2015 will be a watershed year for P-20 education in the state of Oregon. ORHigherEd.com celebrates New Year's Day with a look ahead at the biggest policy issues currently facing the state.
ORHigherEd.com has identified five key priorities for higher education in the state of Oregon for 2015:
- Per capita spending on higher education.
- In 2011, Oregon ranked 44th in per capita spending on higher education (1). In 2014, Oregon ranked 47th (2). In order to achieve ambitious goals for student outcomes in higher education, the state must reverse this trend.
- Enrollment Growth
- In its 2012 report, the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) reported that Oregon ranked first nationwide in enrollment growth (3). With among the lowest per capita spending in the nation and the highest rate of enrollment growth, the statewide strain on schools and students is likely to increase, ceteris paribus.
- 40/40/20
- In 2011, the Oregon Legislature adopted ambitious goals commonly known as 40/40/20. The goals state that by 2025, 40% of Oregon students would graduate with four year degrees, 40% would graduate with two-year degrees or certificates, and the remaining 20% would graduate with high school diplomas or equivalencies. In order to move closer to achieving the 40/40/20 goal, the state of Oregon will need to significantly increase high school graduation, strengthen the college-going culture statewide, and improve outcomes for college students. This will require an increase in inter-agency collaboration, or as the Governor called it in announcing his biennial budget, "break[ing] down silos" (4).
- Free Community College
- State Senator Mark Hass' OR Senate Bill 1524 received nationwide attention in 2014. In its first year, a similar program in Tennessee exceeded application projections by a margin of nearly 2:1. Governments across the nation, including state and municipal agencies, are currently reviewing similar schemes for potential implementation (5).
- High School Fifth Year
- As we begin 2015, three things are already clear about the so-called Fifth Year program which arose at a number of primarily rural Oregon high schools. First, if implemented statewide, the results of the program could constitute and important step toward achieving 40/40/20 goals. Second, the initial results have gained nationwide attention, providing the opportunity for Oregon to emerge as a leader (6). Third, the program grew as a patchwork response to state funding schemes for secondary education. Without significant restructuring the scheme is not currently financially viable (7).
In the year ahead, ORHigherEd.com will closely follow these and other policy issues impacting student outcomes in the state of Oregon.
Still to come in January at ORHigherEd.com:
- A retrospective of the best higher ed policy reporting in 2014.
- Governor Kitzhaber's proposed biennial budget.
Sources:
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