By Alex Baumhardt
The Oregon Department of Education recommends the state make big changes to high school graduation requirements, including ending a decades-old requirement to show proficiency in reading, writing and other skills on top of credit-bearing coursework in those subjects.
The department also recommends ending a requirement that students pass Algebra I, that the state offer one diploma, not three options, and add a requirement that students pass a planning course covering financial aid, resumes and other skills to help them in the future.
These recommendations were in a report on Thursday that will be discussed Sept. 21 by the Senate Committee on Education and follows a years-long review of state graduation standards ordered by the Legislature. It wanted the department to figure out whether state graduation standards were unfairly holding some students back and examine whether state graduation requirements were setting students up for life after high school.
The department decided requirements have hurt students of color and needed improvement.
State Sen. Michael Dembrow, D-Portland and chair of the Senate committee, said the report marks the start of change.
“What we have before us is the end of the beginning,” Dembrow said. “This is the research work that we asked them to do and the State Board of Education will take the lead on addressing these.”
Overall, graduation rates in Oregon have been on the rise in recent years among all racial and ethnic groups and socio-economic levels.
In 2014, the on-time graduation rate among all students was about 72%, making it one of the lowest in the nation. By 2019, it was up more than 10%. The pandemic set that back slightly, to just over 80%, but that is still among the highest graduation rates the state has held.
Despite gains, gaps remain among student groups. In 2021, graduation rates for students from low-income families were about 10 percentage points below the state average.
Male students are still graduating at a lower rate than female students, and while the gap in graduation rates between white students and Black and Hispanic students has shrunk dramatically due to higher rates of graduation among the latter groups, graduation rates remain lowest among Native students and Hawaiian and Pacific Islander students. Among the reasons for this, the report said the methods used for the essential skills assessment were geared toward white cultural values and were not adequately measuring individual students’ knowledge.
For the complete story, see the Oregon Captial Chronicle.
