https://www.oregonlive.com/pol...o-talk-about-it.html

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.

Just shameful.

There's that equity word again. Interesting how equity always means inequality.

that would be from Grade 4 into Grade 5 right?

So....a little background... the Teachers Union runs the state. That's a known fact. What the teacher's union wants, the teacher's union gets.

Now they seem to want more pay for doing less and less. The less and less includes having to teach the kids.

I wish I were joking.

quote:

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.”

So, giving them a piece of paper indicating graduation which no longer means proficiency is helping them? Versus actually teaching them and having them understand?

So, the schools want more money in order to just freely handout diplomas? Where does the money for the children go?

This just passes a larger burden onto employers who have to hire to find out their language and mathematical competency levels.

I'm sorry - just make high school non-compulsory instead. Let people drop out instead of giving them a piece of paper suggestive of a level of competency they don't deserve.

Meanwhile, elementary kids in Seoul go to cram school until 10pm every night.....

quote:

Originally posted by radioman:
So....a little background... the Teachers Union runs the state. That's a known fact. What the teacher's union wants, the teacher's union gets.

Now they seem to want more pay for doing less and less. The less and less includes having to teach the kids.

I wish I were joking.

So basically, the teachers fail at teaching but they don't want the numbers to look bad.

And people wonder why I never support increased funding for schools and education. The teachers are a failure. Or the kids don't want to learn. Or both. Money is not an issue with our schools. They do more w/ less in other countries.

It is understandable. An uneducated populace is easier to control.

You hardly need math and English at all to throw bricks at cops and burn down a CVS……………..

quote:

So basically, the teachers fail at teaching but they don't want the numbers to look bad.

exactly!

But to some extent the parents have to demand better and not be intimidated by stupid school board members on power trips. Lake Oswego (the richest zip code in the state) has good schools. The parents demand it.

On the other hand, if you look at the rest of the top schools in the state, most of the schools on the list are private.

In many places you have parents who don't demand quality plus ineffective teachers backed by a union. In the end, the kids lose out by lowering these standards.

But the governor has made the union happy, so she gets backed in the next election. quid pro quo.

quote:

Originally posted by radioman:
So....a little background... the Teachers Union runs the state. That's a known fact. What the teacher's union wants, the teacher's union gets.

Now they seem to want more pay for doing less and less. The less and less includes having to teach the kids.

I wish I were joking.

The teacher's union in most of the Blue states have been elevated to being political King Makers. California is paralyzed due to the whims of politicos giving the CTA a platform. NYS teacher's union is in a similar position.

I've read statements that appeared to be written in hieroglyphics.

I've interviewed suspects who could not carry on a conversation in intelligible English or Spanish.

I blame it on crap like this.

Easy - all colleges and employers, upon seeing an Oregon applicant, can invoke an additional competency test to be considered. The labor pool of sanitation workers and crop pickers will increase exponentially.

Public education is the biggest "jobs project" in the history of the U.S.

Notice how the number of useless administrators keeps going up? The real data shows that class size is not as important as school size. 40 kids in a class vs. 30 is not an issue in Asia. But smaller classes here means more teachers, so they constantly push for it. Huge schools with 4000 kids have many more layers of administration than smaller schools. And in general more layers of management means less effectiveness at the ground level.

Bottom line, unionized public schools are communism in practice. Everyone paid by the state based on years of service and degrees attained, no accountability for quality of performance, no one is evaluated on their merits, no one can get fired. Is it any wonder they teach our kids to be communists?

Public unions need to go, period. They actively prevent elected officials from enacting policy the voters want, and place unelected union bosses in the way.

As for Oregon - is this any different than states that practice social promotion allowing graduation if you just show up enough? Is Oregon just becoming more like other states?

quote:

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.”

She's saying those groups are stupid.
This racist needs to step down immediately!

We must use their nonsense against them.

quote:

Originally posted by sgalczyn:
The labor pool of sanitation workers will increase exponentially.

Don't you need to be able to read in order to know which products you're using and math to determine how much of what is needed?

Gud greef. 2+2 is 5.

And to think that the state recently tried to give the Oregon board of education authority to determine curriculum taught in private schools (SB223)!

They were going to punish private schools that did not teach... "THE MESSAGE."

INSANE!

Yet another reason I'm leaving this dumpster fire of a state...

quote:

Originally posted by berto:
Gud greef. 2+2 is 5.

You pass.

Damn. By now, I'd be ready to retire if I would have just kept my mouth shut.

I failed, the monster won.