Q&A: Why Oregon’s kids too often struggle to read – Salem Reporter:
The facts are damning.
Oregon comes in last among the 50 states for fourth grade reading scores, adjusted for demographics, according to the Urban Institute, and 49th for eighth grade math.
One in three students is chronically absent, state figures show. That also places us among the nation’s worst.
It doesn’t add up. After a decade of economic growth and a new tax lawmakers passed in 2019, school funding is strong. Yet test scores have gotten worse, not better. States that long trailed Oregon—Louisiana, Alabama, even Mississippi—have surged ahead. Mississippi now ranks No. 1 in fourth grade reading.
In many states, Oregon’s numbers would spark outrage. Here, they barely register a shrug.
Despite what Oregon education advocates may say, this is not a problem of money. We spend roughly $17,100 per student per year. Other states (not to mention countries) are doing a lot more with a lot less.
Instead, it is an unwillingness to hold anyone—kids, parents, teachers, administrators, school boards, school superintendents, the Oregon Department of Education, and the Oregon legislature—accountable. Everyone is incentivized to simply pass students along.
Too many students just want a good grade with minimal effort. The disinterestedness of most of today’s students in their own education would shock you. But it doesn’t matter. Salem-Keizer high schools will graduate them anyway, lauding their increasing graduation rates while downplaying the fact that most high school graduates aren’t grade-level proficient in math, reading, or science. A high school diploma is little more than a certificate of attendance, and frequently isn’t even that.
Teachers, especially those who want to have academic rigor in their classrooms, are hounded by kids, parents, and administration to find ways to give better grades to students who do not, by any stretch of the imagination, deserve them. This grade inflation serves all constituencies: students get through school with minimal effort; teachers do minimal work; administrators keep parents pacified; parents don’t have to worry about their kid’s school or school work; superintendent and school boards get to tout their meaningless graduation rates.
In the longer term, of course, this is a disaster for the students and for broader American society. A fundamental aspect of citizenship is both a willingness and ability to provide service and value to others. Willingness may be incentivized or coerced—for the best of us it’s part of one’s character—but ability requires education. Oregon isn’t providing that.
Mississippi(!) is proof that things can be turned around. But we’d need the political will to do this. I’m not optimistic that the group that led us into this mess can lead us back out.