It's a flat line for Oregon's Class of 2023, which weathered the pandemic from freshman year to graduation day. The Oregon Department of Education released data revealing that the on-time graduation rate for last year’s high school seniors remained stagnant at 81.3%, matching the previous class's performance. This figure, despite being the second-highest rate recorded in the state, suggests a pause in progress since those halcyon pre-COVID days when about 85% of students graduated on time, as reported by OPB.
“These 37,700 graduates overcame historic challenges to earn their diplomas,” Charlene Williams, director of the state education agency, told OPB. Among the state's biggest school districts, Beaverton boasted the highest graduation rate, nearing 89%, with Portland Public Schools trailing at 84.5%, and Salem-Keizer at 79%. Despite the overall static numbers, subsets of students, including English learners and special education students, saw their graduation rates rise according to the freshly crunched numbers.
In response to this flatline in broad graduation metrics, Oregon's education department pinpointed chronic absenteeism as an Achilles' heel, with over half of the state’s high school seniors missing significant class time last year. Williams emphasized the need for attendance recovery post-pandemic, telling media, "We really have to recover from the effects of the pandemic and get people back in school, on time, all day, every day so that our students can maximize learning," a sentiment echoed by the agency's recent figures published by The News Guard.
Yet, it's not all cloudy in the Beaver State. Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islander, and certain students in special education programs notably marked improvements, and close to 88% of English learners received their diplomas – a new school record. "Despite our slight overall drop, we have areas of growth and promise that are worthy of celebration," Deputy Superintendent Iton Udosenata remarked in a news release, demonstrating that while the data from the Department of Education doesn't paint a perfect picture, there are still wins to acknowledge as reported by The News Guard.
Addressing the numbers game and the imperative for educational support, Gov. Tina Kotek weighed in: “I am never satisfied when it comes to our kids. We will continue working hard to improve results in the coming school years,” she stated. Kotek is pushing for state lawmakers to toss more funding into summer learning programs in the 2024 legislative session—a proposal that can't come too soon for districts that previously had to scale back or outright eliminate such programs due to a lack of resources.
