I’m not going to sugarcoat it: The past 10 days have been frustrating.
The governor’s order on instructional time came with scant warning and far too little input from the people who are actually in schools. Stand for Children’s comparison of instructional time, which was released today, adds layers to an Oregon problem we’ve known has existed for decades.
Everyone who works in schools understands our educators need more time with students. That is not even a question. The question is how. “Do more with the same resources” is not a plan.
Our schools are filled with educators who have spent years studying the latest education practices. Our school boards are filled with people who want the best for their students and their communities. If there was an easy answer or a quick fix, they would have found it already.
Oregon has tried the piecemeal approach. Just a few major examples from the past seven years:
- In 2019, we passed the Student Success Act.
- In 2023, we passed the Early Literacy Success Initiative.
- In 2025, we passed the Education Accountability Act
Each moved districts in a different direction, layering on new priorities, new requirements and sectioned-off funding. In between, lots of bills tweaked, pinched and prodded districts to do one thing or try another. No cohesive through line tied all these initiatives together so they are pulling in the same direction. Nor was any one given time to properly work before another patch was applied. The system, as it is currently designed, consistently fails to use best practices or good data to drive decisions. Instead it allows individual special interests to cobble together an education “system” through individual bills that often conflict with existing laws. This is not a recipe for success. It should surprise no one that Oregon is struggling to rise from the bottom.
To just focus on instructional time or accountability or class sizes or graduation requirements in isolation ignores that it’s not just one thing failing our students. It also ignores how many students are lifted up by the heroic efforts of staff and leaders who are then villainized for not doing more. The system is the problem. Oregon lacks clarity of who is responsible for what within that system. Until we have a real conversation about this bigger picture and peel back the layers and actually start to remove barriers for districts to do the work with clarity, Oregon will continue to fail our students.
School districts are massive operations with wildly complicated budgets that must account for unpredictable and variable revenue and costs. They oversee complex interlocking workforces and operations, and they must navigate a baffling web of national, state and local laws, rules, statutes and needs.
Instructional time is a big piece of that puzzle that we all know is critical to student success, and it is just one piece. Shift any one piece without looking at how it connects to all the others begs for disaster.
Oregon needs a real and comprehensive strategy for improving the whole system and not a constant chasing of patches and magical cures. Oregon’s public education problems are long-standing as districts have coped with consistently strangled funding. We’ve seen recent investments that help enormously, but it will take more than money to repair the damage.
It’s past time we step back and look at the whole system with the light of the experience and expertise of the people closest to the classrooms and the communities they serve.
We must start with student needs, and we must finish with what we as a state are willing to do for our children.
– Emielle Nischik, OSBA
Executive Director
