All Oregon school districts will set goals to improve next year on key indicators of student progress, as the Oregon Education Investment Board unanimously approved K-12 achievement compacts. The measures as adopted March 13 by the board are:

• Kindergarten readiness (under development – to be piloted by a handful of school districts next year)
• Students’ third grade reading and math skills, as measured by the state’s OAKS tests
• Students missing fewer than one-in-10 school days in sixth grade, as attendance is an indicator of health, academic success and eventual graduation
• Students entering 10th grade with at least six high school credits and at least 90% attendance in 9th grade
• Students graduating with a regular diploma on-time or in a 5th year; students completing high school with any diploma, a GED or alternate certificate within five years of entering high school
• Students graduating from high school with nine or more college credits
• Students enrolling in college or career training within a year of graduation

The measures adopted reflect significant input from educators, students and their families, community organizations and employers, through community forums, an advisory committee and in public testimony. There was strong support for focusing on the critical measures research shows indicate that students are on track to succeed – not simply standardized test scores. In fact, only the third grade measures rely on state testing.

The board also listened to the urgency of continuing to track student achievement for each group of students, especially those historically under-served by public schools: English language learners, students with disabilities, those from low-income homes and most students of color. Such “disadvantaged” students will be grouped into one high-level goal, with school districts also asked to set goals for each separate category of students.

In addition, the K-12 achievement compacts track how many schools in the district have been designated as a “focus” or “priority” for school improvement efforts under federal law and also how the school district’s funding compares with the state Quality Education Model’s calculation of funding needed to ensure the state’s quality education goals.

Staff to the Oregon Education Investment Project, with support from the Oregon Department of Education, will use existing state-collected data to start to fill in compacts for each the 197 Oregon school districts. They will then send the compacts on April 2 to superintendents and school boards for completion. Working with their employees and community, boards will adopt goals for 2012-13 in their compacts by July 1.

Legislation passed early in March established the achievement compacts as a new tool for aligning the entire public education system – from preschool through graduate school – to meet the state’s goals for high school and college completion. Those goals are that 40 percent of Oregonians by 2025 will earn a bachelor’s degree or higher, another 40 percent will complete an associate’s degree or earn a technical certificate and the remaining 20 percent will complete high school.

Newberg's Achievement Compact
Cabinet will review the latest Achievement Compact information from the Oregon Education Investment Board on Wednesday. We will develop a timeline and process to include stakeholders and the Board in establishing our district targets. We already have targets in several areas but will review those targets and establish others in our process.