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As per several news outlets including the NY Post, high school graduates in Blue State, Oregon, will not be required to demonstrate a minimum level of reading, writing, or math proficiency in order to graduate. This is because education authorities believe that these standards are superfluous and unfairly disadvantage pupils of color.
Furthermore, this will go on for a minimum of another five years. The State Board of Education made a decision last Thursday, October 26.
Prior to this, students had to pass standardized tests in math proficiency, reading, and writing in order to graduate and obtain a diploma. However, as the schools were closed during the pandemic, standardized testing was suspended.
Addressing this new policy, Christine Drazan, a previous candidate for governor of Oregon, told Fox News,
"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".
Blue State has recently suspended the basic skills required for graduation
The need for high school graduates to demonstrate their proficiency in math, reading, and writing has once again been deferred by Oregon's education leaders. In order for students to be allowed to graduate, they were often compelled to take additional writing and math classes in their final year.
According to the daily local newspaper, The Oregonian, board members claimed that these requirements were needless and hurt students from marginalized groups because a greater proportion of students of color, students with impairments, and students studying English as a second language had to go above and beyond to demonstrate their eligibility for a certificate.
Addressing the new policy, Christine Drazan also told FOX News,
“It is not bigoted, it is not racist to want your student to be able to actually learn”.
As per a British news outlet, at the meeting on Thursday, Vicky López Sánchez, a dean at Portland Community College and a member of the state board stated,
“The only thing we are suspending is the inappropriate use of how those assessments were being used."
Since the coronavirus epidemic, the essential skills requirement has been suspended. The Oregon State Board of Education overwhelmingly decided to keep the suspension in place through the 2027–2028 academic year.
As per the previous criteria, 11th graders had to submit work examples or a standardized test to prove their proficiency in core courses. In order to graduate, students who did not meet expectations had to take extra writing and math classes in their final year. However, now no such thing would happen.
Nevertheless, once this news was uploaded by Fox News on X, it immediately went viral. Then hundreds of people took to the comment section of the post to show their disagreement with the decision.
According to Oregon Public Broadcasting, the state has one of the lowest graduation rates in the nation, but it also has some of the strictest credit requirements. Drazan, however, urged worried parents to bring their concerns to the attention of Kotek's office, which selects the members of the education board.
