ODE releases school assessments
By Terry Murry on Thursday, October 3rd, 2024 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
SALEM – The Oregon Department of Education made public its 2023-2024 assessment results this morning. The statewide assessments are given to students in third through eighth grade as well as 11th grade. Performances in math, language arts, and science are handed down to every school district in Oregon.
Both the Pendleton and Hermiston school districts showed improvements and areas that lost some ground. For example, in Pendleton scores improved from the previous year in nine of the 17 areas tested including third-grade language arts, fourth-grade math, seventh-grade math, eighth grade language arts, and 11th-grade math.
District administrators in Pendleton say they are taking a deeper dive into the test results over the coming weeks to identify specific areas which need more focused effort. Areas showing drops of at least five percent included fifth-grade students in science, math, and language arts; and sixth-grade math.
“Although we’d like to see improvement and growth in all areas, we are encouraged by these preliminary results,” Superintendent Kevin Headings said. “These improvements in nine areas, some very significant, validates all the hard work our staff do each day to educate every student, every day.”
“We appreciate the support from families and students who participate in these assessments,” Director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment Matt Yoshioka stated. “The results of these assessments provide feedback to our teachers and administrators to help identify where our greatest needs are.”
Hermiston School Superintendent Tricia Mooney reacted to what an early look at the results told her as well.
“These results continue to demonstrate that the initiatives we are focused on continue to improve learning outcomes for our students,” Mooney said. “However, we also know there is still much work to do. Specifically, we are committed to addressing early literacy for our youngest students, knowing the results of that work will begin to appear over the coming years in state assessment results for Hermiston School District as those students reach the intermediate and secondary grades. This concerted investment in our primary students will have a snowball effect on our entire educational system because we know if students become proficient readers, their academic prospects are bright in all content areas. Our future-focused vision is helping us reach a future where all Hermiston children graduate high school with the knowledge and skills they need to find success in their career and life pursuits. That doesn’t happen without a team of educators, like we have, who show up each day for our kids.”
Editor’s note: The Hermiston School District sent out the following information after this story was posted:
“The Hermiston School District has released its statewide test scores for the 2023-24 school year. The Oregon Statewide Assessment is administered annually in English language Arts, Mathematics, and Science. Students in grades 3-8 and 11 take the English Language Arts and Mathematics assessments, and grades 5, 8, & 11 are administered the Science assessment. Across all Oregon school districts, data shows an overall slight decrease in English Language Arts proficiency (0.5%), a slight increase in Mathematics proficiency (0.4%), and a minimal increase in science proficiency (0.3%) for all tested grades. In the Hermiston School District, overall student proficiency in all tested grades increased by 4% in English Language Arts, increased 2.1% in Mathematics, and decreased 0.8% in Science.”
The results for every school in Oregon can be found on the Oregon Department of Education’s website under reports and data at https://www.oregon.gov/ode/pages/default.aspx.
