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The worst schools in Oregon are the public universities. The state schools are limiting enrollment, and even at that, students often have to stick around for an extra year or two because they can't get the required classes they need to graduate. It's probably best to plan to pony up out of state tuition or private university tuition for your child's college education.
Elementary schools are pretty standardized. It's the high schools that fall down on the job. Statewide, the dropout rate is 26%, and some high schools have dropout rates that are substantially higher. It's easy to meet national testing standards when you get rid of the bottom 26% of the curve.
I wanted to say that the schools here in Buffalo, NY where i live may seem great but only few actuall yare. All states have that problem. You got to look for a school thats safe for kids and work with them yoourself. If you try to help your child and aid them while in school and push them in a more positive light they are more likely to succeed. Not to mention if you keep in touch with the schoo land teachers to make sure you child (or children) are doing well you'll be able to find out if there is something wrong and work with the school to find a better solution. School is tough for kids now a days anyways soof course grades are going to fall, so many schools are worried abotu the overall average than the individual because the overall is what grades the school better. So don't take chance with just sending them off to school and hoping they'll do better, get involved! Help them with homework, think of ways to make school more enjoyable, listen to their problems with school and help them find solutions but don't do it for them.
The real measure of education comes from your own individual desire to learn and the mentors that you have in your life. You don't need to go to school to learn, there are many othere venues to enhance your education.
Yes and no. Certainly motivation is a key factor, but I definitely saw the impact of lack of funding in Oregon, particularly when compared to Montana. And the differences may be school-specific I don't know. In Oregon my kids had GOBS of homework. The school days there are certainly shorter than other areas. Not enough time in the day to teach all that needs to be learned let alone give individual attention. My 1st-grader was held back for lack of staff to support his special needs in the next grade up. I could have fought it but in whose best interest? He didn't get nearly enough speech therapy due to funding. There was no counselor available to him, those people had been cut.
When we went to MT, my 5th grader was WAY behind in math and Oregon hadn't even introduced cursive writing yet! The kids had way more challenging homework but not the heavy load Oregon had and Montana had a little longer days. If you google it, Oregon has one of the shortest school days and years I think among all the states.
I have heard that Oregon's schools were good in the 90s. I think until the government gets its act together, both local and national, and people decide schools are worth paying for, Oregon schools will suffer.
We have experienced public schools in Texas, California, Oregon, and now Washington state. In Texas, we also homeschooled and tried out a private Montessori school.
My family had a wonderful experience with a Eugene, OR public elementary school. We lived there for three years and our children attended Gilham Elementary which is in the northern part of Eugene. We were very happy with the school. The teacher's were wonderful, the staff wonderful, our kids did very well. I spent most of my time volunteering in the classrooms and was a member of the PTSA. That school really has it together.
Eugene has some great schools - and some not so great schools. I think that is true anywhere, whatever state you find yourself in.
And like someone else said - the quality of the school greatly depends on the amount of support it receives from it's community. In Eugene, the schools which had the greatest support generally were the better schools. It just happens that the communities able to give such support are also the more affluent ones with the most time and money to give...
We are currently in Washington state. Our particular school is wonderful, but there are some really awful schools here as well. You can't say "Washington schools are crummy" just as you cannot say "Oregon schools are crummy"... it's really a case by case basis. Even within one school district you will have good and bad apples.
I moved from Oregon to Michigan 1 1/2 years ago, and a huge part of our decision was because of the poor Oregon schools. My kindergartener was in a class with 45 other kids! Other kindergarteners! He was only taught by the teacher abotu 4-5 hours a WEEK. All of the other time was spent with aides, who were nothing more than high school granduates, with very little training. The school days kept getting shorter and shorter, the class sizes fuller, they had more and more days off each year, threats of teacher strikes. I agree that the teachers were very good, committed (well paid) and I had no complaints about them what so ever. They were terribly burned out though, and my older son was falling through the cracks. He was in class of over 30 when we left, and becasue he wasn't a discipline problem, was pretty much ignored despite me questioning his progress. When we moved to Michigan, he was imediately identified as needing additional acedemic help as he was quite a bit behind the kids here. They are now in classes with less than 20 students. Michigan has a law that requires the teacher to spend "x" amout of time with the students per year. As far as I know with Oregon, they don't. They have art, PE, music here, and until thes year (high gas prices) used to have field trips that they never had money for in Oregon. They have much more after school activities here, and tons more sports, even in grade school. It's night and day, and we're in a MORE economically hurting area in Michigna than we were in Oregon. Here we raise money for fun stuff like educational assemblies. In Oregon we were raising money for stuff like paper towels and school supplies. I'm not joking.
