Oregon

Oregon's graduation rate holds steady at 81.3%, 2nd-highest on record; La Pine HS sees big gains in Class of '23 – KTVZ

Published

2 years ago

January 25, 2024

Oregon's graduation rate holds steady at 81.3%, 2nd-highest on record; La Pine HS sees big gains in Class of '23 – KTVZ

Students who take career, tech ed (CTE) classes have 95% rate

SALEM, Ore. (KTVZ) — The statewide graduation rate for the class of 2023 is 81.3 percent, tying the previous class as the second-highest graduation rate ever recorded in Oregon, according to data released Thursday by the Oregon Department of Education (ODE).

While the overall rate held steady, some student groups reached all-time highs for graduation, including former English Learners (87.6%) and Migrant students (81.6%).

“These 37,700 graduates overcame historic challenges to earn their diploma. During their journey to graduation the class of 2023 endured the full, multi-year impact of COVID and its aftermath,” said Dr. Charlene Williams, Oregon Department of Education director.

“Each diploma represents an inspiring step forward for a student, their loved ones, and their community. With impressive grit and resourcefulness they worked their way through the jarring and isolating impacts of the pandemic to earn their education. We need to maintain high expectations and provide high levels of support that will lead to academic excellence for all of our students.

“Each and every child from birth through 5th grade must be set up for success in learning to read and reading to learn and be provided opportunities to find their path to graduation success and their dream career,” Williams added.

Governor Tina Kotek said, “I am never satisfied when it comes to our kids. We will continue working hard to improve results in the coming school years.

“Still, it’s important that we are seeing some positive results in key areas where the state has been targeting resources, such as career and technical education and supporting English Language Learners. This targeted approach to success is working for our students, so let’s do more of that, and I hope lawmakers support summer learning investment in the 2024 session,” Kotek said.

Student Group	Class of 2022	Class of 2023	Percentage Point Change
All Students	81.3	81.3	0.0
Asian	92.1	92.1	0.0
Native Hawaiian/ Pacific Islander	74.6	75.9	+1.3
American Indian/ Alaska Native	68.9	68.2	-0.7
Black/ African American	73.7	73.1	-0.6
Hispanic/ Latino	78.7	78.6	-0.1
White	82.5	82.6	+0.1
Multi-Racial	79.7	79.8	+0.1
Female	84.2	83.6	-0.6
Male	78.8	79.4	+0.6
Non-Binary	72.0	71.8	-0.2
Economically Disadvantaged	80.7	80.7	0.0
Not Economically Disadvantaged	83.4	83.6	+0.2
English Learners Anytime in High School	65.3	68.1	+2.8
Former English Learners	86.4	87.6	+1.2
Never English Learners	81.7	81.5	-0.2
Special Education	67.5	68.6	+1.1
Not Special Education	83.7	83.5	-0.2
Talented and Gifted	95.5	96.3	+0.8
Not Talented and Gifted	80.0	79.8	-0.2
Migrant	81.4	81.6	+0.2
Homeless	58.6	60.6	+2.0
In Foster Care	48.4	46.9	-1.5
Military Connected	—	86.7	—
Career and Tech. Ed Participants	89.0	88.8	-0.2
Career and Tech. Ed Concentrators	93.0	95.0	+2.0
Students Recently Arrived	—	63.3	—
Students with Experience in Incarceration or Detention	—	35.8	—

Other key findings include:

Students completing two credits in an approved Career and Technical Education (CTE) Program of Study significantly exceeded the statewide average, graduating at a rate of 95.0 percent.
Former English Learners – students who have successfully completed English Learner programs prior to entering high school in Oregon – graduated at 87.6 percent, 6 percentage points higher than the statewide average and an all-time high for that student group.
Special Education students also saw the highest graduation rate for that student group at 68.6 percent.
The graduation rate for students experiencing houselessness increased 2 percentage points to 60.6 percent which is also a record high for that student group.
For the first time, graduation rates are reported for military connected students (86.7%), students with experience in incarceration or detention (35.8%) and students recently arrived (63.3%).

—

News release from Bend-La Pine Schools

Graduation Rate Rises Sharply for La Pine High School

2023 graduation rate for Bend-La Pine Schools is 83.6 percent

La Pine High School’s graduation rate improved nearly 11 percentage points last year, with an especially high rate among students taking Career Technical Education classes.

The school’s 2023 graduation rate was 70 percent, an increase of 10.9 percentage points from 2022, according to data released Thursday by the Oregon Department of Education.

Nearly all La Pine students receiving multiple credits in a CTE program area graduated in 2023 – gains of roughly 20 percentage points over the prior year.

