Oregon and the measurement of merit in education
Oregon has quietly enacted some legislation on education in the state:
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown privately signed a bill last month ending the requirement for high school students to prove proficiency in reading, writing, and arithmetic before graduation…
The bill, which suspends the proficiency requirements for students for three years, has attracted controversy for at least temporarily suspending academic standards amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Backers argued the existing proficiency levels for math and reading presented an unfair challenge for students who do not test well, and Boyle said the new standards for graduation would aid Oregon’s “Black, Latino, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islander, Tribal, and students of color.”
That sounds like a straight-up racist statement to me – but hey, what do I know?
However, the bill doesn’t actually suspend all proficiency standards or testing – just certain ones. But it’s not clear what they might be:
“The testing that we’ve been doing in the past doesn’t tell us what we want to know,” Democratic Sen. Lew Frederick told a local ABC affiliate in June. “We have been relying on tests that have been, frankly, very flawed and relying too much on them so that we aren’t really helping the students or the teachers or the community.”
Supporters of the measure said the state needed to pause the academic requirements, which had been in place since 2009, so lawmakers could reevaluate which standards should be updated, and recommendations for new graduation standards are due to the Legislature and Oregon Board of Education by September 2022, the Oregonian added in its report.
Republicans criticized the proposal for lowering academic standards.
“I worry that by adopting this bill, we’re giving up on our kids,” House Republican Leader Christine Drazan said on June 14.
But it turns out that there wasn’t one standardized test recommended statewide in Oregon prior to this law. There was nothing like, for example, the NY Regents tests that were required to obtain an academic high school diploma in NY when I was growing up, which placed a pretty high bar on advancing to the next level. I recall them as being quite rigorous, and if a student failed he or she failed the course and had to repeat it.
No, Oregon had nothing like that:
While some lawmakers argued against standardized testing for skill evaluation, the state of Oregon does not list any particular test as a requirement for earning a diploma, with the Department of Education saying only that “students will need to successfully complete the credit requirements, demonstrate proficiency in the Essential Skills, and meet the personalized learning requirements.”
That’s rather poorly written in terms of the time frame, but I believe it is describing the standards that were in place post-2009 but prior to this new law’s passage.
A little more information can be found here, and it’s about what you’d expect, with the word “equitable” being the key (as well as “a more just Oregon”):
Education non-profit Foundations for a Better Oregon says the law opens the door for more ‘equitable’ graduation requirements.
‘With SB 744, Oregon can ensure high school diplomas are rigorous, relevant, and truly reflect what every student needs to thrive in the 21st century,’ the group said in a statement.
Sure thing. And I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you if you buy that.
In addition:
According to the bill’s language, the state’s Department of Education is directed to develop its new graduation standards with input from representatives for ‘historically underserved students,’ such as those with disabilities, those who are from immigrant or refugee populations or ‘racial or ethnic groups that have historically experienced academic disparities.’
And the following is relevant to my memories of the Regents in NY:
But passing a test has not been a requirement to graduate in the state since 2009, when its essential skills standards were initially put in place.
Students could demonstrate their abilities in math, reading and writing through five separate tests, or complete a classroom project judged by their individual teachers to prove their proficiency, the Oregonian reported.
In fact, only 11 states in the country require passing a test for high school students to graduate, according to Education Week.
And some states that do, such as New York states have proposed removing testing requirements for graduation…
Of course.
Note, also, that the clearest and most informative article I could find about the Oregon law was in a British newspaper. That has become rather commonplace these days – the British papers often (actually, usually) cover our own news better than our own papers do.
The number of white people in the US has declined for the first time in history while Hispanic and Asian populations grew, according to census report
Aug. 12 report to reveal a drop in white population for the first time in U.S. history
Experts believe lower-than anticipated birthrates among millennials and the opioid epidemic attributed to the recent decline
The Hispanic population now represents about 20% of the population, while the Black population continues steadily at around 12.5%
Asian population has doubled since the 1990s and now represent 6%
Experts say there will no longer be a racial majority in the U.S. by 2045
The U.S. saw the smallest population growth this year, a trend since 2019
This madness cannot sustain itself; either a sufficiently large number of sane citizens of our republic (sadly, fewer than half the population, one suspects) will somehow rise up against this assault on nature and reason and truth or this rapidly-disintegrating republic will continue its descent into a land in which the citizens have been beaten into docile submission and forcibly stripped of liberty while resembling ever more the film Idiocracy. On the subject of the changing demographics, if a conservative points to the facts alluded to above, it represents the worst kind of “conspiracy theory”, while when leftists describe America’s non-white future it is invariably with a sense of hostile triumphalism.
