Eugene and Springfield students spend significantly less time at school than the average American student — by new estimates, three to six weeks less a year.
Newly aggregated data from public policy research firm ECOnorthwest, commissioned by Oregon educational advocacy group Stand for Children, offers insights into each district’s widely varying “contact hours” from district to district through a searchable tool. Contact hours constitute the time students spend in school from bell to bell, including transitions, instruction, lunch and recess.
The data was taken from the 2025 school year and measures districts against the state and national averages for students’ time spent at school. In addition to the large variance in instructional time within the state, Oregon ranks 47th in the nation for average hours in school according to a 2024 research article…