“I’m very happy and proud of our staff that we have double-digit gains,” La Pine High Principal Scott Olszewski said. “We have great teachers in La Pine, and we offer a lot for a small high school, from our Career Technical Education offerings to fantastic music and theater programs and world language.”

Olszewski credited the relevancy and high engagement that CTE programs offer for helping boost the school’s graduation rate in 2023. Program areas include natural resource science, manufacturing technology and metals, criminal justice and law, and business management.

This year the school added an Education Foundations class, in alignment with Central Oregon Community College, for students to explore the field of education and lesson planning. This spring students will apply their knowledge to a 60-hour practicum, partnering with educators at Rosland and La Pine elementary schools and La Pine Middle School.

Continuity in staffing, including administrators, counselors, and the school-to-career coordinator, is another factor in student success, Olszewski said. The small 2023 class of 82 graduates also benefited from strong relationships with teachers and support staff who are invested in the La Pine community, he added.

“With our classified staff, most if not all live in La Pine, from custodial and nutrition services to our library and front office staff. I think that’s huge,” he said.

Bend-La Pine Schools graduated 1,260 students last year for an overall graduation rate of 83.6 percent – a slight increase from 2022 and the second-highest completion rate in the past 12 years. The statewide graduation rate was 81.3 percent for 2023.

About the Numbers: The graduation rate tracks students beginning in ninth grade and measures how many of those students graduate within four years. The rate is adjusted for students moving in or out of the district.

Bend-La Pine Schools’ 4-year Cohort Graduation Rate Over Time:

· 2022-23: 83.6 percent

· 2021-22: 83.5 percent

· 2020-21: 82.4 percent

· 2019-20: 85.9 percent

· 2018-19: 80.6 percent

· 2017-18: 81.9 percent

· 2016-17: 78.7 percent

· 2015-16: 77.5 percent

· 2014-15: 77.2 percent

· 2013-14: 77.2 percent

· 2012-13: 78.6 percent

· 2011-12: 72.2 percent

School-Specific 4-year Cohort Graduation Rate for 2022-23:

· Bend Senior High: 86.9 percent

· Bend Tech Academy (formerly BTA at Marshall High School): 69.2 percent

· La Pine High: 70 percent

· Mountain View High: 86.3 percent

· Realms High: 92.3 percent

· Summit High: 95.2 percent

Caldera High School’s first senior class will graduate this June.

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Oregon

Merkley Announces Additional Oregon Town Halls April 2-4

Published

2 hours ago

March 27, 2026

Press Room

Merkley Announces Additional Oregon Town Halls April 2-4

Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley announced today he will hold seven in-person town halls for Oregonians in Gilliam, Sherman, Klamath, Lake, Deschutes, Crook and Jefferson counties between Thursday, April 2 and Saturday, April 4. These events follow previously announced town halls between Monday, March 30 and Wednesday, April 1. “I’m looking forward to again visiting wonderful communities […]

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Oregon

Oregon Supreme Court overturns JonBenét Ramsey photographer conviction

Published

15 hours ago

March 26, 2026

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Oregon Supreme Court overturns JonBenét Ramsey photographer conviction

The Oregon Supreme Court has overturned the conviction of a Lane County man who once photographed child beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey and was convicted in 2021 on several child pornography charges.

Randall DeWitt Simons, 73, of Oakridge, was charged in 2019 with 15 counts of first-degree encouraging child sex abuse. He was later convicted on every count and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Simons was first arrested after authorities began investigating a report from a restaurant in Oakridge that someone had been using the restaurant’s Wi-Fi to download inappropriate and concerning images.

Law enforcement officers directed the business to track, log, and report all of the user’s internet activity to the investigating officer for more than a year, without a warrant.

Police tracked the computer’s IP address from the restaurant’s Wi-Fi system, which led officers to a man who lived near the restaurant and had given Simons a computer, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in Lane County Circuit Court. Investigators obtained a warrant to search the laptop in Simon’s home, relying on information they had collected over time. He was subsequently arrested.

On March 26, the court ruled warrantless internet surveillance on public Wi-Fi violates privacy.

In an opinion written by Justice Bronson D. James, the court held that the Oregon Constitution recognizes people have a right to privacy in their internet browsing activities and the right is not extinguished when they use a publicly accessible wireless network. It’s even true in cases where that access is conditioned on a person accepting a terms-of-service agreement that says a provider may monitor activity and cooperate with law enforcement, James wrote.

During criminal proceedings in the Lane County Circuit Court, Simons moved to controvert the warrant and suppress the evidence obtained by police, arguing the business was a “state actor for purposes of Article I, section 9, and that its year-long warrantless surveillance was an unconstitutional, warrantless search attributable to the state,” the Supreme Court opinion said.