The idea that removing standards or “updating” them to reflect “underserved populations” has some sort of “benefit” to these poor individuals is ludicrous. Oregon is condemning prospective “graduates” to second-class citizenship; useful idiots for the ruling class.
I wonder what Oregon does with its GED program? No test at all, just apply for and get the certificate?
“Backers argued the existing proficiency levels for math and reading presented an unfair challenge for students who do not test well, and Boyle said the new standards for graduation would aid Oregon’s “Black, Latino, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islander, Tribal, and students of color.””
Standardized testing (including New York State’s Regents’ exams) made it possible for Italians, Poles, Jews, and Asians to get into elite universities.
I took the NY Regents exams long ago. As a high school senior, I bet my wonderful math teacher that I would score a perfect 100 on the math (solid geometry) test. The bet was a buck.
I scored a 99, but he refused the dollar, saying that I would always be in his debt. Which I have been.
Yeah, we really must make life easier for blacks, latinos, and all other non-whites. But fortunately I will not have to hire any of them. I’ve posted before and do so again: the average black male IQ is 85.
Cicero. Not sure how long “easier” will last. Easier to graduate, harder to get a job without something on top of the diploma to demonstrate at least marginal numeracy and literacy. Harder to get anyplace once you get a job.
Easier to be conned…. hey. wait a minute….
Ah, the soft bigotry of low expectations…
It seems to me that standardized testing is not a measurement of ‘merit’. Instead it is a measurement of competence. Without which no nation can prosper.
But then, isn’t that at base, the whole point of it? Especially when no pass/fail standard exists?
The laughably small exception being a very few individual indoctrinators determining whether the student has met the subjective, ever evolving ‘requirements’.
Pray tell, what leftist ‘teacher’ (is there any other kind in leftist dominated Oregon?) would now dare to deny graduation to a “Black, Latino, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islander, Tribal, and students of color.”?
Idiocracy indeed.
So. I see you graduated from high school in Oregon. You seem like a good candidate. You are hired.
Six months later. You’re a moron. You’re fired.
Lesson learned by potential employers: Don’t hire any minority candidates from Oregon. Their credentials are crap.
Who does this help?
Sorry Dodger… No talking about Whites no longer being a majority in the USA very soon, please. That’s just Nazi. Nobody wants to hear talk like that around these parts 😀
@Cicero:
Thomas Sowell and Allen West incantations in 3, 2, 1 🙂
I saw some extremely intelligent Blacks yesterday. On a YouTube Video shot on a Nuclear Sub under the Arctic ice. They exist alright. And are the luckiest people on earth given that every opportunity is given to them to succeed and prosper. Gravity does not hold them down. They have to *work* at failing.
But all of us here… crossing the street at 9pm. Odds of meeting one are infinitesimally small.
Most here are intelligent enough to figure the analogy:
“The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but that’s how the smart money bets.” — Damon Runyon
Zaphod (7:40 pm) said, “I saw some extremely intelligent Blacks yesterday. . . . They exist alright.”
You bet! I spent time as an Assistant Professor at a historically black college in the 1970s, and you bet they exist. (They just don’t fit some narratives.)
After that, I worked with a few. (Again,) you bet!
It seems they can often be pretty invisible, except for blowhards like Cornell West and his ilk.
@MJR:
Good.
Now go roll the dice at the DMV 🙂
The London papers typically present more facts and, often enough, a great many more facts.
In the US, facts are the enemy of Leftist narrative maintenance, which is what Marxist activist journalism means today, here.
We are a corrupt, fallen nation. Admit this, and then everything necessary to change it becomes apparent. If courage to act on this knowledge will out.
