Not living up to potential

The latest evaluation of Oregon schools is out and the results are somewhat disappointing, especially for high schools. The state of Oregon needs to work on education and devote more resources toward raising the bar.

The latest school report cards, published in last week’s Oregonian, show most schools as being rated satisfactory, with only 5 percent falling under the “needs improvement” category. Sure, we can all pat ourselves on the back over improvements, or the 34 percent of schools that rated as outstanding—these accomplishments are significant. We should not, however, ignore the other 66 percent of Oregon children receiving a lesser education.

These report cards are based largely on test scores, standardized testing and improvement from the previous year.
These standards, which can be found at the Oregon Department of Education’s Web site, are relatively new for the 2009–10 school year. In most of these achievement standards for high schools, the score difference between meeting and exceeding said standards is only about nine to ten points in a given category. This leads me to question what the difference actually is between satisfactory and outstanding.

Many remember the controversy surrounding the end of the 2008–09 academic year last summer. Budget cuts and overworked teachers placed a lot of strain on the public school system in Oregon. In the end, legislators and fiscal advisors decided to further shorten one of the shortest school years in the country, effectively showing that Oregon does not value education as it should.

Perhaps most distressing of all is the 23 percent of Oregon’s high schools in need of improvement—the group with the highest percentage in that category by far. High school is an incredibly important transition into college and should not be neglected. The problem is that there are no sanctions in place for the schools ranked low on their report cards, so we’re just supposed to accept poor quality in education.

This poor quality often comes from a lack of state funds, and the differences between school districts can be incredibly striking. A piece in the Willamette Week last month compares the experiences of two middle school girls and the resources available to them. One school offers multiple language classes, in addition to music and drama education. The other gives far fewer options: Spanish, drumming and drama for sixth graders are the only choices available to them. There is no good reason to have this kind of discrepancy between schools.

It may be horribly clichéd, but it’s not inaccurate to say that children are our future. If you think we’re in a recession now, imagine what could happen when all the kids now receiving subpar educations go out into the working world lacking vital components of a good education. Schools need to be put first, not last, when it comes to state budgeting.

Rating schools is a good idea and a good start. We should focus less on the outstanding schools, and more on the schools that need improvement. Those improvements are dependent upon good programs, good teachers and time spent in class. Those things require more attention and more funds from legislators and budgets. Protecting the future of Oregon is worth more than a little attention.