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The Oregon Department of Education is shutting down five instructional projects after the U.S. Department of Education terminated funds that would have helped teachers improve students’ literacy and math skills.
In a Tuesday statement, ODE wrote that the feds rescinded more than $2.5 million in COVID-era, congressionally appropriated dollars effective March 28, 10 months earlier than expected.
The cuts come “despite the urgency of recent state and national assessment data suggesting that Oregon must provide resources to support high-quality instruction in literacy and math,” the release reads. Oregon students are dead last nationwide in fourth grade reading and mathematics scores, when adjusted for demographics.
The suspended programs include developing a general instructional framework to help ensure equal access to quality instruction and the building of a math-specific instructional framework. (A literacy counterpart to the latter framework currently provides literacy materials and resources to educators.)
The other programs affect literacy, a priority for Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek. They are the Oregon Literacy Practitioners Network, which allows literacy ambassadors to share best practices for literacy instruction with educators, and a collection of professional learning resources to help students in grades 6-12 catch up on literacy. The funding was also meant to help host regional in-person trainings for educators in partnership with education service districts to boost early and adolescent literacy.
Education experts WW has spoken to largely agree that teacher quality is the top factor in ensuring student success.
As Politico reported Friday, the federal move to pull relief dollars from schools was a sudden reversal to policy under the Biden administration, which allowed extension requests into early 2026. The department, under Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, concluded such extensions were unjustified.
In a letter Politico obtained, McMahon wrote that “extending deadlines for COVID-related grants, which are in fact taxpayer funds, years after the COVID pandemic ended is not consistent with the Department’s priorities and thus not a worthwhile exercise of its discretion.”
Sara Kerr, vice president of education policy implementation for Results for America, a good-government nonprofit, says the DOE is allowing states to make a case for their outstanding unspent funds, and may grant extensions if they “will directly and positively impact student outcomes.”
“I also understand that many states are considering taking legal action,” Kerr says. “I am not sure what prompted Oregon to so quickly move to cancel these programs, though if they can’t be certain they will be reimbursed then I can see the need to pause.”
As President Donald Trump works to dismantle the DOE, cuts to the agency have also destabilized divisions tracking student outcomes and other education statistics. Those cuts, as WW reported last week, will complicate efforts to hold Oregon education officials accountable for dismal student outcomes.
ODE has begun notifying participants who were involved in designing and implementing such projects of the news.
“ODE remains committed to making sure students have the tools and resources to thrive, to continue our vision for serving each and every scholar receiving education in Oregon,” the release reads.