Oregon
Number of diverse teachers in Oregon on the rise, but retention remains a challenge • Oregon Capital Chronicle
Efforts by Oregon education officials to make the diversity of the state’s teachers mirror that of students have paid off with modest progress in the last decade. But keeping ethnically and racially diverse teachers beyond the first five years of their careers remains a challenge in the state and nation.
The proportion of licensed Oregon teachers who identify as racially or ethnically diverse today has grown nearly 4% in the last decade, from about 10% of the teacher workforce to nearly 14%, according to the latest Oregon Educator Equity Report from the state’s Educator Advancement Council. The 21-member council, largely made up of teachers and administrators from around the state, has published the reports every two years since 2015.
In the latest analysis, council members credited school district investments in “grow-your-own” alternative teacher training programs with helping to get nonlicensed staff from diverse communities into teacher training programs. They credited state community college and university investments with diversifying teacher degree candidates. And they said the Oregon Legislature’s investment in scholarships and funding for diverse teacher recruitment, mentorship and apprenticeship programs had also helped diversify teaching staff.
Grow-your-own programs have had great success in the Umatilla School District in eastern Oregon, which has one of the highest proportions of diverse students and teachers in the state. Nearly 76% of students identify as racially or ethnically diverse, as do nearly 26% of teachers. Superintendent Heidi Sipe said ensuring diversity among teachers is a priority for her in hiring, so every student in the system can feel connected and seen among their teachers.
“We’ve developed pathways for people in our community who understand and represent our community, to become the teachers in our schools,” she said. “Our new principal is a Umatilla alumnus with experiences in multiple districts around the state, our new vice principal is a bilingual and bicultural educator who has taught for the past five years in our school system. Together, they’re a great combo to welcome students to the high school. Of the eleven teachers we’ve hired for this year, four have participated in our grow-your-own efforts, six are bilingual and six are educators of color,” Sipe said.
Still, the number of teachers in Oregon from communities of color – about 4,400 – pales in comparison to the proportion of diverse students in Oregon, who make up 42% – or more than 227,000 – of the state’s 547,000 enrolled students. The report defines “diverse teachers” as those who self-reported in a race and ethnicity survey from the state’s Higher Education Coordinating Commission as Asian, Black, Latino, Hispanic, Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawiian or Pacific Islander or reported two or more races.
All kids benefit from having diverse teachers in school, research shows. Decades of data shows that schools with a higher proportion of diverse teachers have lower absentee rates and fewer discipline disparities. Students of color also experience major benefits. In one study, Black students were more likely to graduate high school and more likely to attend college if they’d been taught by a Black teacher at least once between third and fifth grade. Black students are also more likely to take advanced courses and to reach graduation if they’ve had a Black teacher.
The problem of retention
The greatest progress in growing teacher diversity in Oregon has been in the proportion of first-year teachers who identify as racially or ethnically diverse. That figure doubled from 9% in 2012 to more than 21% in 2022, according to researchers at the University of California, Irvine, who contributed to the report.
“Compared to states like Maryland, Washington and Massachusetts, which have also established grow your own initiatives and pursued strategies to diversify the workforce, Oregon has done as well as or better at increasing the racial/ethnic diversity of its entering teachers,” they wrote.
But teacher retention remains a challenge.
The number of racially and ethnically diverse teachers with five or fewer years of experience has tripled over the past decade, according to the Oregon Department of Education, and nearly half of all racially and ethnically diverse teachers in the 2023-24 school year were in the first five years of their teaching career. Getting more diverse teachers to stay beyond that is a problem across the U.S., where nearly half of teachers leave their job or the profession entirely within the first five years, according to research from University of Pennsylvania Professor Richard Ingersoll.
About nine out of 10 teachers hired in schools across the U.S. are hired to replace a teacher who has left the profession, according to research from the Learning Policy Institute, a nonprofit organization based in D.C., and most of those teachers aren’t leaving to retire, they found.
