Education

Empty classroom

Latest state education report shows low participation, progress

BY: - October 7, 2021

The Oregon Department of Education took an incomplete on its yearly report card for schools and districts issued Thursday.   Participation in standardized testing for the 2020-21 school year was down 70% across the state, according to Jon Wiens, the department’s director of accountability. In a press conference held in advance of the At-A-Glance Report release, […]

FBI to investigate threats made against school board members, teachers

BY: - October 6, 2021

WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice has directed the FBI to meet with local governments and law enforcement to discuss strategies for dealing with increasing threats to teachers and school board members spurred by a conservative backlash against discussions of race in public schools. “Threats against public servants are not only illegal, they run counter to our […]

Ethan Kemper at desk doing homeschool work on the computer.

Despite return to in-person classes, many who chose homeschooling during pandemic stay home

BY: - October 6, 2021

By May 2020, Ethan Kemper had all but given up on school. Banks High School, where he was finishing his freshman year, had gone to a pass/no pass grading system after having in-person school derailed by the coronavirus.  Jacoba Kemper said her son’s classes felt unplanned, communication between the teachers and Ethan lagged and filling […]

Student getting served lunch at Salem school.

Oregon school districts navigating food shortages, supply chain issues

BY: - October 6, 2021

Not long before a recent nacho lunch day in the Hillsboro School District, Nate Roedel learned that he wouldn’t receive the 120 cases of tortilla chips he’d need to make more than 13,000 meals. Luckily Roedel, executive director of nutrition services for the district, had gotten good at improvising. The last two months of food […]

COMMENTARY

Vaccinations advance at Southern Oregon University despite regional challenges

BY: - October 5, 2021

ASHLAND – Education works. Outreach makes a difference. Encouragement is a key. Southern Oregon University is located in and serves a region where COVID-19 vaccination is not yet universally accepted as the most effective weapon against our ongoing pandemic, and the most direct path toward a pre-COVID way of life. But SOU gladly qualifies as […]

Democrats’ vision for free community college would boost undocumented students

BY: - October 5, 2021

WASHINGTON—The massive economic policy package Democrats are trying to muscle through Congress could open the door to free community college for undocumented immigrants. But that lifeline for many people now denied access to higher education could also reignite controversies in Republican-leaning states over immigration and federal overreach. The provision on immigrants was included in a plan drafted […]

A teacher cleans a classroom to prepare it for students

New emergency substitute teaching license attempts to solve statewide shortages

BY: - October 5, 2021

Hiring substitute teachers has been difficult in Oregon for a number of years, but the pandemic has made it worse.  Superintendent Dan Goldman, who coordinates the hiring of substitutes for the Northwest Regional Education Service District, had only 65% of the substitute teachers he needed last week to fill classrooms in the 20 school districts […]

Congress has a plan for universal pre-K. Will states opt in?

BY: - October 5, 2021

WASHINGTON — Nearly a fifth of President Joe Biden’s $3.5 trillion sweeping social spending package is dedicated to providing low-cost care for children from birth to kindergarten—investments that would benefit single parents and low-income families. But how the states implement their programs for pre-K for 3-and 4-year-olds—or whether they even decide to accept the cash, […]