Pasing OAKS

Oregon schools have received their last set of scores from the Oregon Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test.

The raw results of the 2013-2014 state testing cycle were made public today in advance of the Oregon Department of Educations comprehensive report cards and school ratings to be released later this fall. 

Next years report cards will reflect the scores of a new test called the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, which was designed to match the Common Core curriculum being adopted across the country.

Helix School District superintendent and principal Darrick Cope said after years of preparing for the transition, many educators are raring to go.

When youre focused on the Common Core but still testing kids with OAKS it kind of makes your test scores questionable, he said. Were at the point now that were saying Bring it on. Weve been hearing about it for three years. Lets do it, and if we have a drop in test scores we can make some changes.

The report released Wednesday shows the number of students in each grade who exceeded, met or did not meet the standard in reading and math. Fifth, eighth and 11th graders also took assessments in science and 11th graders took a writing assessment. Parents can look up the numbers by school or by district and compare them with the state average at http://bit.ly/1rK66iC.

Results for the 13 school districts and 50 schools covered by the East Oregonian were a mixed bag, especially when broken down into individual grades and schools. But at a district level most school districts hovered slightly below the state average for the number of students meeting the benchmarks for reading and math.

Helix was the exception to that trend, with 75 percent of students meeting or exceeding the reading benchmark and 71 percent doing the same in math. Statewide 71 percent of students passed their grades reading test and 62 percent passed the math test.

Cope attributed much of Helixs success to its small class sizes, which average about 16 students per class. He said Helix has also had full-day kindergarten for seven years now and far exceeds the required number of classroom hours per year at a time when most districts have slashed days and hours to save money.

With the economic downturn people would cut days, cut staff. We fortunately didnt have to cut any days or any staff, he said.

As test scores came out in Hermiston, the district was focused on the positives, especially at the high school level, where 87 percent of students met the reading benchmark and 79 percent met the math standard. Thats compared to 85 percent of high school students statewide meeting the reading standard and 69 percent meeting the math.

Our goal is to produce college- and career-ready students post high school, assistant superintendent Brynn Browning said in a statement. This means that each and every grade (K-12) must produce students ready for the next level. We have a systematic approach and yes, I believe we are doing the right things.

She said out of the 23 categories for growth, the district saw gains in 15. In nine categories the district was above the state average, with most of those performances coming from the upper grades.

In Pendleton, the districts overall reading scores beat its math scores by a full 10 percent, with 59 percent of students passing the math benchmark and 69 percent passing the reading.

Morrow School District, with its range of schools across the county, saw schools like Heppner Elementary and AC Houghton Elementary outperform the state average by several percentage points, while other schools like Sam Boardman Elementary and Windy River Elementary came in several points below.

Superintendent Dirk Dirksen said overall he was pleased with the districts language arts performance and saw the need for improvement in the math category.

Math has kind of been a target area for us this year, he said.

Dirksen pointed out that the overarching goal for school districts is to prepare students for life after school, so high school graduation rate can be a better indicator of district success than test scores. In 2013, 77 percent of Morrow School District students completed high school.

Weve had good success getting kids over that hurdle, he said.

Some schools OAKS test results dont show up on the 2013-2014 report card because they were pilot schools for the Smarter Balanced test instead of taking the OAKS. Superintendent Heidi Sipe said Umatilla School District is one of those districts.

Umatilla has been an early adopter of the Common Core curriculum and matching Smarter Balanced test. Sipe said she looks forward to the day when the district can get back to an apples to apples comparison on state report cards as other districts finally make the jump to Smarter Balanced.

Sample tests at all grade levels for the new Smarter Balanced test can be found online at sbac.portal.airast.org/practice-test.

Contact Jade McDowell at jmcdowell@eastoregonian.com or 541-564-4536.