The State’s Role

Article VIII of the Oregon Constitution also established the office of state Superintendent of Public Instruction. The superintendent is elected every four years at a general election. The state superintendent serves as the administrative officer for the State Board of Education and executive head of the Department of Education, directing all activities of the agency and providing assistance to public preschool, elementary and secondary schools. The superintendent and state board also are responsible for the state Schools for the Blind and Deaf, the educational programs at Hillcrest and MacLaren as well as for regional programs for children with disabilities.

In 1951, the Legislature established the State Board of Education with responsibility for establishing standards for public schools, adopting rules for the general governance of public schools and community colleges and regulatory responsibility to assure compliance.

The State Board of Education consists of seven Oregonians appointed by the governor for up to two four-year terms. One member is selected from each of Oregon’s five congressional districts and two are selected from the state at large. State board members are unsalaried and cannot be employed in public schools during their terms of service.

The Department of Education assists local school districts in working toward state standards and requirements established by the legislature and the State Board of Education. Local schools and communities set their own priorities among the goals to meet local needs and then allocate local resources accordingly. State and federal funds for local schools are administered by the Department of Education.

The general purposes of state standards and requirements are to guarantee students certain minimum educational opportunities, to provide for their physical safety and also to provide safe and equitable employment conditions for district employees. Many of these standards and requirements are changing as a result of state school improvement legislation, enacted in 1991 and amended in each legislative session since then, and also as a result of the revised federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act, also called the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001.

[Return to top]