Oregon Education Board upholds Kate Brown’s ruling that high school students can skip basic math, language assessments and still graduate

High school students in the state of Oregon will not be made to perform proficiency tests for reading, writing, or math before graduating for at least five years after the Oregon Board of Education unanimously voted to halt the requirement until 2028 due to reported concerns of "inequity." 

The decision is very controversial, with KOIN 6 reporting that despite many arguments that the move will lower district standards and thus cheapen the value of an Oregonian education, the Board argued that requiring such a standard of proficiency only serves to "disproportionately harm students of color." 

Now, students in Oregon's High Schools will not have to take an essential skills assessment for at least the next 5 years due to the decision.



Tests were first halted by then-Governor Kate Brown in 2020, and have now been stopped yet again. 

"What we found is that it simply wasn't working. We looked at post-secondary and several post-secondary outcomes, and there were no changes in this data pre and post-implementation of this policy so it wasn't having the intended impact," opined Dan Farley, an Oregon Department of Education employee who puts "he/him" pronouns by his name.

A report from the Department that was submitted in September 2022 concluded that this assessment of essential skills was "implanted inequitably" and thus "did not ensure anticipated benefits for students in their preparation for postsecondary education." 

Farley insisted that testing for math, reading, and writing proficiency resulted in "students of color" being excluded from learning opportunities at their high schools because they were too focused on passing a test. 

Others have argued that the decision will lower the state's standards of education, including former gubernatorial candidate Christine Drazan, who remarked that "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." 

Oregon has had struggles with teaching in recent times; the state ranked almost last in the nation in education success metrics prior to the Covid-19 outbreak, reported Fox News.