COVER • CONTENTS • ORDER
SEPTEMBER 2021 | Personal UPDATE
CRITICAL THINKING
Chris Corlett Educator
T
THE VANISHING STANDARD
he headlines during the summer months of 2021 cover the full range of human experiences – from natural disasters to man-made horrors. Tracking each story line proves both a daunting and discouraging task. Headlines that might have flown under your radar these past months relate to the passage in the state of Oregon of Senate Bill 744 which “suspends the requirement of showing proficiency in Essential Learning Skills as a condition of earning a diploma during 2021-2022 or 2022-2023 school year.”1 The Nine Essential Skills are cross-disciplinary skills that students should be developing across grades K- 12. For students first enrolled in Grade 9 in 2010 – 2011 or later, three of the Essential Skills are graduation requirements: • Read and comprehend a variety of text • Write clearly and accurately • Apply mathematics in a variety of settings. The headlines read: • “New Oregon Law Suspends Graduation Testing Requirement”2 • Oregon governor signs bill ending reading and math proficiency requirements for graduation3 • “Oregon Gov Kate Brown scraps need for high school students to prove proficiency in math, reading and writing to get diploma in bid to bolster minority students who ‘don’t test well’”4
1 SB 744 Suspends Education Standards :: Oregon Citizens Lobby 2 New Oregon Law Suspends Graduation Testing Requirement | Political News | US News 3 Oregon governor signs bill ending reading and math proficiency requirements for graduation (yahoo.com) 4 Oregon scraps requirement for high school students to prove proficiency in math, reading and writing | Daily Mail Online VOLUME 31 | ISSUE 09 |
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