Boatbuilder: “Lesson learned by potential employers: Don’t hire any minority candidates from Oregon. Their credentials are crap.
Who does this help?” Teachers unions.
@TJ:
“We are a corrupt, fallen nation. Admit this, and then everything necessary to change it becomes apparent. If courage to act on this knowledge will out.”
Yes. Too many people still grasping for ‘Copes’.
The path to a Renaissance goes through Despair. Western Civ. is just at the Beginning of the Beginning of Despair. Long way down to go. You won’t live to see the bottom of the well. Nor will I. Your great-grandchildren might have cause for optimism.
If you have time, have a listen to this:
Mark Grannon – Two dark revelations I had about the world we live in now that gave me anxiety.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZR3-LMDhoI
Minimizing Proficiency Theory is equitable and inclusive, and complements Critical Racists’ Theory under diversity dogma.
Slaves are easier to control when they are uneducated.
The demonkraps want slaves again.
Hey – some things are just hard. If a certain sector can’t learn to read, abolish measurement of reading skills. If a certain sector can’t add or subtract, abolish that too. If a certain sector can’t stop shoplifting, stop prosecuting petty crime. If a certain sector can’t stop murdering each other, stop indicting murder charges. See how it works? Much more efficient this way – if your desired outcome is a sector that is incapable of developing to its potential, and is forever dependent upon the largess of the system, voluntary, involuntary, or incidental.
We already know that none of this claptrap about ‘being incapable’ is true.
It’s been the trend to use the “standardized tests aren’t fair because of the history of racism and economic inequality” or whatever in education. They came for the SAT/ACT, the MCAT and LSAT and now elementary and secondary education tests.
Also want to note that even Oregon teachers want graduation requirements to change because, you guessed it, they find “how inequitable and frankly inaccurate these [current] graduation requirements are.”
It’s amusing because when foreign exchange students come to America for their senior year in high school more often than not they admit that their classes are quite easy. I saw a YouTube video about a Nordic girl who had ADHD say that by the end of her exchange year she was ranked #4 despite being a relatively poor student in her home country. She literally giggled on that very fact. She attended your run of the mill public high school in Michigan where she was a minority (school demographic was about 60% minority).
Edward,
They have slaves de facto now, they want to go back to having them de jure as they once did. The main change is that this time they want the State to be the legal owner and they will control the State.
Zaphod @ 9:34pm,
Well, that’s 39 minutes and 31 seconds I’d like to get back. Glad I chose to work a crossword simultaneously when I got to the 4 minute mark and he still hadn’t spelled out what the first revelation was.
I certainly share his opinion that most of our institutions are run by idiots, or, at least, function as if they are run by idiots. (Is it Glenn Reynolds who says the world makes more sense when you imagine any institution is run by a cabal of its enemies?) However, he seems to revel in it as an excuse for his own inaction.
Based on the 39 minutes of time he spent examining his navel and videoing it to post to all the world; he seems to think he’s in a noble pursuit to be a better man. If that’s his goal he ought to go back to the first five minutes and ask himself why he spent three years monopolizing a young woman’s time and leading her own during the peak of her fertility when he had no intent in being her mate for life?
Oh well. I’m sure he’ll find himself soon. Or maybe when he’s 50? Or perhaps 60? I can’t wait to learn from his obvious wisdom when he does!
An Australian politician created a stir in the 1970s when he said that the reason for declining standards within the once great public education system teaching profession was that back in the fabled days of yore it had been staffed by the cream of the working class (at the beginning of their multi-generational climb up the social ladder) but now was full of the dregs of the middle class.
True then. More True now.
@Rufus:
Perhaps you’d prefer my Glubb Pasha Fate of Empires light reading recommendation for today then 🙂
Shorter Mark Grannon: “How can I possibly have a relationship and bring children into the world when
climate changeour failing institutions are destroying the world?!”Zaphod @ 12:04am,
I don’t always agree with your conclusions but I must give you credit: the breadth and depth of your research based on the books, movies, symphonies, operas and other media you reference is very impressive. I’ll pass on the Glubb Pasha Fate of Empires tome. I’ve got a book on the attempt by the Jesuits to quell the spread of Integral Calculus in the 17th century calling from my nightstand.
