Among the highlights of this year’s report card, Brookings-Harbor School District 17C students once again improved the graduation rate with the Class of 2017 to 77 percent, slightly surpassing the state average for the first time in years. BHSD also boasted an impressive freshman on-track rate, of 92 percent in 2017-18, exceeding the state average of 83 percent, and showing the impact of coordination efforts and intervention programs at all levels in the district to keep students on-track year-to-year.
Some areas of emphasis for improvement in our district on the state report card include:
Brookings-Harbor students lagged behind the state average in attendance with a decrease in regular attendees at all-levels reported in the 2017-18 Report Card. New in the Oregon definition this year, students who miss 10 percent or more of their enrolled school days in an academic calendar year, for any reason, including excused absences such as athletics and activities; and unexcused or disciplinary action such as in-school suspension are considered absent. Both statewide and locally, the rate of chronic absenteeism is high, and there are new initiatives at the state level to combat chronic absenteeism, as well as programs at all levels of our local schools to track absences closely and work with families and students to address barriers that are hurting student attendance.
English Language Arts (as assessed at third-grade level), and mathematics (as assessed at the eighth & eleventh-grade level) were also areas where BHSD lagged the state and saw a decline in this year’s numbers. In the past four years, the district has invested in new curriculum and textbooks, teacher training resources, online learning and real-time assessment platforms, and after-school intervention programs to address the low-performance areas in English Language Arts and especially Math. The district will continue with strategic investments and emphasis on improving student learning and outcomes in these areas. Kalmiopsis Elementary School did show improvements in both of these assessment areas but did not meet the state average.
Please contact your principal if you have questions about your school’s report. The Brookings-Harbor School Board of Directors will host an in-depth presentation on each school’s assessment data and progress at the next three monthly school board meetings. The next presentation will be from Principal Helena Chirinian of Kalmiopsis Elementary School at the 5 p.m., Dec. 12, school board meeting in the Kalmiopsis Library.
See the state website for more information.