Oregon Score Card

Oregon, the 27th most populous state, has above average educational attainment. The state is expected to have slow growth in the number of high school graduates from 2007–08 to 2017–18.

The Oregon State Board of Higher Education is the statutory governing board of the seven-campus Oregon University System (OUS). OUS enrolls just over 80,000 students and includes the University of Oregon and Oregon State University. The State Board of Education has statutory authority over educational policies and standards for the state's school districts and the Oregon Department of Community Colleges and Workforce Development. Since Oregon does not have a community college system per se, instead retaining much local autonomy, the Oregon Department of Community Colleges and Workforce Development supervises and regulates the state's 17 community colleges.

Oregon's higher education accountability system's strengths are:

• Gathering information on a wide breadth of performance measures.
• Collecting and reporting data in a timely fashion.
• Comparing data across time and/or against peers.
• Aligning state priorities with concrete goals for achievement.
• Formally linking budgetary decisions to the performance of state postsecondary institutions.

Oregon's higher education accountability system needs work in:

• Proactively informing prospective students, parents, and the general public about the performance of state colleges and universities.