The governor of a state with one of the shortest school years in the country has issued an executive order aimed at blocking any further erosion of instructional time as schools face budget pressures that have previously led some to reduce instructional hours and as the state confronts its below-average math and reading achievement.
鈥淲e cannot lose any more time,鈥� Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, a Democrat, said at announcing the executive order. 鈥淲e have to protect what we have, and why I鈥檓 acting today with this executive order is I鈥檓 hearing from district after district that they鈥檙e looking at their budget situation, and they鈥檙e thinking about providing even less time. So we鈥檝e got to stop the bleeding, we have to stop reducing instructional time.鈥�
Oregon school districts average 165 days per school year compared to the typical 180-day year nationwide, according to a recent analysis by ECONorthwest, an Oregon-based economic policy research group. The state requires at least 900 instructional hours in K-8 and 990 hours in grades 9-11, compared with the nationwide average of 1,231 hours per school year, the analysis found.
Oregon students receive fewer hours of instruction than their peers in all but Hawaii, Maine, and Nevada. And teachers have said they simply don鈥檛 have enough time to catch students up to grade level, especially after the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic that have set achievement back.
To complicate matters, the ECONorthwest study found the proportion of Oregon students who were chronically absent in the 2023-24 school year鈥攎eaning they missed 10 percent of school days or more鈥攅xceeded the national average, translating into even more lost instructional time.
鈥淭here is urgency because school boards are making decisions this month and next about the upcoming school year,鈥� Kotek said at the news conference.
A 鈥榞ood first step鈥� or an 鈥榓dditional challenge鈥�?
The governor鈥檚 directs the Oregon Department of Education to request that the state board of education prioritize policies that prevent any further reductions in student instructional time due to budget or operational pressures.
The order also requires districts that have reduced student instructional time for the current and next school years to submit plans outlining how they will restore that time to at least 2024鈥�25 levels by the start of the 2027鈥�28 school year.
The governor鈥檚 order also bars the state education department from issuing waivers that allow districts to fall below minimum hours of instructional time, except in declared emergencies. Finally, the order calls for changes to state rules so that hours of instructional time reflect actual student-teacher engagement, which would bar counting activities such as professional development and parent-teacher conferences toward required instructional hours.
鈥淲e know that too many of our students are not getting the time in the classroom that they need to succeed,鈥� Kotek said. 鈥淲e can simply not get better student outcomes if we continue to give our students less instructional time.鈥�
Kotek鈥檚 order received support from an advocacy group that commissioned a recent study on instructional time and student attendance in the state, but a more measured response from a public school administrators鈥� group.
鈥淔or decades, Oregon鈥檚 children have been getting shortchanged when it comes to the length of the school year, which is why the governor鈥檚 actions today are really important first step in getting our children the time they deserve,鈥� Sarah Pope, the executive director of , said at the governor鈥檚 news conference.
She noted that when her group worked to improve the state鈥檚 literacy curriculum recently, 鈥渨e started hearing there aren鈥檛 enough hours in the day or days in the year to implement the new literacy curriculum.鈥�
鈥淥regon ranks 47th in the nation for time in school,鈥� Pope said. 鈥淏y graduation, the average Oregon student will attend 195 fewer school days than students across the country. That鈥檚 one full academic year.鈥�
The Coalition of Oregon School Administrators said in a that while it shared the governor鈥檚 concerns about loss of instructional time, budget constraints and collective-bargaining agreements leave districts with a choice of reducing staff or instructional time.
鈥淭he governor鈥檚 executive order introduces an additional challenge for districts already navigating declining enrollment, rising [pension] obligations, increasing operational costs, and the financial pressures facing 糖心动漫vlog themselves,鈥� the group said. 鈥淲hile we share the goal of protecting and expanding instructional time, we believe that a mandated approach at this moment is unlikely to produce the meaningful, sustainable change Oregon students deserve.鈥�
Kotek said she has worked to boost state education funding and that some districts may need to make different spending choices to allow for more instructional time.
鈥淣ot every school district is having similar budgetary challenges, so it is up to our local leaders to look at what they鈥檙e doing and decide how they can make things work based on the increased resources the state has given them,鈥� she said.