@Rufus:
I’m shallow, so it’s easy to go broad.
Glubb’s thing is an essay. Pretty short.
At your leisure pray do tell what the Jesuits had against the Integral Calculus.
Zaphod @ 1:08am,
Well, I’m not too far into it, but it’s the old (very old) Zeno’s Paradox puzzle. I think the Jesuits figured that if there is a creator and He created everything then everything must be quantifiable. So if there is a mathematics that depends on things being infinitely divisible it goes against finite creation?
Based on the reasoning of the one, Jesuit Pope we’ve had thus far, I’m leaning towards siding with Zeno, Newton and Leibniz.
@Rufus:
Thanks. Gels. I could well imagine some of the more esoteric speculations of Newton and Leibniz getting up their contemporary noses too.
Jesuits certainly aren’t what they once were.
Had they won out in the Rites Controversy, China might be a very different place today.
If Francis was my only data point, I’d be signing up for the Muenster Anabaptists. Be interesting to see what kind of Pope pops up next.
I would like to see the next Pope come from Africa, but the Vatican seems to be leaning Liberal after what the German and Pole did to the institution.
Not sure.
After what the Argentinian “did to the institution” I’m pretty sure we can expect “Counter-Reformation (The Sequel)”.
(Either that or a Banker.)
@Rufus:
The Germans Church brings in so much cash via the Kirchensteuer that the German Bishops and Cardinals call the tune on the Gayest Hill in Rome.
Won’t be seeing any African Popes until Africans like Cardinal Sarah (a Black I *do* greatly respect) repent of their antediluvian ways and learn to celebrate Faggotry as a sacrament.
Two of the reasons to value Pasha Glubb are:
1. He didn’t lose the Old City of Jerusalem to the Infidel Zionists (though to save it, he lost plenty else).
2. He was canned by that young upstart Hussein ibn Talal (who proceeded after not too long to, in fact, lose everything else…that is, in Cis-Jordan).
And to Glubb’s immense credit, he did take the (rather) long view of things and he wrote exceeding well (though his conclusions may not be everyone’s cuppa tea)….
Those wacky Jesuits.
Don’t they know that God IS INFINITE???
(Unless something got lost in translation….).
Not that that makes integral calculus any easier, mind you. (Except maybe now in Oregon…)
Which could mean, I suppose, that they railed against it not so much for ideological/theological reasons but because they couldn’t really get the hang of it?….
@BarryMeislin:
“that is, in Cis-Jordan”
Best not try any of that Lebensraum stuff on with Trans- (hah) Jordan… The Many-coloured Coat of most-favoured underdog status has passed over the river and boy do their camels have toes.
“(Unless something got lost in translation….).”
Not to mention some minor issues of authorship 😛
“And to Glubb’s immense credit, he did take the (rather) long view of things and he wrote exceeding well (though his conclusions may not be everyone’s cuppa tea)….”
Clearly a thoughtful fellow. And his military background set him up well to be able to distill his cogitations down to near point form. Sir Ian Hamilton was also quite the rare intellectual for a British general, but rather unlucky at Gallipoli. No Turkish honorifics for him. It more often than not was unlucky career-wise to be the general at the pointy end of bright shiny strategic ideas originating from the desk of a certain W. Churchill.
Gallipoli was, in fact, a s***show.
Classic textbook example of What-Can-Go-Wrong-Will-Go-Wrong(TM). Though the ANZAC troops fought tenaciously (as per usual), alas.
(Of course, it could’ve worked…in theory! “Funny” thing is that Churchill was so tickled with overarching invasion plans like Gallipoli that he tried it again in Norway 25-odd years later…with similar results. Well, keep trying, I guess, is the apposite motto. And he did!)
“…(hah)…”
Indeed, if they stick the “Trans” back onto the name of their kingdom they might just be eligible for increased (and much-needed) international aid….
(Could cause other problems, though, I suppose.)
WC did have an unhealthy obsession with the Soft Underbelly of Europe.
