A6
OREGON
East Oregonian
Tuesday, April 21, 2020
School closures could have profound impact
By BETSY HAMMOND
The Oregonian
PORTLAND — U.S.
students, including those in
Oregon, will pay a stagger-
ing academic toll from the
prolonged coronavirus-in-
duced school shutdown,
new research conducted in
Portland based on fi ve mil-
lion test scores indicates.
Compared to how much
they would have learned in
a normal school year, ele-
mentary and middle school
students are likely to start
school in the fall equipped
with only about 70% of
those reading and writ-
ing skills, and with 50% or
less of the expected gains
in math, according to the
research, conducted since
the pandemic shuttered
nearly all U.S. schools.
While the projected
learning losses are esti-
mates, it’s clear it will
likely take years, even in a
best-case scenario, to fully
remedy the hit to most stu-
dents’ academic trajecto-
ries, say researchers at test-
ing outfi t NWEA.
And children in fami-
lies least equipped to help
them during the unplanned
and unprecedented pause
in normal schooling, due to
fi nancial woes, lack of digi-
tal equipment or know-how
and racial inequities, will
surely be harmed the most,
they and others say.
“This is the longest
break in an education that
any kid who has started
EO fi le photo
A group of Echo fi fth-graders hang out in their new classroom on Aug. 22, 2018, during an open house for the new addition
of the Echo School.
kindergarten has experi-
enced” in the history of
modern U.S. education,
says Chris Minnich, the
test group’s chief executive.
“It’s going to be really hard
on teachers who are going
to have wider gaps (in their
students’ skill levels) than
they ever have” this fall.
Minnich and offi cials
at the Oregon Department
of Education tried to offer
hope, however, pointing to
strategies they say could
lessen academic erosion for
this generation of students.
They include:
• Offer summer catch-up
sessions to students most
likely to fall far behind,
including students of color,
those in poverty, those
whose families speak lan-
guages other than English
and those with special edu-
cation needs.
• Start the school year a
couple weeks early, when
possible, or at least provide
teachers with extra training
and a wider range of cur-
riculum materials during
the ramp up to schools
reopening.
• Deploy additional test-
ing shortly after school
restarts so teachers can bet-
ter match instruction to stu-
dents’ needs.
• Draw on community
resources, whether that
means posting math ques-
tions in grocery stores or
sharing highly educated
tech-savvy parents’ tips
with adults in low-income
communities, to help rein-
force learning during time
out of school.
• In the fall, shift after-
school programming, such
as Multnomah County’s
SUN School operations, to
focus more on academics,
given the need to make up
instructional time.
The testing agency
behind the new research,
a nonprofi t based in Port-
land’s Old Town Chinatown
neighborhood,
sprouted
as Northwest Evaluation
Association in the 1970s
from early testing expertise
that had built up in Port-
land Public Schools, long
before testing students in
nearly every grade, every
year became standard prac-
tice in the U.S. Since its
inception, the agency now
known only by the ini-
tials NWEA has special-
ized in tests that measure
each student’s growth over
the course of a school year
and from spring to fall,
rather than how high or
low each child compares at
year’s end to a grade-level
standard.
One in four U.S. chil-
dren, including those in
Portland, Woodburn and
West Linn-Wilsonville and
more than 20 other Oregon
districts, attend schools that
use the Portland agency’s
signature test, Measures of
Academic Progress. Stu-
dents typically take those
tests in the fall, the winter
and again in the spring.
Scores on those tests and
others have shown it’s nor-
mal for students to lose sub-
stantial ground on academ-
ics over the summer break,
which typically lasts about
10 weeks. But this year’s
unprecedented
closures,
which will subtract about
12 weeks from Oregon’s
school year, mean students
are expected to lose far
more ground, as their skills
will erode rather than grow
during that time, despite
the best efforts at distance
learning, the testing outfi t’s
researchers say.
Brown announces rapid distribution of PPE to long-term care facilities
East Oregonian
SALEM — Gov. Kate
Brown announced Monday
that the Oregon National
Guard will distribute
approximately
395,000
pieces of personal protec-
tive equipment to all long-
term care facilities across
Oregon, according to a
press release from Brown’s
offi ce.
The rapid distribution
of masks, gloves and face
shields will supplement
efforts by the Department
of Human Services and
the Oregon Health Author-
ity to support facilities by
helping prevent the spread
of COVID-19 to residents
and staff.
“The staff of Oregon’s
long-term care facilities
are on the front lines of
our fi ght against COVID-
19, and I am committed to
protecting their health and
safety,” Brown said. “This
critical equipment will
help protect both them, and
the residents of these facil-
ities, who are among the
most at-risk Oregonians
for exposure and infection.
The shipments of PPE
to Oregon’s long-term care
facilities includes approx-
imately 177,000 surgical
masks, 127,000 gloves,
55,000 N95 masks, 33,000
face shields and 2,500
gowns. Members of the
Oregon National Guard
began deliveries of the
equipment on Saturday.
“Thank you to our
tireless National Guard
members for making this
rapid distribution of per-
sonal protective equip-
ment possible,” Brown
said. “We continue to pri-
oritize securing more
PPE, including working
with local manufacturers
and the federal govern-
ment to procure additional
resources.”
OREGON'S 2ND
OREGON'S 2ND
CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT
CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT
REPUBLICAN
DEMOCRATIC
CANDIDATE FORUM
CANDIDATE FORUM
Get to know the Republican candidates
for U.S. Congress without leaving home.
Get to know the Democratic candidates
for U.S. Congress without leaving home.
Primary election is May 19
Primary election is May 19
Forums will be video recorded without audience
due to COVID-19 concerns.
Forums will be video recorded without audience
due to COVID-19 concerns.
Streaming live on this newspaper’s
Facebook page:
Streaming live on this newspaper’s
Facebook page:
Saturday May 2, 2020 • 5 p.m. & 7 p.m.
Friday, May 1, 2020 • 6:30
Watch after the event on this
newspaper’s website or on EOAlive.tv
Watch after the event on this
newspaper’s website or on EOAlive.tv
Submit your questions in advance by email to:
CD2forum@eomediagroup.com
or on Facebook Live during the event.
Submit your questions in advance by email to:
CD2forum@eomediagroup.com
or on Facebook Live during the event.
Moderated by Chris Rush - Regional Publisher,
EO Media Group
Moderated by Chris Rush - Regional Publisher,
EO Media Group
Live stream and video by EO Alive TV
Live stream and video by EO Alive TV
• A forum for the Democratic candidates
will be held on May 1 •
• A forum for the Republican candidates
will be held on May 2 •