Andrea Castañeda, superintendent of the Salem-Keizer School District, was blunt in her assessment of students’ academic achievement across the state.

“Oregon should be worried.”

She showed a room full of business leaders a graph of 8th grade math test results — for the state and her district. Just 29% of Oregon 8th graders were proficient in math when tested last spring. In Salem-Keizer, it was just under 23%.

Her Monday speech to a Salem Area Chamber of Commerce-organized lunch walked a line between concern and optimism. She said it’s clear that both Salem and Oregon have needed to improve basic education for a long time. Locally, efforts to do so are starting to pay off, she said.

“These are solvable problems. Places all throughout the country have solved them. Districts have solve

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