Skip to main content
Data from Portland Public Schools’ winter benchmark assessments show signs of growth in reading, but a slight slide in math proficiency among the district’s student body in grades 3–8.
The district tests students at different points during the school year using the Measures of Academic Progress assessment and iReady to track interim progress. Both are computer-adaptive exams that increase question difficulty if a student answers correctly, or vice versa. District officials presented the findings from that assessment to the Portland School Board on Tuesday night.
In reading, students at grade level or higher jumped from 61.5% in fall to 64.9% in winter, with more significant gains in grades 3–5. Achievement in reading also increased significantly among some student groups of color, though disparities continue to persist between those scores and white student achievement in the district. (For example, in grades 3-5, Black students saw a four percentage point increase from 26.6% to 30.4%; meanwhile, white students saw a six percentage point increase from 76% to 81.6%.)
In mathematics, proficiency decreased slightly from 58.1% to 57.3%, with the same students in earlier grades losing a bit more progress. Students across almost all demographic groups saw progress slide in math.
Dr. Renard Adams, the district’s chief accountability and equity officer, told board members that he found the results from these interim assessments rather odd. That’s especially because on the Oregon Statewide Assessment System exam results this past year, PPS students saw relatively flat performance in reading and growth in math. “I have a lot of curiosity in how this data will show up as students are taking OSAS,” he said.
PPS las launched efforts to spread high quality resources out to all teachers, Adams said. At the central office level, the district is conducting work to better understand how math curriculum is being executed across the district.
At a separate meeting on May 14, Adams told board members that winter scores can start conversations around growth during the school year, while fall numbers are more of an achievement benchmark.
Adams told board members that measuring growth is important because it indicates to the district if students are improving, even if they’re still behind. “When you’re in a school that has lower achievement or students who are further from their grade level expectation, you could have worked really hard as a teacher and gotten that student up a whole grade level, but if they’re two grade levels behind, the end of the year assessment is still going to show you that you didn’t make it,” he said.
Notably, the 2025 passage of Senate Bill 141 in the Oregon legislature, an education accountability bill, will mean starting in fall, the district will be required to conduct and report interim assessment data three times a year. It is also switching fully to iReady for its testing platform, and will no longer conduct MAP assessments.
School Board member Rashelle Chase-Miller on Tuesday pressed Adams on the race and class disparities that continue to persist across the data. “We can’t do the same things for different populations when we’re recognizing that kids are having disparate results, right?” she asked.
Adams said that while education often tries to center high expectations for every student, the reality at times is that students of color are relegated to lower expectations. He says research shows that when students are surrounded by staff who believe in their brilliance, the bar raises, as does what they think they can achieve.
“Part of what we continue to work on is helping bring an awareness to the idea that language like ‘These kids can’t, those kids couldn’t,’ isn’t helpful language,” he said. “It’s actually hurtful when we have those kinds of conversations about students because then we’re limiting them.”
