Oregon suspended last week the graduation requirement for math, reading, and writing proficiency until the 2027-2028 school year, citing its discriminatory effect on minority students.
On Thursday, the Oregon State Board of Education voted unanimously to extend the benchmark pause, which was first instituted in 2020 during Covid.
The vote, originally scheduled for September, had been delayed significantly by public criticism, the Oregonian reported. Former Republican gubernatorial candidate Christine Drazan had been a vocal opponent who submitted public comment opposing the suspension. Drazan said the board of education refused to face accountability for its role in the state’s poor academic performance and wanted to enshrine academic mediocrity.
“The board failed to discuss their responsibility for lagging academic achievement in our state,” Drazan said in a statement. “Instead they cast the blame on a tool used to measure a student’s ability to read, write and do math. It’s disappointing that these unelected bureaucrats decided to ignore public comment and continue down a path that neglects their responsibility to help students meet high standards.”
Students in the K–12 system will not be held to an academic graduation standard for another four years. State school board members argued that the requirement harmed marginalized students, who would often have to take extra classes their senior year to demonstrate mastery of reading, math, and writing, the outlet said.
State-mandated standardized tests will still be administered to most Oregon high school students, but they won’t be used to judge a student’s graduation readiness. Other critics of the requirements claimed they did not improve student outcomes after graduation.
“We haven’t suspended any sort of assessments,” state board member Vicky López Sánchez, a dean at Portland Community College, said during a recent board of education meeting. “The only thing we are suspending is the inappropriate use of how those assessments were being used. I think that really is in the best interest of Oregon students.”
Before Democratic Governor Kate Brown halted the requirements during the pandemic, students had to prove proficiency in reading, writing and math on a standardized test or via a special teacher assignment. Students also had to earn a set number of credits and chart their post high-school plans, the publication said.
While removing pillars of academic excellence, Oregon’s Department of Education was also punitive with Covid restrictions. In January 2022, the department decided to withhold federal Covid relief funds from a rural school district that made its mask mandate optional, deferring to parents and families. The department said it would impose the penalty until the district was in compliance with the state’s indoor mask mandate.