Data-Driven Education Journalism for the Beaver State
Education News & Data
Local education reporting from every corner of Oregon, grounded in Oregon Department of Education data.
Oregon's attendance crisis is not concentrated in a few struggling districts — 154 of 184 have rates at or above 25%. Only 30 districts have managed to stay below that threshold.
In 2025, graduation rates for incarcerated, pregnant or parenting, foster-care, and homeless students ranged from 42.9% to 62.5%, below Oregon's 83.0% statewide rate.
Elementary chronic absenteeism dropped 8 points from peak. High school dropped 1.2 points. Oregon's attendance recovery is happening in grades K-5, not 9-12.
Thirty-seven Oregon districts with Class of 2025 cohorts of 50 or more set all-time high graduation rates, including four of the state's 10 largest districts.
Lake Oswego reported 18.1% chronic absenteeism in 2024-25 and Springfield reported 39.8%. The gap was present in every available year and has more than doubled since 2014-15.
Portland SD 1J's graduation rate peaked at 84.4% in 2023 after climbing from 53.6% in 2010, then slipped to 82.5% in 2025.
Oregon's poverty graduation gap appeared to vanish because 78% of the cohort was classified as disadvantaged. A tighter definition revealed a 12-point gap.
Oregon's Native American state row reported 5,516 students and a 45.9% chronic absenteeism rate in 2024-25, down from a 51.5% panel peak.
Redmond SD 2J's reported four-year graduation rate rose from 46.1% in 2010 to 91.2% in 2025 across 11 Oregon package observations.
Portland's Native American graduation rate is stuck at 47.6% for three straight years, 26 points below statewide and 35 below the district average.
Oregon's 15,920 students who are currently homeless have a chronic absenteeism rate of 56.4% — more than half miss too much school. The gap with the overall rate has held near 22 to 25 points every year since 2018.
Pacific Islander students have the highest chronic absenteeism of any racial group in Oregon at 51.5%. The gap with white students has quadrupled from 5.0 to 20.8 points.
Even as Oregon hits a record 83% graduation rate, 15 districts graduate fewer than 70% of students. The list skews rural and coastal, with Coquille at 41%.
Beaverton, Portland, Tigard-Tualatin, and nine other districts saw chronic absenteeism worsen in every measurable year for six straight years, spanning pre-pandemic, pandemic, and post-pandemic eras.
Oregon's 12th-grade chronic absenteeism rate was 52.5% in both 2022 and 2025. While kindergarten recovered 12 points, seniors have shown no improvement at all.
