OR tests show an expected decline
By Terry Murry on Friday, September 23rd, 2022 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
SALEM – The Oregon Department of Education has released its latest assessment test scores for students throughout the state and the results were expected. Last year’s Smarter Balance tests were the first to be administered since 2019, when the pandemic began. State educators expected the results to show a drop and they did.
“As expected, the pandemic had an impact on learning in Oregon and across the country,” ODE Director Colt Gill said. “With the right support, caring educators, and deep partnerships with families and community, our students will thrive.”
Hermiston School Superintendent Tricia Mooney said the results are in line with other measures the district has thoroughly analyzed.
“The results confirm that the systems we recently put in place are well suited to this task,” she stated. “Hermiston School District educators do the hard work each day to make our future-focused vision a reality.”
Pendleton School Superintendent Kevin Headings said the district will use the tests for third through eighth grade students as a starting point in pandemic recover. Because the tests are optional, PSD experienced a problem with the 11th grade students.
“We had very low participation for our 11th grade assessments,” he said. “It was below 50 percent and so the data there is very skewed. It’s not accurate data to do anything with.”
He said the school district will focus on encouraging those high school juniors to participate in the assessment testing this year and in the future.
“It really gives the school accurate information of where we need to improve our instructional programs and it also helps our students because it does the same thing for them,” he said.
