It鈥檚 been three years since the Oregon Legislature passed the , a law creating a new tax to support K-12 education in the state.
With hundreds of millions of dollars going to Oregon schools from the tax, a from the Secretary of State鈥檚 office and the Oregon Audits Division released Tuesday outlines five risk areas that could undermine those spending efforts and jeopardize student achievement going forward.
The report is not an audit, but an 鈥渁dvisory鈥� report directed toward elected officials including the Governor and legislators who can then work with ODE.
鈥淚 ordered this new style of report to provide proactive support to state leaders,鈥� said Oregon Secretary of State Shemia Fagan at a press conference Tuesday morning.
鈥淲hile most audits look at the past, for past performance, this systemic risks analysis and report is designed to head off problems before they occur.鈥�
Fagan said by naming these risks, the goal is for Student Success Act funds to lead to real improvement for students across the state.
鈥淲e need to not see a gap for students of color, we need to not see a gap for students who don鈥檛 speak English as a first language, we need to not see a gap for students who are in high poverty schools or high poverty communities,鈥� Fagan said.
鈥淲e鈥檝e got, what we think is a fairly strong plan here as a state to improve K-12 education, and so we just want leadership to make sure that they鈥檙e focusing primarily on that, and not adding a lot of new complexities to the work that ODE and districts have to do,鈥� said Oregon principal auditor Scott Learn.
The report warns that taking the proper steps threatens the effectiveness of the additional investments.
鈥淣ot addressing them [the risks] could allow lagging student results and equity gaps for low-income and historically underserved students to persist despite a historic investment in the education system,鈥� according to the report.
The report begins with a history lesson of 鈥渁bandoned鈥� efforts that preceded the Student Success Act, starting with the certificates of initial and advanced mastery, created by Oregon legislators more than 30 years ago.
Unlike those past efforts, the state education department has upped staffing to support the implementation of the Student Success Act, and the state has provided funding streams for both the SSA and Measure 98, the high school student success fund approved by voters in 2016.
But the report finds 鈥渞isks鈥� that could keep these measures from leading to better graduation rates or equity for underserved students.
The risks identified in the report include performance monitoring and support; transparency on results and challenges; spending scrutiny and guidance; clear, enforceable district standards; and governance and funding stability.
The report includes 鈥渟uggested leadership actions鈥� for each stated risk that include ensuring ODE has staff to better monitor school district performance and spending, as well as stronger enforcement of a host of standards 鈥� often called 鈥淒ivision 22鈥� 鈥� which all districts are required to adhere to. The actions also call for more staff at ODE to mitigate these risks, in addition to stable funding and leadership at the state level.
The authors of this report went back through six years of past audits and called out persistent areas of tension, such as the competing forces of oversight at the state level and the autonomy of individual school districts. The report concluded that 鈥渁 lack of intervention by ODE, despite significant problems at the school and district level, has been a larger problem than infringement on local control.鈥�
Oregon principal auditor Krystine McCants said findings from past audits show that sometimes ODE is unable to implement recommendations. The goal of this report, she said, is to play a larger role in helping ODE make improvements.
鈥淲e see, throughout audits, places where they can鈥檛 move forward with a recommendation, or there isn鈥檛 a recommendation we can make to them, because changes need to be made at the legislative or policy decision level above them,鈥� McCants said.
鈥淎nd so, this report is addressed to leaders who can take on those roles of keeping ODE on the right track and trying to remove or improve some of those barriers that have been challenges to us in past, and in theory, future audits.鈥�
In the five years since a , ODE had not fully implemented any of the 15 recommendations made by the audit鈥檚 authors. One of the recommendations, to develop public measures to evaluate alternative school performance, will 鈥渓ikely need legislative action to increase capacity鈥� in ODE鈥檚 Data and Accountability office, according to ODE Alternative Education Options Specialist Annie Marges.
Officials from the Secretary of State鈥檚 office and the Oregon Audits Division say they鈥檝e been in touch with the Oregon Department of Education, the State Board of Education, representatives from the Governor鈥檚 office, and legislative leadership.
Oregon Audits Division Director Kip Memmott said the office will have another similar report out in the future on water sustainability and safety in Oregon.
Though the report does not address significant increases in Oregon districts have at their disposal to address unfinished learning from the pandemic, Memmott said the audits division has a team focused on education and that it鈥檚 鈥渙n their radar.鈥�
鈥淭his report could mirror as a...map to where the audits division will be leaning into for audits in the future,鈥� said Andrew Love, manager of that education team and audit manager for the new report. 鈥淭hese are areas that we see as high risk, and moving forward, we鈥檒l be doing some work in almost all of these areas.鈥�
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