Oregon suspends reading, writing and math tests for graduating high schoolers
(The Center Square) – Reading, writing and math testing will not be required for Oregon’s class of 2023 to receive their high school diplomas under a law signed by Gov. Kate Brown.
Those changes stem from Brown’s quiet signing of Senate Bill 744 into law last month, which restricts testing on the three subjects from 2023 to 2024. The bill does not leave students off the hook for earning math and English credits, but it does cut a final exam out of the picture come graduation time.
SB 744 passed the Oregon legislature in June with bipartisan opposition and was signed with little fanfare from Brown in July. The bill was supported by Oregon’s Department of Education and a host of teachers who contend it would help trim the fat out of school curriculum and make better use of class time.
Larry Lewin, a retired teacher from Eugene, told state lawmakers in March that Oregon graduation exams are shortchanging good students.
Teaching as a volunteer at North Eugene High School in 2016, Lewin said he saw how graduation exams acted as one more hurdle for the students struggling the most in the school system.
“The students I tutored at North Eugene High School were largely Latinx kids, and to a one, they were resigned, fatalistic, and lacking any hope for graduating with their classmates,” Lewin said. “No amount of coaching, cajoling, mentoring from me would inspire them to want to write better. I was not teaching how to write, how to communicate, how to use language for a purpose. I was test prepping them—again.”
Lewin said the school system would be better off reducing class sizes and vetting its teachers for more diverse talent, not retesting them on skills they may have already met.
“I understand our state’s desire to increase student competence, to raise the bar, to not accept mediocrity,” Lewin said. “But in the past two decades, public education in the U.S. has been dominated by the philosophy that only testing will remove the achievement gap, will increase graduation, and will achieve equity.”
Before SB 744’s signing, Oregon was among 11 states to have graduation tests. Scholarship on the merits of so-called exit exams is mixed. In 2011, the National Research Council concluded that such exams correlated with higher dropout rates and no noticeable correlation with student achievement. Others like Eric Hanushek, a senior fellow at the conservative Hoover Institute think tank at Stanford University, argue the exams are consistent with academic standards.
Parents and community members testifying opposed SB 744 out of their interest in seeing students retain the right to earn their degrees and push their limits.
“To relax expectations is nothing short of a recipe for future failure,” said Todd Vaughn, a volunteer firefighter. “Give the students options to achieve, not a free pass to graduate.”
Everyone testifying on SB 744 agreed the state’s testing requirements had room for improvement, but many disagreed with scrapping graduation tests altogether. Groups like Oregon’s Business Council supported the bill as a whole but took issue with its banning the State Board of Education from issuing any future skills assessments come graduation.
Oregon’s high school graduation rates remain some of the worst in the nation. In 2020, that rate rose to a historic high of 82.6% or 2.6% above 2019, the state’s Department of Education reported. That leaves Oregon third in the nation behind New Mexico and Arizona for worst graduation rates. It remains to be seen if this new bill will boost those numbers.
Per SB 744, Oregon’s Department of Education will submit its recommendations to the state legislature regarding the bill’s provisions by Sep. 1.
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