Bradley W. Parks
Originally published on January 21, 2021 6:31 am
Oregon’s graduation data for the class of 2020 is out, and the state’s graduation rate has increased for another year. The state’s four-year graduation rate is 82.6%, up more than 10 points from six years ago.
The state’s five-year completion rate, which includes students who earn GEDs or modified diplomas, was 87.2% in 2020, another all-time high.
The data shows an increase in graduation rates for specific student groups, including African American students up almost 6%, and Latino students up 3%.
One of the largest gains was with the state’s homeless students, whose grad rate rose to 60% in 2020, an increase of five percentage points.
2020 in review: The 8 Oregon education stories that defined the year
Updated Dec 31, 2020;
Posted Dec 31, 2020
Djuna Mains, 7 and Jada Lampton, 7 hug at a kid-centered gathering and march for Black lives at Sunnyside School Park in Portland on August 25, 2020.Brooke Herbert/The Oregonian
Facebook Share
Think of any major event that shook the state in 2020 and its impacts on education were immense.
Protests against systemic racism and police brutality led students to organize demonstrations, sometimes in the face of intense pushback from their own communities. And voters weighed in on education measures across the state, from construction bonds to funding for teachers.
Portland-area schools aren’t in for a wide-scale reopening despite looser state coronavirus restrictions
Updated Dec 30, 2020;
Posted Dec 30, 2020
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown on Dec. 23 announced school districts will take the driver s seat in making decisions over when students will return to classrooms. In the Portland area, most aren t rushing to open their doors.Photo by Dave Killen/Staff
Facebook Share
Oregon’s school closure mandates, once among the strictest in the nation, are officially no more. But that doesn’t mean Portland-area families will see a mass return to classrooms, at least not immediately.
That’s because many metro-area districts are still negotiating working conditions with their teachers unions and awaiting further guidance from the state, officials at various districts told The Oregonian/OregonLive this week.
Attendance and grading data show gaps widening for BIPOC students
By
Julia Silverman
12/14/2020 at 4:31pm
Teachers in the Portland metro area are giving more incompletes to their students in this pandemic school year.
As this most unusual of school years careens toward a holiday break, some early statistics are emerging about how the roughly 560,000 school-aged kids in Oregon, the vast majority of whom have not seen the indoor of a classroom since mid-March, are faring in a virtual learning world. Â it could be years until educators and policymakers get broad, comparative data to track how the pandemic, and the move to virtual learning, has academically affected kids ages 8 to 18.Â
Everyone wants to open classrooms, ‘it’s just a matter of how to do it’ safely amid virus, Portland Public Schools health advisers say
Updated Dec 16, 2020;
Posted Dec 15, 2020
Portland Public Schools has relied on a group of medical professionals to advise the district on its reopening strategy. On Monday, the school board heard from some of them, many of whom said district officials are tasked with a balancing act in considering education and public health.Photo courtesy Portland Public Schools
Facebook Share
When the Portland school board gathered a panel of medical experts, educators and students to discuss the district’s reopening strategy Monday, representatives from each corner of the Zoom room agreed: distance learning pales in comparison to in-person interactions between teachers and their pupils.