The Circuit Court denied Simon’s motion. The Oregon Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s decision in part and stated Simons had no cognizable privacy interest in his internet activities performed on a third-party network.

The Oregon Supreme Court rejected the state’s argument.

“The mere fact that a person accesses the internet through a public network does not eliminate their Article I, section 9, right to privacy in their online activities,” according to James. “Even when access is expressly conditioned on a user’s acceptance of terms-of-service provisions purporting to alert the user that the provider may monitor activity and cooperate with law enforcement.”

Justice K. Bushong suggested in a partial dissent the Court should reconsider its approach in a future case to what constitutes a “search” under the Oregon Constitution. The court’s decision reverses the Court of Appeals and sends the case back to the Lane County Circuit Court for further proceedings.

Simons has maintained his innocence since he was arrested in 2019.

Simons had been a photographer for 6-year-old Colorado beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey a few months before her still-unsolved 1996 murder, the Associated Press reported in 1998.

In October 1998, Simons was arrested on a charge of indecent exposure in Lincoln County, Colorado. According to the book “Perfect Murder, Perfect Town” by Lawrence Schiller, Simons was arrested in 1998 for allegedly walking nude down a residential street in the small town of Genoa, Colorado. Simons allegedly offered to the arresting deputy unprovoked, “I didn’t kill JonBenét.”

Haleigh Kochanski is a breaking news and public safety reporter for The Register-Guard. You may reach her at HKochanski@gannett.com.

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Oregon

Umatilla, Morrow counties establish Young Republicans of Oregon chapter – East Oregonian

Published

1 day ago

March 26, 2026

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Umatilla, Morrow counties establish Young Republicans of Oregon chapter

Published 8:00 pm Wednesday, March 25, 2026

IRRIGON — Young Republicans living in Umatilla and Morrow counties now can join a local chapter of the statewide Young Republicans of Oregon organization.

The Umatilla Morrow Young Republicans will advance Republican values and leadership in young residents through political training, networking opportunities and connection to Republican leaders. The group is focused on young adults, generally attracting college-aged people, though it includes people aged 18 to 40.

The five Young Republicans of Oregon members living in Umatilla and Morrow counties elected three officers to lead their new chapter. Irrigon’s Evan Purves was elected chair, with Connor Roberts of Hermiston as his vice chair and Kaelyn Moore of Milton-Freewater serving as secretary.

“I am super grateful for this opportunity to lead my neighbors,” Purves said. “It’s going to be really fun. We have some good events planned.”

Purves, 19, is a student at Blue Mountain Community College who eventually hopes to pursue a four-year degree in public administration. He initially became interested in the Young Republicans during an internship with Oregon state Rep. Greg Smith, of Heppner. He said it was an experience that showed him how the legislature works.

The internship also inspired him to step into a leadership role with the Young Republicans and help establish a local chapter of the organization. The newest chapter of the Young Republicans of Oregon, which was announced Monday, March 23, has been in the works since November 2025.

The Young Republicans of Oregon State Chair, Tanner Elliott, said the new chapter — the fourth chapter statewide — indicates momentum for conservative values.

“In less than a year, we’ve continued expanding because young conservatives are stepping up and getting involved in their communities,” Elliott said. “I want to congratulate the chapter’s leadership team on their election and especially commend their new chair Evan Purves for taking on this role. I’m confident this group will make a meaningful impact in Eastern Oregon and help drive our organization forward.”

Future plans in Umatilla, Morrow counties

The leadership team of UMYR already is making efforts to effect change.

In early May, Purves said, Umatilla Morrow Young Republicans will host a door knocking campaign in support of Smith’s reelection campaign. There also will be an official kickoff event the same weekend celebrating the new chapter and outlining priorities for the future.

“If there’s anything that we might struggle with is membership,” he said. “The recruiting part is us going out there and hosting events and socials, having opportunities for people to come out and do something fun that anybody’s invited to.”

Regarding other priorities, voter engagement is important to Purves,

“Even though we live in a big conservative area, there’s not a lot of politically engaged people, especially in my generation,” he said. “We want to get them involved.”

He said one of his concerns is businesses leaving the state due to policies that aren’t friendly to corporations, a common issue raised by Republican lawmakers. The decisions being made impact every community, he said, and he wants to have a say in what the leaders are doing.

“These bills affect all of us,” he said. “It’s just important to get people involved and get people to vote and be a part of it.”

People interested in updates on the efforts of the Umatilla Morrow Young Republicans can follow the group on Facebook or Instagram or become a member at yro.gop.

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