Oregon Students No Longer Have to Prove Mastery of Reading, Writing, or Math to Graduate
“Opponents argued that pausing the requirement devalues an Oregon diploma.”
This is being framed as if it’s to help students of color. How exactly does this help anyone?
Oregon Live reports:
Oregon again says students don’t need to prove mastery of reading, writing or math to graduate, citing harm to students of color
Oregon high school students won’t have to prove basic mastery of reading, writing or math to graduate from high school until at least 2029, the state Board of Education decided unanimously on Thursday, extending the pause on the controversial graduation requirement that began in 2020.
The vote went against the desires of dozens of Oregonians who submitted public comments insisting the standards should be reinstated, including former Republican gubernatorial candidate Christine Drazan. Backlash against the lowered standard had already delayed the vote, originally slated to take place in September.
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.
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.
Higher rates of students of color, students learning English as a second language and students with disabilities ended up having to take intensive senior-year writing and math classes to prove they deserved a diploma. That denied those students the opportunity to take an elective, despite the lack of evidence the extra academic work helped them in the workplace or at college, they said.
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Comments
Is there a “fourth world?”
Because I think this is below even third-world standards.
“….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.”
Got it. “Historically marginalized” students can never improve, forcing society to lower standards so they won’t feel bad.
In effect, they are saying the “HMs” are unable to rise above their “history.”
The soft bigotry or low expectations indeed.
Just another way to keep black people in that good ol’ plantation mentality.
“…did not translate to meaningful improvements in students’ post high school success.”
Yes but pretending the problem doesn’t exist and hiding it will definitely lead to pretend success. That much we know to be true.
Ordinarily, one would expect accrediting agencies to retract accreditation for these schools and thus the graduating students will be at a disadvantage competing to enter into college.. But that is not certain any more.
In the end, this action will really hurt all students and not help any.one. Success in life is largely determined by the mastery of these skills.
So now, admissions offices at universities around the nation know that applicants with Oregon high school diplomas are functionally illiterate and will likely require at least one full semester of remedial instruction before beginning any actual college level course work. But wait, that might stigmatize the little darlings, so they’ll just have to lower the standards for college-level work. At least for minorities.
Parents should send their children to (much lower cost) community colleges to get up to what used to be high school level. Taxpayers should raise hell about continuing to fund public schools that do things like this, and voters should vote out the arrogant SOBs doing this in defiance of public sentiment who have convinced themselves that they are smarter than everyone else and are doing this for the good of the students.
You really want to keep people in minority groups down? Keep them ignorant and tell them it’s for their own good.
Well, sounds to me like the state just rendered every school system therein totally worthless, so why even send your children anywhere in that state? Why even have to pay taxes to pay for schools that no longer even have to show tangible results? Heck, why even have compulsory school attendance laws any more if there’s no standard by which to show a student actually merits graduating from High School?
This only ensures that Democratic Socialists will have legions of mental midgets in that state to lead around by the nose.
Apparently Oregon thinks teaching black kids to read and write harms them.
It does harm them. It forces them to act White. Or something.
“Social promotion” in schools is just another form of counter-productive reparations.