Oregon education chief emphasizes ‘love and joy’ in schools despite challenges

There’s no question that Oregon schools are facing substantial challenges today.

Enrollment is down. More than a third of K-12 students statewide are chronically absent. Districts are facing the fallout of massive budget cuts as the state’s own measuring tool to price “quality education” has reached an all-time high of $13.5 billion, or $2.2 billion more than current spending level forecasts.

Meanwhile, federal COVID-19 relief funding is ending. Graduation rates are flat. And students’ needs, mental health problems and behavioral issues have all increased since the start of the pandemic.

But Oregon Department of Education Director Charlene Williams wants people to know that those facts are only part of the story. She shared headlines showing teens volunteering for youth mental health crisis lines, classes modeling a “more just world” and historic investments in reading instruction.

Related: Oregon school enrollment worries officials as it continues dropping, though the decline is slowing

She’s calling on educators to help change the negative narratives about public education today.

“Love and joy for education — that’s what our students really need,” Williams told an auditorium filled with more than 700 school employees from across the state earlier this week. “I’m asking for your partnership in this work.”

Williams shared her call to action at the Oregon Educators Summit at Oregon State University in Corvallis Tuesday evening during her “State of Education” address.

The two-day summit aimed to expand educators’ skills and share ideas on the best ways to teach students disproportionately affected by the pandemic. It was organized by the Equitable Accelerated Learning K-8 Project, a $7 million effort led by Oregon State’s College of Education in partnership with ODE and funded by the American Rescue Plan.

“I know as teachers, it’s almost like working in a fish bowl: everybody has an opinion about what you should be doing, and they keep adding to the fish bowl,” Williams told the crowd. “But I understand that you are here today because you are already in action. You are already going above and beyond.”

Now a year into her role as Oregon’s top education leader, Williams is tasked with making choices that affect tens of thousands of educators and more than 550,000 students — or scholars, as Williams refers to them — statewide.

Williams made an emotional appeal to teachers, rooted in her own origin story as an educator.

Related: National data shows how Oregon school districts stack up on chronic absenteeism

She was in high school in North Carolina, hanging out after class with some of her math teachers as part of the math club — “because that’s what we all do,” she joked to the audience — when one of them asked Williams a question about her future.

“You know, Charlene, they say women and minorities don’t do as well in mathematics,” Williams remembered. “What are you going to do about it?”

At the time, Williams thought she’d “show them” by becoming an engineer. But everything changed, she said, when her math teacher Miss Taylor slipped on a french fry and fell. She was out for days.

Williams said the substitute teacher who covered the class wasn’t equipped to teach it, but Taylor left a note for the sub for such an occasion: “If you don’t know the math, Charlene does, and she can help you teach the class.”

“I ended up teaching pre-calculus for a week,” Williams said, adding that she kept reflecting back on that question throughout that time — what was she going to do about it?

“I realized that the only way I could truly do something was to be able to sit in the seats you’re sitting in today as an educator, helping to transform lives on a daily basis.”

Asking educators to continue to hope

Fast forward to the present day, Williams is calling on Oregon educators to remember the “why” — why they dedicate the time and energy it takes to educate the next generation.

She said the state is hard at work to improve things through ODE’s three priorities: academic excellence, belonging and wellness, and reimagining accountability.

As a result, state leaders have invested more money, especially in literacy programs and additional instructional time over the summer and after school. Gov. Tina Kotek has proposed dedicating more money to schools through a possible change to the state’s education funding mechanism.

Related: School districts throughout Oregon, Southwest Washington face significant budget cuts this spring

The leaders have convened workgroups and task forces to start solving issues, like making state data more accessible and transparent to families. They’ve also listened to students, who shared what they think is and isn’t working in schools today.

Williams said state education officials plan to continue in the new school year. This will include conversations with state lawmakers about school funding and doubling down on kids showing up to school. Williams announced the state is declaring September “Attendance Awareness Month.”

However, the theme of Williams’ speech wasn’t focused on those specifics — it was more about the existential needs of the K-12 system. Williams was asking them to hope.

“We know hope is hard,” she said. “Hope isn’t a strategy.”

Related: Teen volunteers staff Oregon’s crisis support line to help peers facing mental health challenges

She shared a quote from Dane Jensen’s “Sustaining Hope in Uncertain Times,” ending: “When hope is lost, so too is our will to endure and ultimately prevail.”

“I don’t know about you, but sometimes when I’m listening to the media and looking at our landscape, it’s easy sometimes to fall into despair,” Williams said, asking earlier — why do this work if we don’t expect a better outcome?

“You are already practicing the evidence of hope,” she concluded. “I’m asking you to continue, to go back to your various schools and districts, sending this message of hope. And I hope that you all have an amazing school year.”