{"id":20428,"date":"2023-11-21T18:30:52","date_gmt":"2023-11-22T02:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/?p=20428"},"modified":"2023-11-21T18:31:25","modified_gmt":"2023-11-22T02:31:25","slug":"oregon-graduation-requirements-changed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/oregon-graduation-requirements-changed\/","title":{"rendered":"Oregon graduation requirements changed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Written by: Libby Thoma | Freelancer<\/span><\/p>\n

Oregon\u2019s essential skills requirement has been dropped at least until the graduation of the class of 2029 due to Senate Bill 774.\u00a0 <\/span>The essential skills requirement<\/span><\/a>, known as the Assessment of Essential Skills, is the requirement of students to pass a standardized test containing basic skills such as reading, writing and math skills.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Senate Bill 774 is a bill addressing the decrease in education and learning due to the pandemi<\/span><\/a>c.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The test was dropped not only because of the amount of learning and education decreasing during lockdown but also because <\/span>the standardized test format was found harmful to marginalized students<\/span><\/a>. Marginalized students include students of color, students with disabilities, students with English as their second language and more.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Many argue that taking away this test also takes away the ability for students to get the extra help in school they need.<\/span><\/a> Others argue that the test holds marginalized students back, not just grade wise or diploma wise, but also by taking away their ability to join an elective because of tutoring.<\/span><\/p>\n

The school board claims there\u2019s a lack of evidence that the extra education stemming from the test helps students progress toward college or work<\/span><\/a>. Those in favor of disbanding the tests believe in the harmfulness to marginalized students. Those for keeping the standardized test<\/span> believe that not testing students for essential skills leads to the value of a diploma decreasing and making achieving a diploma \u201ceasier\u201d \u2014 as they believe \u2014 are not helpful for students<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Oregon doesn\u2019t have much room to do worse in education, as Oregon is<\/span> 42nd in the U.S. in education K through 12<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 Throughout upcoming years, time will tell if this decision is the correct one.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Contact the author at ethoma23@mail.wou.edu<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1094,"featured_media":20429,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1772,1770,1771,1773],"class_list":["post-20428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-behind-the-curve","tag-essential-skills","tag-requirement-dropped","tag-standardized-testing"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1094"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}