The class of 2024 was one of the most disadvantaged groups of high school students in Oregon.
About one in four of them finished their crucial freshman year behind on the credits they would need to graduate because they started their year online. It wasn’t until sophomore year, when pandemic-era limitations persisted, that the majority returned to school buildings full-time. According to state statistics, roughly 40% missed at least 10% of the school days that year and the next year.
However, Oregon Department of Education officials reported Thursday that 81.8% of them graduated in four years, which is the second-best record in the state’s history and a modest increase over the previous year’s figure.
Oregon continues to score poorly as compared to other states, even though graduation rates have steadily increased over the past ten years. The National Center for Education Statistics reports that the average graduation rate in the country is 87.4%.
Additionally, according to state and national assessments, Oregon children’ proficiency in reading and arithmetic falls well short of pre-pandemic levels and is frequently among the lowest in the nation. That’s especially concerning for a state where per-pupil expenditure has skyrocketed and student poverty is comparatively moderate.
Resilience and dedication were credited by Governor Tina Kotek with the class of 2024’s near-record on-time graduation performance. Despite their inconsistent attendance, the pupils put in a lot of effort to receive passing grades, according to state schools chief Charlene Williams and her staff. After-school and summer credit recovery programs, career-technical course opportunities, and graduation counselors were also praised by state education agency leaders for assisting at-risk students in completing their coursework.
However, state leaders also admitted that they do not fully understand the class’s future, particularly the effects of grade inflation and what will happen to the about 45% of the class that are unlikely to attend college if past trends continue.
[Check the graduation rates for all Oregon high schools in 2024]
Oregon does not now track the outcomes of graduates who choose to forego college or trade school, does not share college-going data until 18 months after a class graduates, and does not currently collect student grades, though a pilot initiative to do so is underway.
According to Dan Farley, an associate superintendent at the state education department, the goal should be to collect as many post-secondary outcomes as possible in order to validate, if you will, the graduation rates that we are observing. Do they have any significance? Are they heavy? Do they truly have an impact on children’s lives?
After the state Board of Education deferred the requirements through the class of 2028, the class of 2024, like all graduating classes during the pandemic era, did not need to pass an exam or submit work samples in order to receive a diploma. Theoretically, that eliminates a graduation obstacle.
In an interview with reporters on Tuesday, Williams stressed that Oregon requires high school students to obtain more credits than almost any other state in order to receive a diploma. However, electives, health, and physical education account for seven of those twenty-four credits. While Oregon only needs three years of math, science, and social studies, several other states and jurisdictions, such as Alabama, Louisiana, and Washington, D.C., require all students to complete four years of these subjects.
The graduation data shows some encouraging patterns. The state’s huge investment in career-technical education expansion has paid off handsomely, thanks in large part to Stand for Children Oregon’s successful campaign to pass Measure 98 in 2016. A remarkable 97.7% of high school seniors who were career-technical education concentrators—that is, who completed at least two years of coursework in a single field, such as computer science or construction—graduated.
Additionally, the state education administration reported that the graduation percentage of 87.8% for children who acquired English in middle and elementary school programs was an all-time high for that demographic of teenagers.
When it came to getting children to graduate, metro area school districts—which profit from a diverse economy and a relatively educated populace—performed better than the state on average. However, the majority of the larger districts witnessed minor declines from the class of 2023, with the exception of Hillsboro, Reynolds, and West Linn-Wilsonville, all of which saw advances.
For instance, Beaverton’s four-year graduation rate was 87.9%, down 1.3 percentage points, while Portland Public Schools’ was 84%, down half a percentage point. For the class of 2023, it was 87.6% in Tigard-Tualatin, down from 88.5%, and 86.8% in the North Clackamas School District, down from 88.5%.
Canby, Corbett, Estacada, Gaston, Molalla River, Oregon Trail, and Riverdale are among the smaller or more exurban school districts in the metro area that have seen increases.
About 5,600 of the approximately 8,700 students who did not graduate within four years—roughly 18% of the total—left school without a diploma, presumably denying themselves access to the credentials that open doors to college admission or employment beyond entry-level, minimum wage jobs. The others registered for a fifth year of high school or obtained a GED, which left them with the chance to graduate.
