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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The first Salem Saturday Market of 2026 opened March 7, featuring vendors offering handmade goods, fresh produce, baked items and artisan foods.
The Food and Drug Administration announced that Organic ice cream sold in Oregon is being recalled over concerns that the products could contain metal fragments.
California-based Straus Family Creamery issued a voluntary recall on May 14 for select flavors of its Organic Super Premium Ice Cream after identifying the possible contamination issue.
The recalled products were distributed to stores in Oregon and 16 other states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin.
Which flavors are being recalled?
Affected flavors include vanilla bean, strawberry, Dutch chocolate, mint chip and cookie dough in multiple container sizes.
The recalled ice cream can be identified by best-by dates printed on the bottom of the containers. They include:
- Ice Cream Vanilla Bean
- Container Size: Pint
- Best By Date: December 23, 2026; December 28, 2026
- UPC: 7-84830-10030-6
- Ice Cream Strawberry
- Container Size: Quart
- Best By Date: December 24, 2026
- UPC: 7-84830-10097-9
- Ice Cream Strawberry
- Container Size: Pint
- Best By Date: December 25, 2026
- UPC: 7-84830-10095-5
- Ice Cream Cookie Dough
- Container Size: Pint
- Best By Date: December 26, 2026
- UPC: 7-84830-10104-4
- Ice Cream Dutch Chocolate
- Container Size: Quart
- Best By Date: December 27, 2026
- UPC: 7-84830-10012-2
- Ice Cream Mint Chip
- Container Size: Pint
- Best By Date: December 30, 2026
- UPC: 7-84830-10050-4
What should Oregonian do with their recalled ice cream?
Oregon consumers are urged not to eat the recalled ice cream. The company said the products should not be returned to the store but instead should be thrown away. Customers can then fill out a form with Straus Family Creamery for a replacement voucher by visiting strausfamilycreamery.com/recall/.
For questions, Oregonians can contact Straus Family Creamery at support@strausmilk.com or 1-707-776-2887.
Ginnie Sandoval is the Oregon Connect reporter for the Statesman Journal. Sandoval is a lifelong Oregonian who covers trending news, entertainment, food and outdoors. She can be reached at GSandoval@statesmanjournal.com or on X at @GinnieSandoval.
A night removed from winning their series opener, two uncharacteristic fielding errors and a roughshod thirteen hits doomed Oregon State against the Air Force Falcons, 9-6.
The full box score can be viewed at this link, and our game recap can be read below.
The elder statesman of Oregon State’s pitching rotation, junior righty Eric Segura, forced a pair of groundouts to keep the top of the first scoreless. His strong start was followed by an Oregon State run in the bottom of the first. The Beavers’ opening run started with gold glover AJ Singer, who flashed his batting prowess by pinging a double to the warning track. Singer scored on a Paul Vasquez slash through 5.5 hole, and Oregon State led 1-0.
Air Force batters went down in order to begin the second inning. Their short stint at the plate was followed by another successful Oregon State frame. With one out and no one on, Josh Procter swung at the first pitch he saw. After his ball landed 399 feet away, Oregon State doubled their advantage.
As one might expect, the Air Force cadets showed perseverance against adversity and calmness under pressure. In the third inning, they seized the lead. Their four run rally started with a pair of singles. Then facing one out and runners at the corners, Falcons’ senior Ben Niednagel drew a walk to load the bases. The next man up, 2026 Preseason All-Mountain West catcher Walker Zapp slugged a bases-clearing double. With Oregon State suddenly trailing, pitching coach Rich Dorman met his starter Segura at the mound. After the meeting, a fielding error by first baseman Ethan Porter returned runners to the corners, and then Air Force senior Tripp Garrish reached on a fielder’s choice, inching Zapp home from third.
Singer answered with a solo homer in the bottom of the inning. His shot traveled 407 feet, and landed a few yards to the left of Goss Stadium’s batter’s eye. As if they were awoken by the blast, Oregon State roared back to life: with Porter on base after getting hit by a pitch, Vasquez singled, and then Bryce Hubbard rolled a tough groundout to short, moving both runners into scoring position. Following an Air Force pitching change, Adam Haight sent a one-hopper into the grass beyond second base. While the sophomore outfielder was thrown out trying to reach first, his effort scored Porter from third, tying the game 4-4.
Again, the Falcons responded. After Air Force loaded the bases, their senior two-batter Niednagel forced a fielding error on a sharply hit grounder to Singer at second. When the dust settled, two runs scored. In the ensuing moments, Oregon State pulled Segura off the mound, replacing him with 6’2″ righty Zach Edwards.