UC Irvine research found that many of Oregon’s new and diverse teachers were placed in schools with difficult working conditions that had high turnover among teachers and administrators.
“Together, these analyses suggest that while Oregon has successfully recruited more diverse teachers into the workforce, the school environments they are placed into may be contributing to their turnover, hampering the progress that can be realized.”
Council members recommended getting early career teachers into supportive schools with resources and veteran teachers to mentor them and also to recruit teachers from existing staff and help them obtain their license. The council also said making educator preparation programs at state universities and community colleges more affordable and accessible would go a long way toward increasing teacher diversity in Oregon schools.
The report suggested that institutions of higher education need to create pathways for nontraditional students, such as older students who are working and have families, to become teachers and appealing to those hoping to make a career switch.
And finally, the council recommended more robust data collection and sharing across state agencies and districts, so schools and education officials can exchange more information about the state of the teacher workforce and needs.
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Oregon
Where Oregon Ducks rank in industry recruiting rankings for 2027 class
With the winter evaluation period of high school football recruiting now behind us, we’ve seen some of the top recruiting sites update their rankings over the past few weeks and start to reset their boards for the 2027 class. In February, On3 shifted players around after getting fresh looks at the class, and 247Sports did the same earlier this week.
So with Oregon’s handful of commits getting new ratings, where does the Ducks’ class rank nationally in this cycle?
If you look at sites individually, it looks different, with 247Sports having Oregon sitting at No. 13 in the nation. At Rivals, though, they take the industry ranking, which factors in their own rankings, plus an average from 247Sports and ESPN.
In the industry rankings, Oregon sits at No. 9 in the nation, with five commitments.
Going into the summer months, the Ducks are in a great spot, leading or among the top schools for a handful of the top prospects in the nation, like 5-star QB Will Mencl or 5-star WR Dakota Guerrant. We will see what movement Oregon can make in the coming months after official visits take place early in the summer.
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Oregon
New Data Shows Oregon E-Scooter Injuries on the Rise
Data released by the Oregon Health Authority this week suggests Oregonians are getting hurt on electric scooters more every year.
In recent years, according to OHA, an “e-scooter-specific code” was developed for health care tracking purposes.
From 2021 to 2024, annual injury reports under this code from Oregon hospitals and emergency departments jumped from 211 to 418.
And in just the first nine months of 2025, there had been 509 such reports.
“These injuries are not minor scrapes,” said Dagan Wright, an OHA epidemiologist, in a written statement. “They often involve head injuries, broken bones, and other serious trauma that requires emergency or inpatient care.”
The city of Portland signed contracts with three e-scooter rental companies in 2018, as the transportation craze spread across the country. But e-scooter injury diagnosis codes are relatively new in health care reporting, Wright said in the OHA statement.
“While the overall numbers remain smaller than for other transportation-related injuries, the rapid increase over a short period of time is a clear safety signal,” OHA added.
The agency highlighted the story of Portland e-scooter commuter Daniel Pflieger, who it says was riding a scooter home when he reportedly slid on ice. He bruised several ribs.
Sometimes outcomes are worse. OHA identified 17 deaths linked to electric or motorized scooters since 2018, and seven of those occurred in 2025.
OHA says that e-bikes raise many similar safety concerns as e-scooters. The first full year for which e-bike injuries were coded for reporting was 2023. State data shows 392 reported e-bike injuries that year, 683 in 2024, and 760 in the first nine months of 2025.
“Injuries involving e-bikes and e-scooters share common risk factors—speed, lack of helmet use, roadway design, and interactions with motor vehicles,” Wright said.
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Oregon
Oregon women’s basketball playing for March Madness seeding vs. Purdue
Hear Oregon women’s Graves, Etute and Fiso after loss to Washington
The Oregon Ducks women’s basketball team finishes the regular season with a March 1 home loss to Washington.
