At-A-Glance School and District Profiles

At-A-Glance School and District Profiles include graphics showing how a school or district compares to the statewide average in categories like regular attenders, graduation rates, median class size and more. The profiles were developed with extensive input from Oregon families, including families of historically underserved students. The data points represent a comprehensive approach to evaluating and measuring a school’s impact on students. In five minutes or less, parents can get the comprehensive look at their school or district that they’ve been requesting. School districts are required to make the At-A-Glance School and District Profiles available to their community.

The Oregon Department of Education (ODE) produces yearly At-A-Glance School and District Profiles for schools and districts. These reports, called for by the 1999 Oregon State legislature and the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) which is the most recent reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), provide educators an opportunity to communicate directly with parents and community members about their schools and district.

The At-A-Glance School and District Profiles are published each year alongside the Accountability Detail Sheets. Together, the At-A-Glance School and District Profiles and the Accountability Detail Sheets comprise ODE’s larger reporting system as required by the Oregon State legislature and ESSA. The At-A-Glance School and District Profiles were designed by and for parents and community members to be an understandable and easy to read overview of how schools and districts serve their students. The Accountability Detail Sheets are more technical documents that provide information on school and district performance, improvement, and each school’s level of support under ESSA. The At-A-Glance School and District Profiles do not rate or grade schools and districts, and they are not used to determine levels of support under ESSA.

Oregon's Statewide Assessment System (OSAS)

Oregon's Statewide Assessment System (OSAS) currently includes summative assessments administered annually by subject matter and grade. Pursuant to federal and state accountability requirements, Oregon public schools test students in English language arts and math in grades 3 through 8 & 11 and science in grades 5, 8, & 11. Additional required assessments include an English language proficiency assessment for English learners (ELs) and the Oregon Extended Assessment for students with significant cognitive disabilities. These summative assessments used for accountability are customized for the needs of Oregon students; test development for these assessments has included Oregon teachers in all feasible aspects (e.g., item development, scoring rubric validation, standard setting).

At their most basic level, assessments are the tools and practices we use to collect and interpret the information we need to make decisions in everyday life. In education, teachers and administrators use state assessments, work samples, and other forms of assessment to measure how well students are learning and determine how best to support them moving forward.

Each assessment or assessment practice within the OSAS has a unique purpose, but all support stakeholders in understanding student achievement. Summative assessments, which are assessments of learning that has occurred, are designed to evaluate systems level patterns, akin to looking through a telescope at large planetary systems that do not change rapidly over time. Interim/benchmark assessments and formative assessment practices are assessments for learning; they are designed to guide instruction. Interim/benchmark assessments provide a seasonal gauge of learning, like looking through binoculars at aspects of the environment that change slowly over the course of several months. Formative assessment practices are designed to evaluate individual students in active learning environments, akin to the level of detail one would expect by looking through a microscope at busy, moving organisms that change moment-to-moment.

Quality assessments provide results that are used to inform a broad range of decisions at the classroom, district, and state levels:

• Students and their parents use assessment results to check mastery of key learning targets;

• Teachers use formative assessment practices and interim/benchmark assessments in the classroom to identify gaps in student learning and adjust instruction;

• Teachers and administrators use summative assessment results to review learning patterns annually, to determine systems-level changes that might be required from year-to-year;

• State and local leaders use summative assessment results to make important policy decisions, like where and how to invest in Oregon schools and how to hold schools accountable for the outcomes of those investments.

• Oregon's State Summative Scores and College Course Placement: In 2015, Oregon Community College Presidents and Public University Provosts agreed to incorporate Smarter Balanced test scores into their multiple measures processes for placement into credit-bearing college courses. This practice was disrupted by the COVID pandemic, as student participation in Oregon's English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics Summative assessments was significantly impacted in 2020. However, participation in these assessments are returning to pre-pandemic levels, which means that Oregon colleges and universities will once more be accepting ELA and Mathematics Summative scores as part of a multiple measures course placement process.

The Student Assessment Bill of Rights (ORS 329.479(6)(A)) requires that students be informed of the purpose of state summative assessments and how results are used. It is thus important to share that the results from state summative assessments are used by ODE to identify which schools and districts need additional supports and resources, and that all students play an important role in making that process work by participating.

This one-page informational document outlines the design and purpose of Oregon's Statewide Assessment System, including federal and state assessment requirements and the resources that the Oregon Department of Education are making available to support all districts for free in building formative practices and leveraging a high quality interim assessment system in support of balanced, coherent approaches to assessment that have been independently determined to align to the full depth, breadth, and complexity of Oregon's content standards.

Oregon law (ORS 329.479) permits parents/guardians and adult students* to annually opt out of Oregon’s statewide summative tests in English Language Arts (ELA) and/or Mathematics by submitting this form to the school the student attends. The school shall provide any student who is excused from a statewide ELA or mathematics test with supervised study time while other students are testing.

Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA), also known as the Buckley Amendment, is a federal law that governs the access to educational information and records and protects the privacy of students. FERPA applies to any educational institution that receives any federal funding, which includes all public schools and the vast majority of private institutions. Districts are required to notify families about FERPA annually, whether through start-of-year communications or by making the information accessible online.

FERPA affords parents the right to have access to their children’s education records, the right to seek to have them amended, and the right to have some control over the disclosure of personally identifiable information (PII) from the education records. When a student turns 18 years old, or enters a postsecondary institution at any age, the rights under FERPA transfer from the parents to the student (“eligible student”).

FERPA allows schools to disclose information from a student's education record, without consent, to the following parties or under the following conditions:

• School officials with legitimate educational interest

• Other schools to which a student is transferring

• Specified officials for audit or evaluation purposes

• Appropriate parties in connection with financial aid to a student

• Organizations conducting certain studies for, or on behalf of, the school

• Accrediting organizations

• Appropriate officials in cases of health and safety emergencies

• State and local authorities, within a juvenile justice system, pursuant to specific state law

• To comply with a judicial order or lawfully issued subpoena

For more information, visit Oregon Department of Education's Student Records and Privacy page or the US Department of Education's FERPA website.