That鈥檚 according to released on Thursday by the Oregon Department of Education from last school year.
Walt Davenport, superintendent of Central Point School District 6, said it鈥檚 really important that school districts work to increase student proficiency on these tests, meaning students have mastered their grade level standard.
"Is it an urgent situation? Yes, I would say that it's urgent that we see these scores improve, and to do that, we've got to pull on a lot of different things to make it happen," he said.
The district overall tested below the statewide average achievements rates in math, English language arts and science. It saw increases in proficiency in English language arts and math over the previous school year.
While the COVID pandemic played a clear role in decreasing proficiency on these tests, Davenport said it's not the only factor. In his district, he said staff turnover also played a role.
"We've had an enormous amount of staff turnover over the past three years. This has been the first year where we've seen our new teacher induction at less than about 20. In the past couple of years, we've had over 50 each year, and we have 250 licensed folks in the district," he said. "When you see repeated years where we have 50 or more new teachers coming in, that's a huge, huge factor in some of the skill level that we have, the years of experience that we've got."
Medford Superintendent Bret Champion agreed that the pandemic is not solely to blame, saying, "I don't lay this at the feet of COVID. I do lay it at the feet of all the things that have happened since then, some of which are tied directly to that."
He said other factors include an increasing focus on school choice and parents choosing not to send their children to public school, inadequate state funding and a trend of fake emergency calls at schools, which impacts the emotional and mental health of students and staff.
The Medford School District overall tested below the statewide average achievements rates in math and English language arts and above the statewide average achievements rate in science. It saw minor increases in proficiency in math and science over the previous school year.
Trish Evens, director of secondary education for the Grants Pass School District, said she hopes these testing levels aren鈥檛 the new normal and expects them to recover to pre-pandemic levels.
"Kids are different today. They lost a lot. Social emotionally, they lost a lot. Academically, they lost a lot, and I think it's going to be a while to recover, but we will recover," she said.
Grants Pass School District 7 overall tested above the statewide average achievements rates in all three subjects. It saw increases in proficiency in math and science over the previous school year.
However, district leaders also stressed that this data is only one piece of a student's overall success.
"I never want individuals to think like the state assessment data is the end all be all, because it is just one piece of a student's educational journey," said Ashland Superintendent Joseph Hattrick. "There's so much more to consider when looking at student success."
Ashland School District overall tested well above the statewide average achievements rates in all three subjects. It saw increases in proficiency in English language arts and science over the previous school year.
Still, school districts now continue to face the question of how to recover and regain the proficiency that appears to have been lost in recent years.
Evens would like to see more state funding to provide learning interventions for kids who need help, as well as professional development for teachers. She said behavioral issues have also become extreme, and addressing that takes additional resources.
"We need to help students know how to behave in class and not pick up a chair and throw it or take down a teacher," she said. "It's extreme, and it takes a lot of resources to manage the behaviors that we have in our school systems today that distract from reading and math."
Davenport in Central Point said they鈥檝e recently implemented new curriculums in language arts and math and are piloting a new science curriculum this year. He hopes they鈥檒l help students make big improvements on the statewide tests this year.
Champion from Medford said they've also implemented a new English language arts curriculum last year and will try a new math curriculum next year.
