This story is featured in OPB’s “The Evergreen” podcast series. Listen to all episodes of the series here.
OPB’s Class of 2025 project started out of a goal set by the state, that starting this year, Oregon schools would achieve a 100% graduation rate.
But it is Oregon students, who have complicated lives that don’t happen entirely within a classroom, who are at the center of that goal.
Thirteen years ago, OPB set out to document the lives of a group of students, following their educational journey all the way to high school graduation. But for some students, receiving a diploma after four years in high school isn’t the road they’re on.
Leyna and Dale are two students who will not be graduating with their respective high school classes this spring. For both of them, upheavals at home had an enormous impact on their lives, including a big change in how they related to school.
Leyna’s high school starts with tragic loss
OPB has followed Leyna and a group of her classmates since they were in kindergarten. Now, these students are seniors in high school.
OPB Staff/Mia Estrada / OPB
For Leyna, high school has been tough, unlike what she expected from “High School Musical.”
“I was really excited to start high school, but when I was in ninth grade, the middle of it, I realized this is not that exciting,” she recalled.
Class of 2025 student Leyna, with her dad Hung Nguyen. Nguyen passed away in 2021, a few months before Leyna started high school.
OPB staff / OPB
A few months before Leyna started high school, her father died. Freshman year, she worked hard, wanting to graduate for him and her family.
“The thing that has made me come to school, it’s not very surprising, but my dad,” she said at the end of her freshman year. “I remember him saying I needed to get into college, and get a good education — so I think part of me is doing school for my dad and for my family.”
But as high school went on, Leyna struggled to come to school due to health issues and helping at home, and at the beginning of senior year, she switched to David Douglas Online Academy, a virtual high school. Leyna is several credits short of graduating.
“I feel like reaching out for help and then trying to connect with teachers is really difficult,” she said. “I kind of just work through my work on my own.”
She’s hoping to finish by January 2026.
“We’ve been through a tough time, but I’m really proud of my kids,” Leyna’s mom, Lan Nguyen, spoke of Leyna and her younger sister.
“They’ve been off and on with their mental health, but they keep trying, they didn’t give up,” Lan said. “I’m proud of Leyna.”
Class of 2025 student Leyna, left, and her mother Lan Nguyen on their porch, Jan. 8, 2025.
Mia Estrada / OPB
Dale’s path takes him to work, away from school
OPB has followed Dale's educational journey as part of the Class of 2025 project. Dale in second grade, left, and currently.
OPB Staff/Elizabeth Miller / OPB
Dale is another Class of 2025 student who won’t be graduating this spring. He hasn’t been going to school or trying to earn credits toward graduation for a few years.
Living on the Oregon Coast with his grandmother, he spends his time working instead — from painting and maintenance work to installing septic tanks.
“It’s not something I was really interested in,” Dale said of school. “I’d rather learn life skills, trades, and doing other important stuff that would get me somewhere in life.”
Dale, one of the students OPB has followed as part of its Class of 2025 project, operates a mini-excavator to move wood.
Elizabeth Miller / OPB
As a kid, Dale endured domestic violence at home, resulting in his being injured and removed from his parents’ home by state authorities.
After his grandmother took custody of Dale and his sister, he worked with a principal to help regain some control over his education and time at school.
Class of 2025 student Dale with his grandmother Carolyn Smith. Dale lives on the Oregon Coast with Smith, spending his time working — from painting and maintenance work to installing septic tanks.
Elizabeth Miller / OPB
But he had to leave behind familiar staff as he advanced to junior high school, upsetting a fragile relationship with school that would never quite recover.
Today, Dale takes things one at a time and focuses on the present. He doesn’t see himself going back to high school, but he might get a GED diploma in the future.
“The experiences that I’ve dealt with … it shaped me into being a better man,” Dale said. “Life goes on, and just, I’m better — better than what I used to be, and I’m always looking forward, not back.”
For a while, Dale’s grandmother, Carolyn Smith, explored options for her grandson to resume his high school education. But the options didn’t suit Dale, and he was learning a lot while working.
“There are certain occupations, I guess, you need more of the formal education, but I think the hands-on and the life stuff is one of those better teachers that you can carry all the way through your life,” Smith said.
Changing feelings about education after COVID-19
For Dale, Leyna and several students in the Class of 2025, online school during COVID and the distance learning that came after altered how students viewed school and how connected they felt to it.
For Dale, distance learning weakened an already thin connection to his middle-and-high school in Lincoln City.
For Leyna, COVID felt like a “gap” in her learning, and she struggled to stay motivated.
As for the goal that prompted OPB’s Class of 2025 project, that by 2025, 100% of Oregon students wouldn’t graduate high school?
“They can’t expect everybody to succeed in that expectation,” Dale said.
“The 100%? No, I don’t think it was realistic,” Leyna said. “I don’t think any outcome of anything will be 100%, ever.”
Rob Manning contributed to this story.
