Small Schools gain in Reading, Writing and Math
Every year at this time the Oregon Department of Education releases the results of state standardized tests. They are referred to as OAKS (Oregon Assessment of Knowledge and Skills). They are a closely watched indicator of student achievement. In high schools, these math, reading and writing tests are administered to 10th graders.
The newest report released Monday captured results for the ’08-’09 school year. Looking at four-year trends, results for Oregon high schools were disappointingly flat. In math, the percent of students with passing OAKS scores declined from 56% to 54%. Reading results improved slightly, increasing from 65% to 66%. Writing dropped half a percentage point to 55%. The front page story in The Oregonian reflected this flat trend in high schools and similarly in elementary schools. The good news for Oregon is in middle schools, where student scores are “hitting historic highs.”Despite disappointing statewide trends in high schools, there’s reason to be encouraged by the results for students at schools in the Oregon Small Schools Initiative. For example, the Initiative schools composite shows a four-year gain of ten percentage points in writing, with 55.7% of 10th graders in small schools earning passing scores in the ’08-’09 school year. This exceeded Oregon’s average of 55%. In reading, the Initiative schools’ composite reflects a four-year gain of five percentage points to reach 64.8%. Initiative school composite gains in math were nearly four percentage points..
Most promising of all, though, were results from our Initiative schools that serve disproportionate percentages of students of color and students on free and reduced lunch. These schools experienced double digit gains in all three subjects over five years: 21 percentage points in writing, 13 in reading and 10 in math.
The Oregon Small Schools Initiative has been generously funded by Meyer Memorial Trust and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. With its two-year extension grant, Meyer Memorial Trust recognized the importance of time for the Initiative to capture meaningful comparative data on student performance. The ’08-’09 OAKS report provides another valuable year’s worth of data for analysis. Given the relatively small portfolio of schools and students, fluctuations and swings can be expected from one year to the next. Nevertheless, the OAKS results reflect the strong promise of small schools in creating conditions for improved focus on teaching and learning, and therefore student achievement.