Oregon is building a new education accountability system, and it’s pretty complicated.

With 197 school districts, numerous charter schools, and other educational settings like the Oregon School for the Deaf and recovery schools, students receive instruction in many different ways. There’s not one clear way to make sure all these different schools are educating their students successfully.

But Senate Bill 141, helmed by Gov. Tina Kotek, passed by the legislature this year, requires Oregon to figure it out. Quick.

That’s where the Oregon State Board of Education comes in.

On Thursday, the state board took a small step toward meeting that expectation by passing a set of rules for this new accountability system.

Here’s how it works, so far, with the new rules:

Statewide metrics

There will be seven statewide metrics for everyone to keep track of:

• Regular attendance for the whole district
• Kindergarten-second grade attendance
• Third grade English Language Arts proficiency on state tests
• Eighth grade math proficiency on state tests
• Ninth grade on track rate
• Four-year graduation rate
• Five-year completer rate (this includes students who get a GED instead of a diploma)

Most of these metrics are things Oregon already tracks, but the focus on attendance in early grades and 8th grade math scores is new.

Early next year, the State Board of Education will set the performance targets for each of those metrics — the percentages that schools are expected to meet. Schools won’t be expected to actually meet the targets until the end of the 2029-2030 school year.

But every school district will not be held to the same attainment targets. Instead, the Oregon Department of Education will use a system in which “similar districts” are clustered, with a percentile-based target for each cluster.

“We want to make sure they’re targets that we can reach and that we want to also push ourselves because we know that we need to continue to move forward and elevate our student outcomes across the state,” Oregon Department of Education Assistant Superintendent Cassie Medina said.

Medina said clusters are based on a “statistical analysis” that included several factors, like percent of students navigating poverty, students who have needed support learning English, and percent of mobile students.

Local metrics

In addition to the seven statewide metrics, districts and charter schools must also pick a local metric to focus on. The state board decided on those five options Thursday. They are:

• Fifth grade achievement on state science tests
• Change in scores on interim assessments in language arts and math
• Students earning credit for career technical education
• Number of students earning seal of biliteracy or multiliteracy
• Students earning dual credit, Advanced Placement, and completing International Baccalaureate

These new metrics show what Oregon considers important in terms of educational outcomes. At the same time, the way schools measure several of these metrics will be changing due to Senate Bill 141.

State education leaders are requiring schools to focus more on the use of interim assessments — tests which can be used multiple times a year to measure student growth — as part of the new accountability system. Senate Bill 141 directs the Oregon Department of Education to pick out four state-approved interim assessments for districts to choose from. That decision will be coming next month.

The state expects school districts to pay for these assessments if they’re not already using them, a concern for already cash-strapped districts preparing for another tough budget season.

“On top of all of the other things that we’re trying to balance as school board members, this is just something else,” said Becky Tymchuk, who chairs the Northwest Regional Education Service District board and serves as an advisor to the state board.

“Board members are very much for accountability in this system, we just want to do it in a way that we’re getting buy-in… these big decisions are being turned around so quickly.”

Metrics for different educational settings

On Thursday, the state board also approved metrics for six other educational settings:

• The Juvenile Detention Education Program
• The Youth Corrections Educational Program
• Long-term care and treatment programs
• Approved recovery schools
• Oregon School for the Deaf
• Education Service Districts enrolling students receiving specialized services

The students served in these settings may not meet typical measures of academic progress, often due to interruptions in education and other challenges. Most of the metrics for these other educational settings include dropout rates, percentage of students earning high school credit while in this setting, and the percentage of students enrolled in their local high school within 90 days of leaving the program.

The board did not approve exact metrics for education service districts. Instead the state board approved a plan for ESDs to work with ODE to come up with different metrics.

What’s next

More rulemaking, and guidance for school districts.

The state board’s next step is to approve the targets for each statewide metric next month. In February, the Oregon Department of Education will release guidance for districts on implementing the education accountability plan.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/12/12/oregon-moves-forward-education-accountability-plan/