For the first time this year, state education officials analyzed the data to demonstrate how poverty, a factor that affects pupils of all races and ethnicities, can have a substantial effect on a student’s performance.
The statistics are startling: 90% of white children who graduated within four years were from households who make too much money to be eligible for food assistance or who are otherwise protected from the worst family situations. However, among foster children and children from families receiving food stamps, experiencing homelessness, or frequently relocating in search of employment, that number fell to 67%.
The pattern is almost the same for Black students: just 67% of those from households with unclear finances graduated in four years, compared to 86% of those from families with better financial standing. Although the declines for pupils living in poverty were not as sharp, the pattern is still there for Asian American and Latino children.
Both at individual high schools and throughout the state, there are glaring differences based on poverty. For instance, children who did not experience extreme poverty at Roosevelt and McDaniel High Schools in Portland graduated at rates of 84% and 86%, respectively, which were on par with or higher than the district average. However, just 54% of Roosevelt high school graduates whose families were below the poverty line at any point during their time in school completed their education in four years. Just 61 percent did at McDaniel.
Portland’s chief of student support services, Jey Buno, stated in an interview that the district has made investments in academic interventionists and on-track coordinators, who pair at-risk ninth-grade students with academic interventionists and remain with them for four years to ensure they complete credits and receive additional academic support.
However, the district’s budget deficit for the 2025–2026 school year is $41 million, which might put some of those jobs in jeopardy.
No high school in the metropolitan area has attained parity in graduation rates between students from affluent and low-income families. However, some districts and schools are very near. For example, all four of Hillsboro’s comprehensive high schools have reduced their graduation rate discrepancies to seven to ten percentage points, despite serving large numbers of low-income students.
In 2024, her district received $1.5 million in state cash for summer school programming, some of which went to credit recovery workshops, according to assistant superintendent Audrea Neville. Additionally, Hillsboro, like Portland, has made investments in on-track coordinators who work with students throughout their time in high school.
According to Neville, each of the district’s schools has a designated point person that families who are having trouble paying their rent or buying necessities can contact to obtain assistance or be put in touch with a substitute provider.
According to Neville, it’s incredible how fast these supplies can be located and distributed to families. We can find a way to help if a family calls out and says, “We need glasses, or something.” We have faith partnerships where we can send out a call to everyone if they say they need a twin mattress because our home is bedless.
According to Principal Michael Dellerba, Tualatin High School, whose 87% of students who lived in poverty during their high school years graduated on time last spring, has a number of initiatives designed to identify children who could otherwise be expelled by the system. He claimed that efforts to shield such programming from budget cuts were succeeding.
A student in Tualatin High School’s LIFTT Program reads to kindergartners at one of the district’s elementary schools. Teachers say programs like LIFTT help keep at-risk students connected to school.With thanks to Crystal Corona
Crystal Corona, who teaches in the school s LIFTT program, which is tailored toward students who need both academic and emotional support, said her students have volunteered at the Humane Society, worked as mentors to middle school students and read books with kindergarteners. The goal is to help them see how they can find their identity, and see how they can be productive members of society, Corona said.
We also help them advocate when they need to speak to their teachers because a lot of times they won t go to certain classes [and] they re afraid to email a teacher, she added. But I would say the biggest piece is just being a consistent adult in their lives. That, more than anything, is what really gets them to the finish line, because that s usually what a lot of them are lacking.
Her colleague Wade Moyer is a ninth grade on-track coordinator who also works with another of the school s programs for at-risk students, called SQUAD, which includes students from stretched-thin families who are referred by middle school counselors.
Like others, Moyer said it s key to maintain relationships with students that will last throughout high school.
Recently, he said, a few students turned to him and his co-workers needing extra help as graduation approached.
It was the end of the year, and there were a couple kids that came from immigrant families. They didn t really have a lot of the same opportunities that a lot of our students have here at school, but they were so close to graduating and just needed to get over the hump.
Moyer said they threw them a writing party, a marathon chance to complete their assignments with intensive coaching from him and his colleagues.
That year, he said, every senior on the SQUAD graduated on time.
Julia Silverman covers education for The Oregonian/OregonLive. Reach her via email [email protected]
