Posted on 08/10/2021 9:46:41 AM PDT by Red Badger
For the next five years, an Oregon high school diploma will be no guarantee that the student who earned it can read, write or do math at a high school level.
Gov. Kate Brown had demurred earlier this summer regarding whether she supported the plan passed by the Legislature to drop the requirement that students demonstrate they have achieved those essential skills. But on July 14, the governor signed Senate Bill 744 into law.
Through a spokesperson, the governor declined again Friday to comment on the law and why she supported suspending the proficiency requirements.
Brown’s decision was not public until recently, because her office did not hold a signing ceremony or issue a press release and the fact that the governor signed the bill was not entered into the legislative database until July 29, a departure from the normal practice of updating the public database the same day a bill is signed.
The Oregonian/OregonLive asked the governor’s office when Brown’s staff notified the Legislature that she had signed the bill. Charles Boyle, the governor’s deputy communications director, said the governor’s staff notified legislative staff the same day the governor signed the bill.
Boyle said in an emailed statement that suspending the reading, writing and math proficiency requirements while the state develops new graduation standards will benefit “Oregon’s Black, Latino, Latina, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islander, Tribal, and students of color.”
“Leaders from those communities have advocated time and again for equitable graduation standards, along with expanded learning opportunities and supports,” Boyle wrote.
Lawmakers and the governor did not pass any major expansion of learning opportunities or supports for Black, Indigenous and students of color during this year’s legislative session.
The requirement that students demonstrate freshman- to sophomore-level skills in reading, writing and, particularly, math led many high schools to create workshop-style courses to help students strengthen their skills and create evidence of mastery. Most of those courses have been discontinued since the skills requirement was paused during the pandemic before lawmakers killed it entirely.
Democrats in the legislature overwhelmingly supported ending the longtime proficiency requirement, while Republicans criticized it as a lowering of academic standards. A couple lawmakers crossed party lines on the votes.
Proponents said the state needed to pause Oregon’s high school graduation requirements, in place since 2009 but already suspended during the pandemic, until at least the class of 2024 graduates in order for leaders to reexamine its graduation requirements. Recommendations for new standards are due to the Legislature and Oregon Board of Education by September 2022.
However, since Oregon education officials have long insisted they would not impose new graduation requirements on students who have already begun high school, new requirements would not take effect until the class of 2027 at the very earliest. That means at least five more classes could be expected to graduate without needing to demonstrate proficiency in math and writing.
Much of the criticism of the graduation requirements was targeted at standardized tests. Yet Oregon, unlike many other states, did not require students to pass a particular standardized test or any test at all. Students could demonstrate their ability to use English and do math via about five different tests or by completing an in-depth classroom project judged by their own teachers.
A variety of factors appear to have led to the lack of transparency around the governor’s bill signing decisions this summer. Staff in the secretary of the state Senate’s office are responsible for updating the legislative database when the governor signs a Senate bill. Secretary of the Senate Lori Brocker said a key staffer who deals with the governor’s office was experiencing medical issues during the 15-day period between when Brown signed Senate Bill 744 and the public database was updated to reflect that.
Still, a handful of bills that the governor signed into law on July 19 — including a bill to create a training program for childcare and preschool providers aimed at reducing suspensions and expulsions of very young children — were updated in the legislative database the same day she signed them and email notifications were sent out immediately to people who signed up to track the bills.
No notification ever went out regarding the governor’s signing of the graduation bill. That was because by the time legislative staff belatedly entered the information into the bill database on July 29, the software vendor had shut off bill updates to member of the media and the public who had requested them. They cut it off because of a July 21 system malfunction, said legislative information services Systems Architect Bill Sweeney.
-- Hillary Borrud; hborrud@oregonian.com; @hborrud
Governor Kate Brown part of the American Communist Party?
Well, now I know who not to hire.
The KKK had issues with Blacks — when asked to justify, it had no comment.
Dems are the klan without the hoods.....
Ivy League University prospects.
Gotta love public skools.
Time to defund the Publik Skoolz....
What education does a peep need to be a professional rioter?
Time to admit that the government schools are merely subsidized babysitting. If they don’t have to have learned anything in order to graduate, then why not just hand every 5-year-old a high school diploma and stop wasting all this time and money? Close down the schools and let parents find alternate child care. Oh wait, I forgot. The indoctrination is the important part. The left needs those years to turn the kiddies into communists.
Considering the job prospects in OR, they are just going to crank out homeless people.
Now they can really go hog wild on the social justice curriculum.
So she's saying only white students possess the intelligence required to learn reading and arithmetic?
“Why can’t Johnny read?”
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“Because the government doesn’t want him to.”.............
“For the next five years, an Oregon high school diploma will be no guarantee that the student who earned it can read, write or do math at a high school level.”
It hasn’t been for 50 years.
Their demonstrated skills standards are closer to 5th grade.
Same with every public school system.
All standards, where they even still exist, are tuned to the average kid of color. Average IQ of 85. Barely able to make change, struggles with long division and can’t comprehend a newspaper article. It’s difficult to underestimate a kid with an 85 IQ.
That’s the reality of modern America.
Why there are white and asian kids in public school is baffling to me. There is absolutely nothing there for them.
How long has that already been going on? She just legalized it, that’s all.
Congratulations to the NEA.
Last 60+ years in “Blue” areas:
Minority kids don’t get educated...
without basic skills they don’t get hired at good jobs...
not getting hired by (especially white owned) business... proves “systemic racism”...
WokeLeftazis demand these uneducated people get hired (er...paid, work is optional) or legal action will be taken against businesses.
Minority kids are told racism (not lack of education) are holding them back... they then riot, loot and burn... inter city’s become free-fire zones, crime/drug/gang infested Hell holes... gun control is demanded by LeftWokeazis!
Rinse-repeat.
Molding new recruits for Antifa and BLM is more important than reading or arithmetic.
Can you say ‘Dumbing down”?
What would ‘high expectations’ be in this environment? Counting on your fingers at age 18?
So, this is the superior performance that a majority of Oregon voted for? Really?
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