Continuing the blue state tradition of dumbing down education in the name of equity, Oregon has decided to waive the requirement for high school students to demonstrate basic competency in reading, writing, and math for the next five years. Education officials in the state have decided that these requirements aren’t necessary and — you guessed it — are unfair to minority students.
The essential skills requirement has been on hold since the COVID-19 pandemic. The requirement had mandated that 11th graders demonstrate their competence in essential subjects either through standardized tests or work samples. Students falling short of these expectations were compelled to enroll in additional math and writing classes during their senior year, which meant forgoing an elective class as a prerequisite for graduation. The Oregon State Board of Education unanimously decided that basic skills requirements will remain suspended through the 2027-2028 school year.
While board members voted unanimously to further suspend the basic skills requirements, citizens had wanted the requirements reinstated, arguing that without them, a high school diploma in the state loses its value. Board members didn’t seem to care, and held to their belief that minority students, students with disabilities, and students whose primary language isn’t English were disproportionately burdened by the requirements.
Former Oregon gubernatorial candidate Christine Drazan blasted the move.
“At some point … our diploma is going to end up looking a lot more like a participation prize than an actual certificate that shows that someone actually is prepared to go pursue their best future,” Drazan told Fox News.
Imagine having such little faith in your minority students that you’d vote to suspend the basic skills requirement and dilute the value of your state’s high school diplomas for everyone.
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“Opponents argued that pausing the requirement devalues an Oregon diploma. Giving students with low academic skills extra instruction in writing and math, which most high schools did in response to the graduation rules, helped them, they have argued,” reports The Oregonian. “But leaders at the Oregon Department of Education and members of the state school board said requiring all students to pass one of several standardized tests or create an in-depth assignment their teacher judged as meeting state standards was a harmful hurdle for historically marginalized students, a misuse of state tests and did not translate to meaningful improvements in students’ post high school success.”
From where I sit, it looks like the pandemic was just a convenient excuse for ending the requirement, and it is unlikely the Board of Education will ever bring it back.
“We haven’t suspended any sort of assessments,” state board member Vicky López Sánchez, a dean at Portland Community College, claimed. “The only thing we are suspending is the inappropriate use of how those assessments were being used. I think that really is in the best interest of Oregon students.”
Does that sound like someone who will eventually vote to bring the requirement back?
Dan Farley, assistant superintendent of research and data for the department, told the board he didn’t think that requirements worked. “What they were designed to do is protect student interests. We have no evidence that they did that.”
In what universe does requiring basic reading, writing, and math skills to graduate high school not protect student interests? Let’s be honest here: this decision isn’t about the students at all; it’s actually about protecting the interest of Oregon educators who aren’t doing their job, which is to teach their students basic skills.
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