Winner - 2025 Excellence in Journalism Awards, Investigative Reporting
Oregonians believe in public education.
And we put our money where our values are. K-12 schools claim the largest share of Oregon’s general fund, and our spending per capita ranks 15th in the nation, according to educationdata.org.
But as statewide test scores make clear, that investment is failing to yield the outcomes parents want for their children. By almost every meaningful measure, we are among the worst states in America when it comes to educating our kids.
At the Oregon Journalism Project, we wanted to do more than speculate about why so many of our tax dollars do so little for the 550,000 kids in Oregon’s public schools. Since May 2025, our team has been talking to people inside and outside of Oregon, researching best practices and trying to develop a better understanding of the crisis in Oregon’s public education system.
Our series, Oregon Schools: What Went Wrong seeks to answer questions that too many in power have directly avoided:
Why are Oregon’s schools failing? Who is responsible for the failure? What are the consequences of failure? And, most importantly, how do we dig ourselves out of this?
Here in one place is our full coverage of this important issue:
Most of Oregon’s State Teacher Prep Programs Still Get an F in Reading Instruction
Southern Oregon University went from failing to an A in three years.
By James Neff - June 9, 2026
From ‘Almost Brainwashed’ to Pioneer
How one teacher’s struggle to save her son led her to take on Oregon’s reading crisis.
By James Neff - May 15, 2026
What We Learned After Obtaining the Latest School Attendance Numbers
Use OJP’s new Attendance Tracker to learn how well your school performed in the first half of the 2025–26 school year.
By Khushboo Rathore and James Neff - May 1, 2026
Oregon Schools Rank Near the Bottom Nationally for Hours of Instruction Time
A new study shows a wide variance among school districts in how much face time students have with teachers—a longstanding problem that lawmakers and advocates hope to solve.
By Khushboo Rathore- April 23, 2026
The Oregon Education Association Is Mighty—but Slipping
A loss in court and poor educational outcomes have weakened the union’s standing. It has responded with strikes and primary challenges to Democratic incumbents.
By Nigel Jaquiss - April 20, 2026
Unprepared: The Broken Pipeline Teaching Oregon’s Teachers
How our education leaders have failed the classroom.
By James Neff - March 15, 2026
Oregon’s Education Workforce Climbed While Student Enrollment Slid
The state added nearly 12,000 employees since 2020, but school districts face layoffs as budget cuts loom.
By Khushboo Rathore - February 5, 2026
Leaving It Up to the Locals Impedes Oregon’s Much-Needed Reading Recovery
Unlike other states, Oregon funds its 197 school districts but does little to hold them to account for their outcomes.
By James Neff - January 29, 2026
Statewide Graduation Rates Are Up for Nearly All Student Groups
Not all school districts saw improvement, and Oregon continues to trail the national average.
By Khushboo Rathore - January 29, 2026
Mississippi’s reading turnaround, built on “the science of reading,” holds lessons for Oregon.
By James Neff - December 8, 2025
Over a Third of Students in Oregon Still Aren’t Consistently Attending School
Kindergarten attendance went up while more than half of 12th graders were chronically absent.
By Khushboo Rathore- November 20, 2025
Christine Pitts says there’s a simple reason why Oregon kids don’t know how to read. No one is checking how they’re taught.
By OJP Staff - November 12, 2025