Oregon Department of Education

And so when districts say, hey, we are going to balance our budget by closing down, you know, beloved, effective local schools, the effects that that has, you know, they're certainly academic, but they're also on our communities.

So I look at it and I say, okay, what is the state doing that's added on to burden on our schools? How is the Oregon Department of Education doing? made our local school district feel the strain and the pressures of the regulatory burden coming down from the state that's forcing their budgets to put more money in admin and less money into classrooms.

Can I roll that back? Can I reverse those pressures? Can I take that pressure off our local schools? And also, what can we do to work with our local schools to make sure that when they look at balancing their budgets, that that isn't their first go-to? Because the reality is, They're still going to have the same number of kids to educate.

They're just going to try to push them into classrooms that are more full, of course, because that's more efficient.

So her way of Fixing the state agency that needs the most fixing is to not answer the question, but to create another agency that'll need fixing.

Now, Drazen said the Oregon Department of Education.

Too many of our kids are struggling to read, write, and do math.

Okay.

And I'm Katherine Watkins.

Today we're joined by Dan Farley, former assistant superintendent of the Oregon Department of Education's Office of Research, Assessment, Data, Accountability, and Reporting.

Dan has spent nearly 30 years in education as a teacher, diagnostician, researcher, district and state administrator, and national consultant.

He earned a doctorate in quantitative research methods and has worked at the Center of Oregon's debates over testing, funding, accountability, and the meaning of educational equity.

At ODE, Dan helps support systems designed to show what ordinary test scores miss, including student belonging, poverty, tribal affiliation, family voice, and the resources schools actually receive.

He now works inside a local district where data, technology, budgets, privacy, and classroom reality meets.

Today, we're following the money and the evidence through Measure 5, the Quality Education Model, or QEM, statewide accountability, statewide student data, and the question Oregon keeps avoiding, what does the evidence require us to do?

I'm very excited that you agreed to come on.

And then I eventually just moved it over to uvrc and i've said switch positions so i don't work with adopt anymore but i work with douglas esd which i can mention a little bit at this point because um With the ESD, they heard about Umpqua Valley Rainbow Collective and the work that we were doing.

And it just so happens that Oregon Department of Education has a thing called a Student Success Grant, which basically thinks about marginalized students.

So there's many populations of those.

Queer kids are one of the pockets.

And Associated Press posted, quote, the attacker used a pump action shotgun that was purchased by his mother, according to a law enforcement official who briefed on the shooting.

The school in Bent, which is more than 100 miles southeast of Portland, had four 59 enrolled students as of last year, according to Oregon Department of Education.

The school serves students in kindergarten through fifth grade.

Our condolences and our prayers go to all these children and teachers, families, their loved ones, their parents, everybody who knew them in any capacity.

But we'll also be expanding into some of the deeper issues that Oregonians face.

Amongst these guests will be a former Oregon Department of Education employee who will walk us through how Senate Bill 141, or what is better known as the Accountability Act, came into existence and how it really is not a reflection of what classroom educators need to help their students achieve at high levels.

We will also be interviewing local farmers and the challenges they face to keep their discipline alive in today's corporate dominance of our food systems.

Catherine, what efforts are you managing right now outside of the podcast?