Segura, a key factor in Oregon State’s sweep of Long Beach State last weekend, struggled mightily tonight. When his shift ended after 3 and 1/3 innings, he had allowed 7 hits and 4 earned runs. The top of the fourth finished with his successor Edwards stranding two runners, while Oregon State clawed closer in the bottom frame thanks to a pair of wild pitches moving Tyler Inge across the bases.
However, the one-run margin wouldn’t last for long. Facing a 2-2 count with no outs in the top of the fifth inning, Air Force’s senior Garrish smoked a high, middle fastball. Once his strike returned to Earth, the cadets led 7-5.
Scoring stalled until the top of the seventh. Oregon State’s reliever Edwards cruised for 2 and 2/3, until a pair of singles invited his pitching coach to the mound, who called for another change. Out went Edwards, and in came Washington transfer Isaac Yeager. The consistently reliable 6’6″ right hander – with 40 strikeouts and just 22 hits allowed across 33 innings – couldn’t stop the bleeding tonight. His first batter faced, Tripp, delivered another Air Force run home on a slow roller up the middle.
Oregon State climbed closer in the bottom of the seventh, after Bryson Glassco singled up the middle, delivering the Huntington Beach native Porter home from second base. The base hit also placed Vasquez in a threatening position at third base, but a Haight groundout stranded Oregon State’s runner ninety feet away from the promised land.
Air Force denied the Beavers once again in the bottom of the eighth. Tying runner Easton Talt faced a 1-2 count with 2 outs and a teammate on first base. In one of the game’s biggest moments, Falcons’ reliever Gaines Estridge offered a sky-high outside fastball. Talt swung tight, striking out, and stranding the runner at first.
The cadets tacked on one more run in the top of the ninth, when center fielder Christian Taylor beat out a throw across the diamond, helping Walker Zapp race from third. Entering the bottom of the ninth, the Beavers needed three runs to tie. Unfortunately, Falcons’ closer Patrick Davidson struck out the side.
The loss snapped Oregon State’s eight game win streak, and moved their overall record to 42-12. More importantly, their postseason fate is now in jeopardy. The three-time national champions entered the weekend needing a sweep to solidify their RPI before the regular season ends. Tonight’s defeat – following a pattern of upset losses to Portland, UTRGV, Cal State Fullerton, and CSUN – puts a hypothetical Corvallis Regional host site at the mercy of the selection committee.
Oregon State concludes its regular season tomorrow afternoon against Air Force, with first pitch scheduled for 1:35 PM PST at Goss Stadium in Corvallis. The game broadcast will be televised on Portland’s CW, and radio play-by-play can be heard across the state on Beavers Sports Network affiliate stations.
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HAPPY VALLEY, Ore. (KATU) — Health officials have identified a new measles exposure site in Happy Valley.
The Oregon Health Authority and Clackamas County public health officials said people may have been exposed at Providence Immediate Care – Happy Valley, 16180 S.E. Sunnyside Road, Suite 102, between 11:05 a.m. and 3:47 p.m. Tuesday, May 12.
Officials said anyone who was at the clinic during that time should notify a health care provider about the possible exposure. Providers can determine whether a person is immune to measles by reviewing vaccination records, age or laboratory evidence of a previous infection.
Health officials urged people to monitor for symptoms and seek medical advice if they believe they may have been exposed.
ABOUT MEASLES
Measles is a highly contagious respiratory virus that spreads through the air when an infected person breathes, speaks, coughs or sneezes. The virus can linger in the air for up to two hours and can infect up to 90% of unprotected close contacts. Complications can include pneumonia, brain inflammation and death.
Nationwide, measles cases have been rising since early 2025. Nearly 2,300 cases were reported last year, with most occurring among unvaccinated children.
Symptoms typically begin seven to 21 days after exposure and include cough, runny nose and conjunctivitis accompanied by a high fever. A rash usually follows, starting on the head or neck and spreading downward. People are contagious from four days before the rash appears until four days after.
A graphic from the Oregon Health Authority shows the symptoms of Measles.
HA advises health care providers to report suspected cases immediately and consider post-exposure treatment for exposed patients. The measles, mumps and rubella vaccine can be given within 72 hours of exposure. Immunoglobulin may be administered within six days.
For most people 6 months and older who are eligible for vaccination, receiving the MMR vaccine within 72 hours of exposure is recommended.
Anyone not protected against measles is at risk, according to OHA. The agency encourages residents to check their vaccination status and contact a health care provider with questions.
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