According to data released by the Oreg Department of Education, the public schools in the country are currently teaching 2,300 students less than they did in the academic year 2023–2024.
This is a small decrease of 0.4% compared to the previous period, which is less severe than the recent increases in enrollment, suggesting that the number of public schools from the pandemic era is declining but not recovering.
Prior to the pandemic, around 580,000 students in Oregon helped out at public schools. According to the state agency’s data, which are based on the attendance records of eight or more people, there are currently about 545,000. This is only a little less than a 6% overall decline since October 2019.
Los dem grafos del Centro de Investigación n de Poblaci n de la Universidad Estatal de Portland (Portland State University) have linked the death penalty to a declining birth rate and high living expenses that have caused some Oregon residents to leave the state. According to the data from the census, around 6,200 people left Oregon, with the majority of those who left the state going to California, Washington, Arizona, and Texas.
As in the previous grades, the differences are most noticeable in the first primary grades. In comparison to the 47,000 members of the class that is in this grade, there are around 34,700 K–8 students and 37,300 first-grade students in all of Oregon. Following the pandemic, the state has seen an increase in home-based education for primary and secondary school students.
Although Portland Public Schools continue to be the largest district in the state, there are noticeable differences in the metropolitan area between them. The district experienced a 1.5% drop in attendance this year, which amounted to a loss of almost 660 students. Currently, 43,300 students are being educated.
Because this loss exceeds the enrollment declines in every state, it means that state funds by student will decrease as a result. The district has outlined plans to recover almost $40 million of its budget for the next three months and plans to release employee projects by the end of the third week.
Other school districts in the metropolitan area where the differences in math scores exceeded the state averages included West Linn-Wilsonville, which had a 2% cad, and Parkrose, which had a 3.3% cad. Although David Douglas, Gresham-Barlow, and the educational districts of Estacada increased by roughly 1% to 2%, the majority of other districts did not exhibit statistically significant changes in enrollment in any way.
Until now, changes in the curriculum have not been translated into plans to close schools since they occur in metropolitan areas or throughout the entire state in a generalized manner. West Linn-Wilsonville has thought about closing or combining several of its smaller elementary schools, but they have preserved the plan in spite of the parents’ objections. A similar situation is taking place in Beaverton, where a conversation about the consolidation of the primary school in the early stages caused a great deal of frustration among the parents.
In response, Beaverton’s school district officials informed the community members that they were taking a break from discussing changes based on future enrollment and, in exchange, agreed to hold 18 months of community talks facilitated to inform future decisions regarding school aid locations and mites.
To translate the original English content into Spanish, artificial intelligence is used. A Hispanic-speaking periodist revised the text.
Julia Silverman writes about K–12 education for The Oregonian/OregonLive. You can reach her at [email protected].
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