Study Oregon Smarter Balance Assessment results with a grain of salt
By Terry Murry on Wednesday, September 23rd, 2026 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
SALEM – The Oregon Department of Education (ODE) will release the data for its Smarter Balance Assessment test tomorrow. However some educators warn parents that the results might not be a true reflection of how schools are doing. The Umatilla School District ignores them in favor of another assessment method and the InterMountain Education Service District Superintendent Mark Mulvihill wants to see the system redesigned.
“Right now in Oregon, students don’t have to take it if they don’t want to,” Mulvihill said. “They can opt out if families decide, which is really difficult for school personnel when those statistics are meant to be helpful.”
Mulvihill said that the districts suffer when the data is flawed.
“If we’re going to hold districts accountable to these targets and have a lot of it based on state testing, then we need to be able to have all of our kids test,” he said.
In the Umatilla School District all of the kids do test. They just don’t use the Smarter Balance Assessment. Superintendent Heidi Sipe says students at all the district’s schools are tested three times a year using the Measures of Academic Progress System (MAPS) from the Northwestern Evaluation Association.
MAPS testing shows that the Umatilla students are making progress that is usually above the state average for the Smarter Balance system. Sipes says that MAPS results help teachers pinpoint what a student needs and where they may need more support because if they get a question right, the next question may be more challenging. If they miss that question the test adjusts to offer one that is easier.
Umatilla School District says the three tests a year are valuable because they measure student growth over time, giving both teachers and families insight. They are not just a single snapshot of grade-level performance. Teachers also receive the results immediately instead of having to wait months for a look at student performance.
The problem with using a different measurement is that school districts don’t have a clear opt-out option for ODE testing. Therefore, people will see some data on tomorrow’s results that is flawed while the MAPS tests results are not.
In its self-issued report card, the district reports many successes. Examples are an 87 percent high school graduation rate in 2025. High school graduates have exceeded Oregon’s average for seven of the last eight years. In eighth grade mathematics, 43 percent of students met or exceeded expectations, while the Oregon average was 33 percent. In third grade English language arts, 55 percent of the students met or exceeded expectations compared to 44 percent for the state average.
