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January 5, 2024

Well, That’s One Way to Improve Graduation Rates

Oregon education officials decided that measuring math, reading and writing skills are no longer necessary to determine if a child should graduate high school.

Last month, the Oregon State Board of Education adopted an additional suspension of the state’s essential skills proficiency requirement through the 2027-28 school year. And it will surprise no one that since the Oregon education officials first suspended graduation requirements that their 2022 graduation rate was 81.3 percent – a record for the “second highest four-year graduation rate ever recorded in the state.”

What they neglect to mention is that only “43 percent of students in that year’s graduating class were proficient in English, and less than 31 percent were proficient in math.”

Oregon seems to be living proof in the Conan O’Brien quote, “When all else fails, there’s always delusion.”

An Oregon gubernatorial candidate offered a response reflecting what many of us all are thinking:

“At some point… our diploma is going to end up looking a lot more like a participation prize than an actual certificate that shows that someone actually is prepared to go pursue their best future,” former Oregon gubernatorial candidate Christine Drazan told Fox News.

Read more here:

  • Blue state suspends basic skills graduation requirement again, citing harm to students of color (Fox News)
  • Oregon just dropped all graduation standards, failing all of its students in the name of ‘equity’ (The Hill)
  • Oregon Latest State to Scale Back High School Graduation Tests. Others May Follow (Wall Street Journal)
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