One other thing I'd add is that I grew up in Louisiana schools, known as some of the worst in the country, and yes, my parents played a huge role in educating me, but they aren't teachers, and neither am I. After moving outside of Louisiana, I became much more aware of how my inferior education had hurt me. Good education lasts a lifetime. It is incredibly important to me. I'm very impressed with the governor of Michigan who has put her foot down and refused to cut education. I wish that Oregon's governor had a bit more ... how should I put it... "backbone" (I was thinking about another b word)?
I think that the many retirees moving to Oregon just don't want to pay for schools. In the 16 years I lived there I watched with shock and awe as the schools went downhill. I love Oregon dearly, but I won't be moving back as long as I have kids in public school. We could never afford private.
I have many other friends with children who have either moved or are homeschooling. It's not just hype.
it really depends on the school you are in...
I love my kids school. My youngest has 14kids in her kindergarten class. One teacher, 2full time aides. They do PE 3x a week, music each day, and have already gone on 2 field trips. They have a Marine Biology lab there at the school that the kids all learn hands on by certified marine biologists. They have reading programs where the kids are split up each day by their levels and work in small groups, or one on one. They have done fundraising, but it was to build new equipment on their playground. This is just a regular private school, the other schools here have the same programs. the Jr High here is great too, my oldest has been involved w/everything from career counceling, to art, after school sports to drama. And yes, they have PE everyday.
Grant you, there are some lousy schools in Oregon. But arent there some bad ones in every state?
Please dont bash every single school and say they are all bad, because there really are some excellent ones here as well.
Tiffany
public schools are not about teaching children to learn, they are about teaching children to memorize and be good citizen slaves.
freedom
Oh, it's not like that! Here:
Yesterday in fact my main lesson in Social Studies was on economics --- various terms (trading, bartering, savings, debt, credit) etc., and the kids and I had wonderful conversations about the problems with debt -- how it occurs and limits your freedom. (And, you know what? These elementary school kids had already gotten credit card offers in the mail!) In fact, speaking of slavery I said never want them to get stuck with credit card debt and all that kind of "slavery". We talked about what they could make. What could they barter? How could they be self-reliant? Today we talked about the diversity of our state in the 1700s -- the different waves of peoples' who came, what they brought, how they lived, and how the affected the land and cultures. They made huge murals of various regions. In Writing, they are creating fiction stories. In Science, they made a full circuit and made little lighthouses that lit up! In Math, they are at all different levels, but some are learning measurement, and others are learning fractions.
It's all right.
By the way, WOMEN OF OREGON, moms, teachers -- You are *holding that ship together* out there! I mean I know wonderful men work and help out in the schools, but it's mainly women and you all are holding-it-together. You deserve the best. The caring professions are worth the most.
There are a multitude of issues here. First of all, as mentioned before Oregon shifted it's funding from a local level to the state level. Property taxes go to the state who then redistributes them equally per child enrolled. What this did was give rural schools more funding and in-city schools less. This coupled with Measure 5, which put a cap on how fast property taxes could go up per year, really impacted schools significantly. I want to say it was passed in 1991, but I would have to google it.
Field trips and special programs were cut. My local elementary school does well. We are a middle to upper middle class area so parents can afford to do a lot of fundraising. I know my son's schools raises more than any other elementary in Salem. His first grade class is 23 kids. My son goes from 9:15-3:30 so I don't know how that compares to other parts of the country. I actually find he does not have enough homework and so we have homeschooling books that we have purchased to supplement.
My son has computers, art, and music 1x per week, and PE 3x per week. I think they take one field trip each semester. I am for the most part happy with his schooling so far. I volunteer one day a week and his teacher is great. I think his teacher does a great job of encouraging kids to think and be creative.
Yesterday in fact my main lesson in Social Studies was on economics --- various terms (trading, bartering, savings, debt, credit) etc., and the kids and I had wonderful conversations about the problems with debt -- how it occurs and limits your freedom. (And, you know what? These elementary school kids had already gotten credit card offers in the mail!) In fact, speaking of slavery I said never want them to get stuck with credit card debt and all that kind of "slavery". We talked about what they could make. What could they barter? How could they be self-reliant? Today we talked about the diversity of our state in the 1700s -- the different waves of peoples' who came, what they brought, how they lived, and how the affected the land and cultures. They made huge murals of various regions. In Writing, they are creating fiction stories. In Science, they made a full circuit and made little lighthouses that lit up! In Math, they are at all different levels, but some are learning measurement, and others are learning fractions.
It's all right.
By the way, WOMEN OF OREGON, moms, teachers -- You are *holding that ship together* out there! I mean I know wonderful men work and help out in the schools, but it's mainly women and you all are holding-it-together. You deserve the best. The caring professions are worth the most.
That's the best response to one of my (quick) not so well thought out comments I have seen.
And I couldn't agree more, women are the rock of society, the crowning creation....
freedom
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Oregon schools
