Data from the Oregon Statewide Assessment System’s spring 2024 summative tests indicate students still lag behind prepandemic performance levels.
The results of the standardized testing across the state reveal slightly higher math scores but falling literacy scores. Students’ science results stayed about the same compared to the 2023 scores.
The Oregon Department of Education released the data Thursday, Oct. 3, alongside some broad approaches to how the state can support student achievement moving forward, such as investment in literacy, summer and after-school programs, broadening data collection to qualitative surveys and creating an accountability framework to focus on supporting students who may require additional attention.
Local numbers
Dan Farley with ODE highlighted significant percentage increases in two Eastern Oregon schools’ achievement in 2024 compared to 2023.
At Sunset Elementary School in Hermiston, third graders’ English and language arts proficiency increased 24.5%, from 17.7% to 42.2%. This means nearly half of the third graders from last school year were at least meeting their grade level’s ELA expectations. The 2022-23 third grade students had fewer than one-fifth of students meeting the federal proficiency standards.
We are committed to addressing early literacy for our youngest students, knowing the results of that work will appear over the coming years in our state assessment results as those students reach the intermediate and secondary grades,” the Hermiston School District said in a press release about the data. “This concerted investment in our primary students will snowball effect on our entire educational system because if students become proficient readers, their academic prospects are bright in all content areas.”
Another success in Umatilla County came from Nixyaawii Community School in Mission, where its 11th grade science proficiency percentage increased 11.4%, from 35% in 2023 to 46.4% in 2024. This is an especially significant win for the school since statewide, just 17.4% of American Indian/Alaska Native students met the 11th grade science proficiency standard of the 2024 spring test, down from 20.8% in 2023.
More broadly, across Umatilla and Morrow counties, most schools’ proficiency in ELA — considering the overall percentage covering all grades — decreased or stayed about the same, with only a few districts seeing increases — Umatilla, Hermiston and Pendleton. This follows the statewide trend of decreased English proficiency.
However, the two counties buck the statewide trend for math, with most seeing less proficiency. Three districts saw increased math results when considering all grades — Hermiston, Morrow and Milton-Freewater.
For science tests, statewide, the percentage of proficient students stayed about the same, indicating mixed results at the district level. In Umatilla and Morrow counties, only the Helix School District saw increased percentages, from 28.9% to 48.7%. Otherwise, Athena-Weston maintained its results at 26.7% and the other eight districts had their proficiency drop compared to the 2022-23 school year. Ukiah did not have enough science proficiency data from last year to compare.
Charlene Williams, ODE executive director, said to really understand the relationship to statewide trends for smaller, more rural schools, there will need to be more individualized approaches to analyzing the data.
“That’s when we need to dig in locally and get really specific and really investigate what’s happening, almost at a per-kid level, because the needs change,” she said, “and the data shifts so drastically with just a couple students because the sizes are so small, so it’s really about us getting over there and partnering and unpacking what’s happening with the teams over there.”
Matt Yoshioka, Pendleton School District director of curriculum, instruction and assessment, agreed with Williams, saying PSD uses the data to check on the cohorts as well as the grades.
“When we see that there isn’t growth with (a) cohort group from year to year, and from the grade level, that for us is something we need to dive deeper into,” he said. “So at this point, we start going, ‘Okay, let’s break this data down by building and let’s see if all the buildings are experiencing the same thing.'”
The district also looks across demographic groups, he said, to assess whether there are learning gaps that should be investigated.
A different standard
Not all schools pay much heed to the statewide results, whether good or bad.
At Umatilla School District, for example, only 9.9% of students across fifth, eighth and 11th grade met proficiency standards in science, but Superintendent Heidi Sipe said her district measures its success using other tests and standards compared to the state assessment.
“We measure four primary areas for ourselves,” she said.
Those four areas are four- and five-year graduation rates, attendance, students’ sense of belonging and class size.
Additionally, the district uses standardized MAP tests — measures of academic progress — to check students’ knowledge and growth. From these tests, Sipe said, the district can see their third through eighth graders, what she referred to as their “pandemic bubble” students, are struggling in reading, language and math.
“We’re monitoring that group very closely, because their growth is not where we expect it to be, nor where we’re happy with it,” she said, “but we are taking approaches to improve on that.”
What the data does
State education department officials said the data is to give insight into how the education system is doing and where more support is needed at a statewide level. However, parents or guardians can opt their student out of the statewide assessment, meaning there is a group of students who are not being represented in the data collection and comparisons. Additionally, ODE officials said the data doesn’t define how well teachers are doing at the individual school or district level.
“These findings shine a light on where we can learn from in order to share that learning across the state to grow the success for our students,” said Andrea Lockard, ODE’s director of assessment and student reporting, during a media webinar. “By identifying where our systems can grow and improve, we can also surface where bias may live in Oregon districts and schools.”
The results of the tests are “not intended to measure the breadth of academic learning and no test score defines a student,” Lockard said. Instead, the tests supposedly reveal how students are performing relative to expectations for their grade level, with higher grades expected to reach higher levels of knowledge, complexity and skill.
