XPost: alt.education, or.politics, sac.politics
XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.politics.homosexuality
PORTLAND, Ore. — For years, Oregon students have struggled in the
classroom. Chronic absenteeism is a widespread problem, and Oregon's
fourth graders statewide are among the worst nationally in math and
reading.
On Thursday morning, superintendents from the Beaverton, Portland and
Parkrose school districts spoke at the Portland Metro Chamber Forum to
discuss those and other challenges they're facing, and to talk about
possible solutions.
They noted that the chronic absenteeism problem extends statewide, and
even when students are in the classroom, teachers are struggling with
kids who have more behavioral issues than students did pre-pandemic.
School leaders at the forum mentioned that there’s also not enough state funding to accomplish all of their goals.
A large portion of the forum was spent talking about literacy scores, particularly the low national ranking of Oregon's fourth graders.
Fourth grade is a key age group for reading skills, because it's
supposed to be a point in kids’ education where they begin to use their reading skills to learn in other subjects. If they’re still struggling
to read at that point, problems in other subjects will begin to snowball
into larger challenges.
Superintendents at the forum urged people in attendance to become more
involved in their schools, tutor children and vote for school measures.
At the same time, school leaders are pushing state lawmakers for more
funding as well.
"(The number of) our students who are reading at grade level is
concerning,” Portland Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Kimberlee
Armstrong said. “And so, we need to put our resources where our students
are. And that's our commitment locally. I want it to be our commitment statewide."
School funding has been a big topic for more than a year. Many state
lawmakers have agreed that schools need more funding, though some
including Gov. Tina Kotek have pushed for more accountability around how
state funds are spent by school districts.
While the state legislature has provided more education funding in
recent years, test scores have still slumped, and many school advocates
have argued that the increased funding remains far below the level
schools need to be successful.
https://www.kgw.com/article/news/education/oregon-superintendents-forum-s tatewide-education-problems/283-7582d091-6a54-408f-a57b-b432870c9dbb
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)