The 2025 Oregon Legislature called for school accountability with Senate Bill 141. The State Board of Education will likely vote Thursday, Dec. 11, on the first major set of rules for the new law that will start taking effect next school year.
It’s a fast turnaround for a far-reaching oversight overhaul, but education advocates say the suggested rules have significantly improved since early proposals. A coalition of education advocates, including OSBA, is expressing mostly support for the new rules after what they called fruitful collaboration with the Oregon Department of Education. The coalition posted a letter, “Parasa Chanramy Public Comment on behalf of COSA, OSSA, OAESD, OASBO, and OSBA,” under public comment on the agenda.
The Legislature makes the laws, and the State Board of Education decides the details that direct how the laws will be implemented. ODE does the legwork to prepare those administrative rules for review and adoption by the state board.
Senate Bill 141, the Education Accountability Act, will affect the next school year. The state board is supposed to start adopting some rules this month, and ODE expects to begin releasing guidance and support for school districts in February.
ODE has been working for months on rules for the state board to adopt. Starting in the fall, ODE consulted statewide education staff, leaders and associations, including OSBA. ODE’s technical advisory committee included school board members from a small, medium and large school district. ODE staff put on an OSBA Annual Convention workshop and a webinar for OSBA members to ask questions.
The Thursday meeting is the board’s second public hearing on the metrics at the heart of the law and advocates’ discussions with ODE. The board is expected to adopt the rules Thursday, although they asked ODE staff to prepare alternative suggestions. If the board wants to pursue those alternatives, it could delay the adoption until January.
School districts will be held accountable for school and student performance on eight metrics: five taken from the Student Success Act, two named by the Legislature and one chosen locally from a list of no more than five options adopted by the state board.
The five metrics taken from the Student Investment Account:
- Third grade reading proficiency based on summative assessments
- Ninth grade on-track rates
- Regular attendance rates
- On-time graduation rates
- Five-year completion rates
The two metrics added by the Legislature:
- K-2 attendance
- Eight grade math proficiency based on summative assessments
Five metrics proposed by ODE for state board adoption from which districts must choose one:
- Fifth grade science achievement based on summative test results
- Academic growth based on interim assessments in language arts and math
- Career and workforce readiness based on career and technical education program participation
- Multilingual proficiency based on the state’s seal of biliteracy or multiliteracy achievement
- Postsecondary readiness based on students’ earning of dual credit, Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate credits.
It’s not known yet what the metrics’ target numbers will be. ODE is planning to group schools based on similar characteristics and then set statewide metric performance growth targets informed by cohorts’ starting points. ODE has created a spreadsheet of proposed clusters based on factors including size, location, student demographics and community resources. Districts have until Friday, Dec. 12, to appeal their cluster placement.
School leaders and advocates have helped shape the approaches for measuring the metrics but still have concerns. Oregon allows families to easily opt out students from statewide summative assessments, leading to low and potentially skewed participation.
The new law also requires districts to use interim assessments three times a year in math and language arts in K-8 and report the results at a school board meeting. Some of the metrics rely on those interim assessments.
Districts will be required to choose assessments from a list of four named by ODE. The department has said it will release the list in January. Many districts already use interim assessments, but some districts will need to either add assessments or change to an approved assessment. SB 141 did not provide funding for the assessments or the professional development necessary to give them.
The proposed rules include differentiated metrics for education service districts serving students, the youth corrections and juvenile detention education programs, recovery schools, Oregon School for the Deaf, and long-term care and treatment programs.
ESDs that offer specialized student services would need to adopt up to five metrics that:
- Measure student performance outcomes.
- Have at least two years of data with at least 10 students.
- Are disaggregated.
- Will continue to be measured.
- Provide annual data to ODE.
- Provide student-level data on request.
The new metrics for school districts and other groups offering public education have real consequences. Districts that don’t meet the metrics will be subject to increasing levels of ODE input, although it’s not defined yet what it means to meet the targets.
If a district isn’t meeting targets after two years, ODE will coach the district. If after the third year the district is still subpar, the coaching becomes more intensive along with additional state investments. If the district hasn’t met targets by the fifth year, ODE will be able to control up to 25% of a district’s funding.
ODE taking control of a quarter of district’s spending raises complicated budget questions considering that more than 80% of most districts’ budgets go to staff who have bargained contracts.
School leaders are asking for best practices and spending guidances now, before they fall short of metrics. ODE is working on those supports and plans to provide them before metric deadlines hit, according to Liz Merah, ODE spokesperson.
School leaders have questioned ODE’s ability, expertise and capacity to support district improvements. ODE’s capacity will be even more strained if the state’s tight budget leads to department cuts.
The department has created a detailed action plan with its own timelines, defined responsibilities and goals to implement SB 141, Merah said. The department’s strategy includes transitioning to a regional support model to be more timely and efficient.
Districts have repeatedly told the Legislature they are straining under the hundreds of reports and compliance certifications they already must file. SB 141 calls for streamlined school district compliance reporting requirements. ODE is working on a pilot program with 35 districts in 2026-27 with a possible statewide implementation the following school year.
Stacy Michaelson, OSBA government relations and communications director, said that although concerns about SB 141 remain, ODE’s collaboration has moved the proposed rules a long way toward being workable and useful for school districts.
– Jake Arnold, OSBA
[email protected]
