Oregon Schools Face New Pressure to Deliver Results as State Passes Accountability Laws

Oregon Governor Tina Kotek signed a package of education bills yesterday to entrench educational accountability in schools and boost students’ success.

Oregon Education Bills Signed Into Law

Four bills introducing new student performance targets for districts, strengthening oversight of educational spending, and expanding grant resources for early literacy and high school success have now become law:

Senate Bill 141

Ties accountability and the control of funding to measurable goals, overhauling how the state monitors and supports districts in improving student outcomes. Under the bill, the Oregon State Board of Education must:

• Develop statewide targets for key student outcome metrics, broken down into student groups by race, disability, income level, foster care, homelessness, and other relevant demographic factors; and
• Specifically set goals for on-time graduation rates, five-year completion rates, ninth-grade on-track rates, eighth-grade math proficiency, third-grade reading proficiency, and regular and early-grade attendance;
• Work with Districts, which get to select one locally selected metric, to develop district-specific performance growth targets.

The targets will be in place before the start of the 2026-27 school year, and Districts must publicly present their progress annually and must submit results to the state.

The bill also provides $2.6 million to the Department of Education to implement the program over the next two years.

House Bill 2140

Changes how the State School Fund- the primary financial source for school districts in Oregon- is projected and distributed to districts statewide. Lawmakers allocated about $11.36 billion to the fund over the next two years, the highest amount given to the fund in Oregon history.

The bill directs specific amounts to programs such as the English Language Learner Program, High Cost Disabilities Account, the Speech Language Pathology Program, and others. School funding estimates must be based on the second year of the biennium and account for local revenues.

The state must distribute 49% of the fund in year one of the biennium and 51% of the fund in year two.

House Bill 3040

Revamps Oregon’s Early Literacy Success School Grant Program and requires districts to submit detailed literacy plans and report annually on staff training, curriculum usage, and student outcomes.

The state can now withhold funds or take corrective action if districts fail to make progress.

House Bill 3037

Seeks to streamline state grants to smaller districts and expand access by reducing bureaucratic hurdles for smaller districts (those with fewer than 1,650 students) and easing applications and reporting requirements for smaller districts to receive non-competitive grants.