Should I live-recap it? Vote Y/N in comments pls.

Now is a great time to subscribe to The Oregonian
and support local journalism work like this story and the other excellent coverage produced by my colleagues in these uncertain times. www.oregonlive.com/subscribe/?u...

🔎The state does not track how long it takes to resolve the cases in its system, though it has the right to grant itself multiple extensions. @hborrud.bsky.social had to build a database of all outstanding cases and how long they have been awaiting resolution.

🔎Lawmakers approved money to let ODE hire 2 new investigators in 2024, to chip away at the backlog. But ODE did not even begin advertising those jobs until early this September. Tellingly, that was just a week after @hborrud.bsky.social asked why the jobs had not yet been filled.

Some key takeaways in a brief thread:
🔎The median amount of time that the state education agency takes to investigate discrimination cases is a shocking 434 days. Experts say it should be 6 months or less.

And PS: If your kids are missing big chunks of school, then that's part of the problem. This isn't all on the school system: parents need to get their kids to school in the AM, ready to learn.

🍎In summary: If you care about kids/schools/Oregon please read this story! Test scores are not the measure of any school system, but they are an important window. Parents, make sure to review your kids' scores. If they are Level 1 or 2, demand to know what the plan is to help.

🍎Is OR alone in its post-pandemic lagging? No, not at all. But are there states where students have made much larger, faster gains in math or reading per their state tests? Yes: IA, TN, SC, CO, MS. It can be done. A good source: statetestscoreresults.substack.com/about

🍎There are limits to this data b/c of OR law that lets families opt kids out of testing. Upshot: things could be even worse – or better – but we have no idea+can't focus resources where needed. Has there been any serious discussion of getting rid of the opt-out? Nope.

🍎There are 4 levels to the test. Level 1 is akin to getting D or F. Oregon has HUGE numbers of kids at Level 1 across all grades, including 49% of 8th graders in math. Half of all eighth graders are getting a D or an F in math? In what world is this NOT a massive emergency, OR?

🍎 Portland Public Schools gets a lot of grief, but the state's largest district is also 1 of the only ones to get 3-8th graders back to pre-pandemic levels in math+almost there in ELA. That's a bright spot+PPS still has a long ways to go esp for kids of color+those from poor families.

🍎In a switch from years past, state ed staff suggested that students scoring at Level 2 — C grade, basically — are not in academic peril. I mean, Cs get degrees, I guess? But do they get you where you want to go w/o remedial help from colleges and/or employers? It's a dice roll w/ students' future.

Key takeaways:
🍎At this pace, it could be a decade+ before OR kids return to pre-pandemic math/ELA skill levels...which weren't all that great to begin with.
🍎Leaders characterize the problem as urgent. Yet key provisions of Gov. Tina Kotek's accountability bill don't even kick in until 2029.

And don't sleep on the parallel convo, about school closures. There are 21 elementary schools in PDX w/ fewer than 300 kids and a lot of others that are between 300-350. A campaign to persuade people to re-enroll (+understand why they've left) could help, but will it land?

Also, there's Benson HS in close proximity to both Jefferson+Grant, brand-new and fancy, w/ room for a/b 700 more kids, who can lottery into the school. Just saying.

The district is gambling that families won't leave, but data shows that already, about 31% of high schoolers who live in the district opt out of the public school system. Money follows students; the district can't afford to lose them en masse, esp. not w/declining birth rates.

And also, a big influx of whiter, wealthier students into Jefferson would fundamentally change the tenor of Jefferson, once the state's only majority Black high school and still a rallying point of pride for many in Portland's Black community.