UMATILLA COUNTY — All the local school districts showed incomplete progress on their state report cards, but that was by design.

The 2019-20 report cards released by the Oregon Department of Education did not include ninth-grade on-track for graduation figures, attendance data and test scores the state usually shares with the district and the public, accounting for the pandemic that has forced students to learn from home since last March. All that remains in this year’s report cards is graduation data and demographic data for students and teachers.

“It’s not a useful document,” said Hermiston School District Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Bryn Browning.

Instead of relying on the data supplied by the state, Browning said Hermiston teachers are administering their own formative assessments to determine where their students need help academically. But given that these tests will be administered online instead of in person, Browning said it was far from the ideal way to gauge student performance.

Browning considered the district’s 74% graduation rate a bright spot, although it was still below the state’s 80% rate. But compared to where the district was five years ago, when it only graduated about 64% of its seniors on time, the 2018-19 graduation rate represents a vast improvement.

Across the county, the Pendleton School District is also conducting its own assessments to make up for the lack of state data.

“It certainly doesn’t make anything easier,” Pendleton School District Superintendent Chris Fritsch said.

While the state had to cancel the Smarter Balanced assessments last year, it’s still going forward with requiring districts to administer the tests this year. But without exam data from last year, Fritsch said teachers and administrators will be challenged to figure out where their students need help.

Fritsch said this conundrum demonstrates one of the pitfalls of relying on assessments to measure student progress.

“You can make some arguments about what it actually assesses,” he said.

Pendleton’s graduation rate was 80% in 2018-19.

In a persistent trend, there is a significant gap between American Indian students’ graduation rates and the rest of their peers. Fritsch said the district was aware of the disparities within that student group and was taking measures to fix it.

[EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been changed to reflect a correction.The districts’ graduation rates were attributed to the wrong year. It was 2018-19.]