I attended last month’s Oregon State Board of Education meeting. (“Oregon board delays vote to freeze math, reading grad requirement for four more years after pushback,” Sept. 28).
While waiting for my turn to testify against Oregon’s new sex-ed state standards, I heard Board Chair Guadalupe Martinez Zapata explain her support for suspending the essential skills test grad requirement using an analogy of a thermometer. “Does a thermometer cure a patient of their illness?” she asked rhetorically and then continued, “An assessment does not provide learning for a student. It diagnoses whether the student has been able to learn or not.”
In other words, the board chair wants to award high school diplomas based on what’s been taught rather than what’s been learned. A high school diploma that is little more than a participation trophy does no one any favors.
A standard high school diploma has always been proof to the public and employers that a graduate has learned essential basic reading, writing and math skills. In 2021, the president of the Oregon Business Council explained that the requirement was crucial. Today it is even more necessary given valid concerns about “equitable” grading and increased opportunities for plagiarism, especially using new artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT and the like.
Oregon’s future, which likely includes $40 billion of federal CHIPs act-related investment and 6,300 new jobs, depends on its educated workforce.
It’s time for the governor-appointed education board to take the temperature in the room.
Mary Miller, Beaverton
