January 17, 2008

A report released last week by the magazine Education Week shows Oregon earning a D-plus for its K-12 public education. The report, dubbed Quality Counts, awards letter grades based on six areas: chance-for-success; K-12 achievement; standards, assessments and accountability; transitions and alignment; the teaching profession; and school finance. Five states — Idaho, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada and Oregon — and the District of Columbia received the lowest grade of D-plus. The study gave Oregon the following letter grades: C for chance-for-success; D for K-12 achievement; C+ for standards, assessments, and accountability; D for transitions and alignment; F for the teaching profession; and C- for school finance.

We’re not quite sure what all this means, but it does remind us of the adage: You get out of something what you put into it. That’s not to say Oregon doesn’t put a lot into K-12 education. Depending on who you talk to, Oregon is at the middle to high end of spending per student. What we’re referring to is what each of us, individually, puts into the education process. Are we helping in the classroom whenever possible? Are we helping our children or grandchildren at home as much as we could?

Perhaps some may be thinking, “that’s not my job,” or “what are we paying them for?” Keep in mind, the education process doesn’t being or end at school — especially in a smaller community. That process is played out at home, or on the weekend on the soccer field or Little League diamond.

That said, the fact that Oregon received an F grade for the teaching profession puzzles us. The study was based on “original data analysis and state-survey data, as well as published information from outside organizations.” Again, we’re not quite sure what all that means. We do know that Hood River is like many small communities, where our teachers also are our coaches and fellow club and church members. There are advantages to that — advantages that can’t be measured in a national survey. When our teachers are our neighbors, there’s a greater buy-in from many of them as to the well-being of their students.

Take what you will from Oregon’s D-plus education grade. There’s always room to improve. We’re better off than most to have the quality of teachers we do have in a smaller community.