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
Participation Award, previously known as a Diploma
Everyone gets a trophy
Wonder if they will just not have a grading system at all. Hopefully that does not happen as it could destroy college chances for hard-working students.
“For the smart kids, method doesn’t matter. They just get it. It unfolds as an image in their brain and it’s innate. The problem is they have to share a classroom and curriculum with 22 retards.
The American public school system did a pretty good job of educating students, ‘back in the day’ using methods that have been rejected by all ‘right-thinking’ people to be replaced by methods that seem to fail every time they are deployed.
“Average kids, below-average kids mastered the skills.”
White and Asian kids.
Black and brown never did.
‘Black and brown never did.’
and they never will, as they will never have to...
‘Only a few would be held back.’
this is a very sore topic with me, as it represents failure on several levels; of comprehension, of ethic, and of will...but I sucked at math...
you would not believe my level of bafflement on the subject of Plane Geometry...
“you would not believe my level of bafflement on the subject of Plane Geometry...”
That’s it. They only need to find the big “D” on the ballot. Soon, there will only be logos and pictograms for the party designation. Eventually, when they perfect the mail in voting fraud, they won’t need these people at all.
“Equitable standards?”
Wouldn’t that mean that all students could read, write and do math on the same level? Let’s take a 70% passing grade.
Dumbing down in Oregon has reached a new peak.
I would not trust anyone that had a high school degree from an Oregon “school!”
Instead of “peak,” make that “nadir!”
Now that the Supreme Court ruled that schools couldn't be segregated into good schools for whites and separate but *snicker* "equal" schools for 'negroes', they are returning to their Antebellum roots.
You can make us put them in "our" schools, but you can't make us teach them anything useful!
Math isn't racist, liberalism is RACIST!!!
Translation: We’re now issuing “certificates of attendance” rather than diplomas since they mean nothing. 12 years of taxpayer-funded baby sitting is what you get, nothing more.
True, because if i want 32 2x4 all 12 feet long, I want someone who knows how to measure 12 feet and count to 32. Construction is math, if you are building a house for a family, you need to do math, unless you want to be bankrupt in no time.
Surprisingly all those Hispanic framers can do geometry pretty well...
Is Tribal and Indigenous the same? I'm getting confused by liberalism and their racial BS!!
Then a couple weeks before the Government Mandated "testing" they tell the kids, you already know the answer in your head, now here is how you 'FILL OUT" on the test.
Young PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATED workers are so stupid. My 9 year old just told a cashier that he goofed on change. The cashier looked at him and told him he didn’t. MrsDeplorable told the cashier that son was right. The cashier looked at us and said sorry... and give son the quarter he was owed.
Still they're happy as can be, doin' what comes naturally.
My cousin down in Portland can't even write his name,
He signs his checks with x's and they cash them just the same.
(Revised old song)
In an effort to future divide the population along yet another artificial demographic.
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