National assessment shows Oregon students falling behind in key subjects

Oregon’s fourth and eighth-graders are struggling in key subjects more than students in most other states, a national assessment found. The National Assessment for Educational Progress, often referred to as the nation’s report card , shows that Oregon’s fourth and eighth graders scored in the bottom half of all states in math and reading proficiency in tests last year. The data released Wednesday shows that an achievement gap among the country’s high-performing students and those with the lowest scores has grown since the pandemic, said Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, which administers the tests.

Carr hosted a news conference Tuesday to discuss the latest data. “Student achievement has not returned to pre-pandemic levels. Reading scores continue to decline, and our lowest-performing students are reading at historically low levels,” she said.



“Our nation is facing complex challenges in reading.” Data shows student scores didn’t slide much in reading or math from the last assessment in 2022, but students weren’t doing well then, either. Among Oregon fourth graders who took the assessment last year, nearly half scored “below basic” in reading.

This was worse than the national average, which shows about 40% of U.S. fourth graders are “below basic” in reading.

This means these students struggle to read and understand simple words. Among Oregon eighth graders who tested, about 45% were considered “below basic” in reading. This means these students struggle to identify the main idea of a story as well as basic literary elements.

SPECIAL REPORTS: Oregon fails to turn page on reading “Our NAEP scores reaffirm the trends we’ve observed in our state assessments,” Oregon Department of Education Director Charlene Williams said in a statement. “ODE is expanding literacy efforts to reach schools serving some of our most impacted students, ensuring they have access to high-quality instruction and resources. Additionally, summer and extended learning opportunities are more important than ever in closing gaps and accelerating progress.

” The state’s own assessment data, published in October, shows students are still about 10 percentage points behind pre-pandemic achievement levels in key subjects. Gaps grow in the West When it comes to math, about one-third of Oregon fourth graders tested “below basic” in the national assessment, meaning they might struggle to add and subtract multi-digit numbers or understand the values and number placement in multi-digit figures up to hundred thousands. About 45% of eighth graders tested below basic, meaning they might struggle to solve equations with integers and fractions, and might have trouble using math to determine units of measurement such as length, area and volume.

Carr said across much of the West, higher-performing students continued to score high while students who needed the most help continued to fall behind. She said it was “not just a pandemic story,” and that there are no excuses for continued declines and stagnation. Some states, such as Louisiana, showed improvements in reading scores across all students.

“I understand that they did focus heavily on the science of reading, but they didn’t start yesterday,” Carr said of the instructional shift in recent years towards lessons rooted in neuroscience research around how the brain learns to read. “They’ve been working on it for several years. So I would not say that hope is lost, and I would not say that we cannot turn this around.

It’s been demonstrated that we can, even in reading.” Carr suggested that beyond instructional changes that might be needed, high student absenteeism rates in many states are playing a role. “I think one of the obvious messages that we can share out of these data is that you need to send your kids to school.

When they’re not there these data clearly show that they are less likely to learn. Those who don’t go to school learn less,” she said. Absenteeism remains a problem in Oregon.

Statewide, nearly 40% of Oregon students were chronically absent during the 2022-23 school year, marking a 20 percentage point drop from 2018-19. That means they missed at least 16 days in a 160-day period. National assessment surveys show that 45% of fourth graders in Oregon who took the test and scored below the 25th percentile in math, reported missing three or more days of school in the month prior to the survey.

Fourth graders who tested in the 75th percentile in math said they had been tutored within the last year. Carr said national surveys also have shown a decline in students reading at home and those who say they read for enjoyment while pointing to shifts in how students are tested and receive materials. She said teachers are asking less for essay responses to questions and that students are reading on devices that could contribute to disengagement with the text.

Across the board, students scoring both high and low in Oregon reported their teachers being available to help them when needed and that they believed their teachers expected them to do well. But a higher percentage of fourth graders who had the highest scores in math reported feeling comfortable talking with their teachers than students in the lowest 25th percentile. “We all need to come together as partners to catch these students up and improve achievement,” Carr said.

“And these results, as sobering as they are, show that once you unpack them, there is hope.” GET THE MORNING HEADLINES. SUBSCRIBE.