LA GRANDE — Local education leaders have varied feelings about the results of state assessment tests recently released by the Oregon Department of Education.

La Grande Middle School Principal Chris Wagner said the tests, given during the spring of last year, have value because they provide an indication of where students are following the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced school districts to provide only online instruction for extended periods of 2020 and 2021.

“They provide us with a baseline coming out of the pandemic,” he said. “We want to see where everyone is at so that we know what we should focus on.”

Statewide overall proficiency in English language arts, which includes reading, writing, speaking, listening and viewing, went from just over 50% in 2019 to about 44% in the spring of 2022. The assessments are given to grades three through eight and again in 11th grade.

Of the state’s 197 school districts, 111 tested below the state average in English, and 124 tested below the state average for math proficiency. Oregon’s declines reflect a nationwide trend showing student learning was negatively affected by the pandemic, which included months of online classes.

The assessment test results indicate the school district’s sixth graders last year topped the state average in math and English language arts, and its seventh graders were just below the state average in English language arts.

At La Grande High School, where just 11th graders were tested due to state requirements, the percentage of students meeting or topping state proficiency standards was above the state average in math, science and English language arts. In English language arts for example, 52.46% of LHS’s 11th graders met or topped state proficiency standards, well above the state average of 46.9%.

At the grade school level, the La Grande School District’s fifth graders also topped state averages in math, science and English language arts. Areas where grade schoolers were just below the average included English language arts at the fourth grade level.

Union School District Superintendent Carter Wells said the state assessment test results are a good tool for helping his staff meet the educational needs of students, but he said they may not be as valuable now as in the past. The reason, he said, is the number of parents who opt out of having their students take the assessment test has jumped since before the pandemic.

“Between 5% and 10% more parents had their children opt out,” he said.

Wells believes the reason is the pandemic that forced in-person instruction to be restricted and may have had an impact on student learning. Wells said the reduced number of students taking the test means that it is less of a true reflection of how well Union students are performing overall coming out of the pandemic.

“It has had an impact on the validity of the results,” he said of the pandemic.

Cove School District Superintendent Earl Pettit said assessment test results are valuable and the results should be used by educators to develop plans for boosting instruction to meet the specific needs of students.

Pettit, however, believes the Oregon Department of Education is not focusing enough on getting school districts to use them as an instructional tool. He said that instead it is placing an emphasis on addressing political and policy agendas. Pettit noted the test data is organized so that it compares how students of different ethnic backgrounds and families of varying economic status did. He said it does not compare results based on the quality of instruction provided or the type of curriculum used.

“There is not one word in the press release about instruction,” he said.