Oregon Public Broadcasting

Many Oregon school officials are responding to newly-released results showing that only  52 percent of 10th graders passed the state math test.

In the Willamette Valley town of Lebanon, the scores were well below the state average for tenth grade math, with only 37 percent passing.

Lebanon superintendent, Jim Robinson, responded this week by declaring a “state of academic emergency.” He says his math teachers have already started working on it.

Jim Robinson: “They understood the urgency, they knew they had problems. They actually began, shortly after reading it, to identify strategies and ideas of things that they could do right away. And to talk to the non-math teachers about conveying a message that mathematics is just like reading - it’s not OK to say ‘well, I’m just not very good at math’.”

Robinson says teachers will conduct weekly meetings and will work to align curriculum and assessments, so that instruction and expectations are at a consistently high level throughout Lebanon High’s small academies.

Lebanon’s lone high school has struggled in recent years with mediocre academic performance and controversy over its change to the small school structure.