared students for their first year of high school, he said.

While the state overall has seen some progress, results vary widely among districts.

Cascade School District in Turner, for example, holds a rate of 90% for ninth graders on track to graduate in four years, according to the new data. The rate is even higher, 95%, in Silver Falls School District in Silverton.

But the rate drops to 78% in Salem-Keizer Public Schools and 64% for Woodburn School District.

The latest data also show historically marginalized students face additional barriers. The lowest on-track rate in Salem-Keizer was 57% for American Indian/Alaska Native students, followed by 61% for students experiencing homelessness.

Staffing rebounds statewide as average class sizes shrink

The latest data show Oregon has rebounded in hiring teachers and counselors, with more employees in Oregon schools today than before COVID-19.

The number of Oregon teachers has grown higher than pre-pandemic levels, ODE officials said, and the number of counselors has grown 20% since the 2018-19 school year. The number of education assistants has rebounded from last year but is still about 2% below pre-pandemic levels.

Still, districts continue to face a national staffing and substitute shortage, and the social, emotional and academic needs of the students are greater today.

"We have 300, almost 350 more staff," Brian Turner, director of recruitment and staffing for Salem-Keizer, told the Statesman Journal in a recent interview. "And that still doesn't feel like enough."

Gill said Oregon does not meet the national ratio recommendations or the national average for school counselors to students, librarians to students and school nurses to students.

However, he confirmed there has been an overall increase of school nurses statewide and an increase of about 300 counselors statewide since 2018-19. Some school districts are opting to hire mental health professionals under different names than "counselors," Gill added, so that may be a factor in the low number shown in recent data.

"We also need to make sure that our students are, after the pandemic, really ready, emotionally ready for working through the challenges the pandemic brought to them," Gill said. "That's where the investment in school psychologists, counselors and mental health specialists comes in to help guide staff as a whole and schoolwide efforts to serve students."

The latest data also show Oregon's average class size is two to three students smaller than prior to the pandemic.

"In Oregon, one of the primary calls to action was to reduce class size," Gill said, adding that the state's Student Success Act has invested millions of dollars into this cause. The focus on class size is an issue that pre-dated COVID-19.

"School districts are hiring more teachers to make class sizes smaller so that educators can connect more with students and provide better services," Gill said. "It has been difficult for school districts to fill those positions, even though we have more on staff now. That is also because of the shortage of substitutes."

Increasing attendance

Prior to the pandemic, districts statewide, as well as ODE itself, invested a lot of time and money into attendance campaigns, urging families to focus, first and foremost, on making sure their kids are present to learn.

Regular attendance is defined as students who attend 90% or more of the days they are enrolled. A student is considered chronically absent if they miss more than that.

“Missing a day or two of school may not seem like a big deal, but that time matters,” asserts Salem-Keizer’s Every Day 24J attendance campaign. “If a student misses just two days of school a month, by the end of the year, that adds up to an entire month of lost instruction.”

According to Salem-Keizer data, a student who misses 20 days or more of school a year only has a 20% chance of graduating.

However, attendance was defined differently during hybrid and remote learning. And the data released this week reflect significant statewide impacts from COVID-19's delta and omicron surges.

In fact, ODE officials noted a 16-percentage-point decrease in attendance this past year when compared to pre-pandemic rates.

Regular attendance for students in grades K-2 reached a rate of only 65% across Oregon and dipped far lower in some individual districts. The rate was 50% across Salem-Keizer schools and 43% in Woodburn.

Officials said this is another area they expect to see numbers increase now that schools are operating in person full-time.

"Daily, in-person instruction helps students receive the close attention and support they need to learn and thrive," Gill said. "The more students can come to school, the more we can meet their individual needs and help them succeed."

Data for individual schools and districts are available at ode.state.or.us/data/reportcard/reports.aspx.

Natalie Pate covers education for the Statesman Journal. Send comments, questions and tips to her at npate@statesmanjournal.com or 503-399-6745. Follow her on Twitter @NataliePateGwin.

Miranda Cyr reports on education for The Register-Guard. You can contact her at mcyr@registerguard.com or find her on Twitter @mirandabcyr.

This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Oregon's 2022 At-A-Glance school, district profiles takeaways