Oregon Public Broadcasting

Oregon ranks dead last in the nation in an Education Week report on how states are addressing  the issue of technology.

The state’s grade of  “D” was based primarily on policy requirements for teachers. The report looked at half a dozen suggested teacher requirements like having minimum technology requirements for teachers and administrators.  Nick Jwayad is the technology director for  Portland Public Schools. He says many districts, including Portland, set high demands, regardless of state standards.

Nick Jwayad: “So here, at Portland Public Schools, we know that 100 percent of our teachers have access to e-mail, 100 percent of our teachers have access to a student information system, an on-line student tracking system. We have high-speed connectivity to every building, and there’s a lab, or other computing options for every student in the district. So, even though the standards are not necessarily in place, districts, both here in the Portland metro area, and around the state, do have resources that are allocated to insure that every student and teacher has appropriate access.”

Oregon was not far off, in terms of access to computers. The Education Week report also penalized Oregon for not offering a so-called “virtual school” to children in the state.  That’s accurate. However Oregon does have an on-line charter school.