Well, annual state report cards for all of Oregon’s schools have just been issued, and they’re not so great. Here in Corvallis, only 50.5% of students were proficient in English language arts, for math it was only 38.9%, and for science it was 37.7%.
Averaging schools statewide, the proficiency picture only gets worse, 43% for English arts, and 30% for both math and science.
The report is compiled yearly by the Oregon Department of Education. Proficiency, for purposes of this assessment, is defined as graduating students being either college or career ready. For students in lower grades it means having met the benchmarks on the way to achieving that result. Various subjects are tested at varying grade levels throughout each students education.
In general, scores have dropped 10% compared to pre-pandemic numbers, but the assessment does seem to show the declines have started to level off somewhat.
What Corvallis’ School Super Said: “This data demonstrates we are still coming out of the pandemic recovery, and our students who are our youngest learners continue to need support,” said Superintendent Ryan Noss in a release. “Staff across our district continue to support our students each and every day to make academic progress as we continue to move further from the pandemic.”
What the Oregon Dept. of Education Said: Charlene Williams, the education department’s interim director said in a news release that there is more to be done.
“We know that staff and students work hard throughout the school year in so many areas that aren’t reflected in this assessment data,” she said. “The results from a single test do not tell the whole story of education in Oregon, however they are important indicators that require our attention and more work ahead.”
Final Summer School numbers: In the summer of 2023, the Corvallis district served over 300 students; over 73 credits were earned in High School credit recovery.
Corvallis Fall Festival for Kids: Two sweet additions to this coming weekend’s Fall Festival, an Art Discovery Zone for kids, and a library book sale. Okay… the book sale may also be for adults, but the kiddos always uncover a treasure for themselves too
The Art Discovery Zone runs both days, and here’s the organizers pitch… Share your unique imagination with your community and see what you can make together! Visit the Art Discovery Zone and enjoy the act of creation with a variety of provided art materials. Kids are invited to contribute the sky or space-inspired artwork they will create for this year’s collaborative project, “Kids See: The Infinite Sky.” Following the festival, the finished artwork will be on public view for all of Corvallis to enjoy. All ages welcome.
The library book sale… It runs both days of Fall Festival, 9 am to 4 pm, in the main meeting room of library. Expect paperbacks for adults and children, both fiction and nonfiction. As always, the items will likely be quite reasonably priced, and there will be a large selection, especially on the first day.
Oregon Fentanyl Curriculum Could Go Nationwide: U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici wants to see school districts across the country have a fentanyl awareness curriculum that will help children and youth avoid the lethal, addictive drug that is cheap and easy to find.
Bonamici, a Democrat who represents Oregon’s 1st Congressional District, introduced a bill on Thursday that would provide $50 million in federal funding for school districts to create their own curriculum or use what’s in place in Beaverton School District, the first district in Oregon to create its own fentanyl awareness curriculum, called Fake and Fatal, in 2021.
Lives are on the line: Hundreds of Oregonians of all ages die annually from fentanyl overdoses, alarming public officials and devastating families.
Bonamici said the goal is to get a life-saving information about fentanyl out to students sooner with an act of Congress so local school districts have the support they need.
“If you go district to district or even state by state, it’s going to take longer and in the meantime, lives could be lost,” said Bonamici, who is sponsoring the bill with U.S. Rep. Kevin Kiley, a California Republican lawmaker.
The bill would start a pilot program with $50 million for the next three years so school districts and their public health departments could collaborate on curriculum. The bill does not cap how many school districts could participate. The money also would go towards public awareness campaigns, workshops and training for staff.
The awareness is about more than avoiding drug dealers on the streets – fentanyl is also disguised in what appears to be legitimate medication.
“We know that many young people are learning to buy fake pills often through social media, that dealers sometimes even deliver them straight to the victim’s home,” Kiley said. “But many teens and families don’t know these things, and don’t know the extent of the danger or how quickly it can arrive at their doorstep.”
In Bonamici’s district, the Beaverton program began after a former student in that district, Cal Epstein, died of fentanyl poisoning in 2020 when he mistakenly took a fake blue pill while on a break home from college. He believed it was OxyContin, but it was fentanyl, which is more than 100 times more powerful than morphine. His parents, Jon and Jennifer Epstein, advocated for the curriculum to become a reality in their community.
In a statement, the parents said the bill would save lives and help families avoid the tragedy they faced.
“There are no magic wands in this crisis and this is far from the only thing needed, but this will certainly make a significant difference,” the parents said.
The Beaverton district has not had any fentanyl-related deaths since, but Portland schools have. Two McDaniel High School students died in 2022, and earlier this year a teen at Franklin High died from a suspected fentanyl overdose.
Oregon faces an opioid crisis that killed 280 people in 2019, 472 in 2020 and 745 in 2021, according to the Oregon Health Authority. Many of the deaths are attributed to fentanyl, which is so potent that the equivalent of two grains of sand can kill. It is often laced in illicit pills that resemble prescription oxycodone or tranquilizers such as Xanax.
In Oregon, the curriculum work has expanded beyond Beaverton. This session, the Legislature passed Senate Bill 238, which requires the Oregon Health Authority, Board of Education and Alcohol and Drug Policy Commission to develop education materials to teach schoolchildren about the dangers of opioids.
Bonamici said the goal of her proposal is for districts to have the flexibility to design their own curriculum or use what’s already available and tailor it to their needs. At the federal level, officials don’t like to dictate a specific curriculum, she said.
– Oregon Fentanyl Curriculum Could Go Nationwide by Ben Botkin of Oregon Capital Chronicle. School Report Cards and Fall Festival by Advocate Staff.
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