OREGON – A new law signed by Oregon Governor Kate Brown back in July poses a concerning element regarding educational standards within the state, as the effect of the law won’t guarantee that Oregon high school graduates can read, write, or do math at a high school level for the next five years.

According to a spokesperson for the governor’s office, the law was put into effect to afford “equitable graduation standards” for minority communities within Oregon.

Senate Bill 744 was signed by Governor Brown back on July 14th, which the bill summary notes that SB 744 “suspends” academic standards needing to be achieved for high school students until the 2023-2024 school year:

“Suspends requirement of showing proficiency in Essential Learning Skills as condition of earning diploma during 2021-2022, or] 2022-2023 or 2023-2024 school year.

Prohibits State Board of Education from requiring for high school diploma that student show proficiency in any academic content area if student successfully completed credit requirements.”

 

Apparently, SB 744 aims to reexamine and craft new high school graduation standards, which those new standards need to be delivered to the Legislature and Oregon Board of Education by September 2022 and won’t be introduced until after the 2024 class graduates.

Yet, since Oregon officials have reportedly insisted that they wouldn’t impose any new sorts of requirements for students that have already started high school, these new graduation standards wouldn’t realistically be imposed upon high school students until the class of 2027.

What this means is that at least five more graduating classes in Oregon could wind up earning a high school diploma without being able to demonstrate any sort of high school-level of proficiency in reading, writing, and math.

Governor Brown has not afforded any public statement as to the rationale of abandoning certain academic benchmarks for high school students to obtain their diploma in Oregon, but her deputy communications director, Charles Boyle, proclaimed it was in the name of equitable outcomes for minority communities.

 

Boyle noted in a statement that abdicating from educational standards like reading and writing will ultimately behoove “Oregon’s Black, Latino, Latina, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islander, Tribal, and students of color.”

Boyle added that the passing of this legislation came after “leaders in the community” had encouraged structural changes to the high school curriculum:

“Leaders from those communities have advocated time and again for equitable graduation standards, along with expanded learning opportunities and supports.”

Apparently, Democrats within Oregon were largely supportive of the legislation, whereas Republicans voiced reasonable objections that this does nothing more than lower academic standards instead of helping students achieve reasonable levels of proficiency in basic subjects.