Yes, that one worked a whole lot better—well, at least until a certain point, that is, since once the Nazis had to take over the “defense” of Central and Northern Italy, those regions, especially the resistance, suffered greatly and the fate of the Italian Jews, or most of them, was sealed.
(In addition, the Dieppe raid of 1942, was a disaster.)
But then there was Overlord…the granddaddy of them all. After all the meticulous planning, meteorological reasons almost prevented that from even getting off the ground. Another “very close thing”…(even before the formidable battles).
The War Diaries of Lord Alanbrooke are very entertaining on the subject of Churchill’s tendencies to come up with ‘brilliant’ strategic plans.
He would have been just the type to invade Russia had he been born Austrian or German. Ironic really.
The trials and tribulations of keeping the Great Man on a Short Leash.
He did have some decent ideas, but he tended to get carried away by theory (and romance), I think, which his generals found utterly exasperating….
Of course, the curious (or fascinating?) thing is that Churchill—like his arch-enemy—was really an artist…
https://www.wikiart.org/en/winston-churchill
File under: Swashbuckling brushwork and dueling palettes?
Zaphod,
“Is it Glenn Reynolds who says the world makes more sense when you imagine any institution is run by a cabal of its enemies?”
Insty was quoting Robert Conquest:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Conquest#Three_Laws_of_Politics
Yeah, we really must make life easier for blacks, latinos, and all other non-whites. –Cicero
I’m not taking issue with the above, but I would note that it also makes it easier for those in position of power to accept/reject applications for college and jobs according to their own whims, prejudices and political strategies.
Those rejected will have little recourse for formal complaint. The powerful become more powerful.
I recall a study which showed a white kid with 4H membership in his college application stood little chance at an Ivy no matter what his test scores were.
Nothing quite prepares you for life like relaxed academic standards.
Unreal
}}} Sure thing. And I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you if you buy that.
And I have LAND FOR SALE!!
Cheap!!
Now, I WILL admit, it’s on a 3y flood plain…. but that’s ok, friends of mask safety, since I’ve put a chain link fence around it, you can rest assured, no floods here!!
@ huxley – “makes it easier for those in position of power to accept/reject applications for college and jobs according to their own whims, prejudices and political strategies.
Those rejected will have little recourse for formal complaint. ”
Wow – deja vu all over again.
When I was in HS, my mother had begun teaching in my old junior high.
One day, she told me she had been asked for her opinion on switching from an objective grading system (ye olde test scores) to a subjective one (teacher’s impression of students’ overall performance). I told her I was adamantly in favor of the former, because you never knew when a teacher would just not like you enough to give you credit for your actual achievements.
I don’t know if I was the deciding vote, but I think she was pretty much on the same page already (not only has this apple not fallen far from the tree, some people think we were cloned).
On another occasion, she asked my opinion of a former math teacher who was being criticized by some of the current students as too harsh. I said that he had been firm but fair, and they should quit whining and just learn the formulas.
The decline in standards started that far back (1960s).
AesopFan:
One way I consider current events is that the Democrat-Tech-Woke complex is getting rid of all the rules so they can Do Whatever on the spot as their will to power demands.
Meanwhile the rest of us are on Double Secret Probation.
huxley – I always wanted to be in the movies.
Just not as one of the Red Shirts.
Looks like Oregon is going to be a trendsetter:
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/blinkens-diversity-inclusion-plan-erodes-equality-excellence
Were they not graduating these minority students who continued to attend classes before this was signed into law? I seriously doubt it.
I assume that the students who couldn’t read well and couldn’t do math and who saw they were failing or near-failing every class, made the reasonable assumption that they wouldn’t graduate and stopped going to school. These dropouts reflected on the graduation rate and therefore reflected on the Noble Teachers. The Teachers’ Union obviously pushed for this to simply get the stated graduation rates up.
Teachers will now be allowed by law to inform these underperforming students that failing grades and lack of any demonstrable ability won’t keep them from getting that diploma provided they merely show up on a (semi) regular basis. Attendance alone will guarantee “success”, aka graduation.
Instead of making it easier for BIPOC to graduate, can’t we color code the diplomas? Yellow for a perfect score; white for a high score; brown for a mediocre score; black for a probably passing score?