At times, the Oregon women’s basketball team has certainly made things much harder on themselves than it needs to be. The team has also produced some miraculous comeback victories, putting itself in position to make women’s March Madness for the second straight season.
March 1, in their final regular season game, the Ducks (20-11, 8-10 Big Ten) finished on the wrong end of yet another tight game to Washington, 70-69. It’s the second time this season Oregon has come back from a double-digit deficit, but ended up losing to the Huskies (20-9, 10-8).
Those aren’t the only times Oregon has come back from a double-digit deficit, like it did in wins vs. Nebraska and USC. The No. 11-seed Ducks are hoping they won’t need heroics in a Big Ten tournament first-round game against No. 14 Purdue this Wednesday.
Watch Oregon basketball on Peacock
“I think our biggest weakness this year has been our inconsistency,” coach Kelly Graves said, “something we’ve battled all year. The great thing is our kids know, regardless of the score, we’ve got a chance. We’ll make it a game at some point. As a coach, it drives you nuts. Hopefully we can figure it out and play more consistent basketball.”
Oregon’s volatility has seen it earn three double-digit comeback wins this year, but also blow several games in the final moments.
Against Wisconsin, the Ducks held a 6-point lead with less than a minute remaining, but lost in overtime. Against Illinois, Oregon held a 21-point lead at halftime, blew it in the third quarter, trailed by eight with minutes to play and somehow eked out a win.
That makes UO somewhat of a wild card heading into the conference tournament this week at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
“It’s definitely (been) a rollercoaster,” guard Katie Fiso said. “A lot of highs and a lot of lows. But one thing that I try to see through all games is our grittiness and our toughness. One thing that stays consistent throughout the season is our toughness and our grittiness. The game isn’t over until the last bell rings.”
The Ducks will be taking on a Boilermakers (13-16, 5-13) team that has struggled against most of the top competition in the league, but played Oregon tight in a Feb. 25 Ducks win.
Graves said when the Ducks went throughout the postgame handshake line after, the Boilermakers felt like their season would end after the regular season. Thanks to some upsets, Purdue is in the Big Ten Tournament as the No. 14 seed.
“We’re playing a team that probably feels like it’s playing with house money,” Graves said. “We’ve got to pick ourselves back up and get it done.”
What channel is Oregon vs. Purdue on today in Big Ten tournament?
Oregon will tip off vs. Purdue on Peacock, with no TV option to watch the game.
Oregon vs. Purdue start time in Big Ten tournament
- Date: Wednesday, March 4
- Time: Around 5:30 p.m. PT
Oregon and Purdue will play around 5:30 p.m. PT at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. The first game of the day begins at 12:30 p.m. PT, with the next game 25 minutes after the first game ends, and so on. The Ducks play in the third game of the day, so no official tip time is listed.
Oregon women’s basketball schedule 2025-26
Below are the past five games of Oregon’s 2025-26 basketball season. For the full schedule, click here.
| Feb. 15 | Washington 51, Oregon 43 |
| Feb. 19 | Oregon 80, Nebraska 76 |
| Feb. 22 | Indiana 72, Oregon 65 |
| Feb. 25 | Oregon 71, Purdue 65 |
| March 1 | Washington 70, Oregon 69 |
| March 4 | Oregon vs. Purdue (Big Ten tournament) |
Purdue women’s basketball schedule 2025-26
Below are the past five games of Purdue’s 2025-26 basketball season. For the full schedule, click here.
Feb. 14
Purdue 72, Rutgers 57
Feb. 19
Iowa 83, Purdue 74
Feb. 22
Maryland 99, Purdue 66
Feb. 25
Oregon 71, Purdue 65
March 1
Purdue 67, Northwestern 62
March 4
Oregon vs. Purdue (Big Ten tournament)
Alec Dietz covers University of Oregon football and women’s basketball for The Register-Guard. You may reach him at adietz@registerguard.com.
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