Is the Oregon Youth Literate? Salem Reporter Town Hall Discusses

Photo Taken by Cece Lipman

On February 5, the Salem Reporter held a town hall event at the Elsinore Theatre, targeting the literacy crisis that is overtaking elementary schools. According to the Salem Reporter, seven out of 10 elementary students in local schools are behind in reading. The town hall includes panels from Andrea Castañeda, the superintendent of the Salem-Keizer School District.

Jessica DeFrancisco, a third grade teacher, from Sumpter Elementary School and Dana Nerenberg, who is the Oregon Director of Center for Early Literacy and Learning Success.

The panel discussion began by Nerenberg outlining how Oregon has gotten to this point of having such a struggle with children’s literacy, the first being local control and decentralization. This means in comparison to other states, the state of Oregon has an absurd amount of school districts and children. This indicates that throughout the state, there are a large number of children who struggle to be accounted for, due to the sheer number of districts and students within the state.

“There is an economy of skill and access to equal opportunities that we missed out on. Because of every individual school, some of our schools in our state are so small, and figuring things out on their own, we’re missing out on that opportunity to learn from others and to learn from what’s happening nationally,” said Nerenberg. 

Another factor contributing to the current state of reading achievement in Oregon is the lack of time and attendance. Oregon has the 47 shortest school year in the country. Within the state, most children have six years of experience across elementary school, meaning that there is a difference of 1.4 school years. This means in some districts, by the time they finish fifth grade, they have 1.4 school years less instruction than other kids in Oregon. Furthermore, Oregon also has a shorter average school year than other states. Nationally, the average school year is 180 days. In Oregon, the state average is 172 days, with some districts as few as 137. This factor, along with the fact that 33% of children in Oregon are chronically absent, meaning  they miss 10% or more days of school worsens the literacy crisis within the state. 

The final factor that contributes to the lack of literacy revolves around teacher preparation programs. A study conducted by the National Council and Teacher Quality in 2023 found that out of eight public universities in Oregon, only one met all of the requirements and criteria needed to properly prepare the teaching of reading and writing. 

“As part of the early literacy Success Act, one of the provisions is that our educator and preparation programs do need to revise and align their programs and their curriculum to the science of reading,” said Nerenberg. 

To improve these problems, Oregon schools plan to fund projects to improve reading, even with the existing problems of budget cuts. This funding will be used on high-quality learning materials, investing in professional and teacher development, high dosage tutoring, and summer programs for children. 

“It really takes brave leadership. Because our state has invested in these key components, and those are some technical pieces, but it’s really about strong leaders, from superintendents to principals, to classroom teachers, who I perceive very much to be leaders, making those research informed decisions really centering these best practices, that we completely make some shifts for our children,” said Nerenberg. 

Some problems that were targeted by Andrea specific to the district were  inconsistently and unevenly implemented curriculum, not enough staff support, and the lack of enforcement for the children who were already behind. To improve these problems, the district plans to implement a precise budget to support the  curriculum and training for staff, as well as integrating a systemwide tool to monitor progress, in order to make sure every student is accounted for. 

Finally, Jessica DeFrancisco, who is a third grade teacher at Sumpter highlighted her experience as a teacher, and how the classroom guidelines have already been implemented to help solve the literacy crisis. DeFrancisco emphasized how reading should not be a chore.  

 “Being able to understand that reading is something that we want to spark joy and love in for our kids. And currently, we have shifted away from having kids enjoy reading and having it be more of an academic chore for lack of better words, because everything gets assessed.” Defransisco said. 

DeFrancisco also pinpointed how the link between high electronic usage is directly correlated to the lack of literacy, and how reading and writing well build the foundations to creativity and imagination. 

“Being sure that we’re focusing also on giving our kids that true enjoyment of picking up a book.  Making sure that we are putting books in kids’ hands and giving them a chance to actually just sit and read in it. By giving kids that chance to be able to sit and read, we give them an opportunity to be creative, to have fun, to kind of imagine what that world looks like inside their head,” DeFransisco said. 

Along with enforcing attendance, members of the community who don’t necessarily have a direct link to the schools of the district are encouraged to do their part to support the students, such as donating to the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, which provides free books for low income households, for children zero to five years old. More details for the program are available at the Salem Public Library.