SALEM, Ore. — Multiple viewers recently asked KGW if Oregon has altered its high school graduation requirements to eliminate the need for proficiency testing about core subjects.
One viewer referred to the missing provision as a "basic skills requirement" and another referred to it as "academic requirements in reading, writing or arithmetic."
It's likely both viewers were referring to Oregon's Assessment of Essential Skills requirement for graduation, which was officially put on hold in 2021 after previously being paused during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here's what we can VERIFY about what happened.
THE QUESTION
Did Oregon eliminate its Assessment of Essential Skills requirement to graduate high school?
THE SOURCES
THE ANSWER
Yes, Oregon has paused its Essential Skills Assessment requirement through 2028. However, that isn't the state's only graduation requirement — it was added a little over 10 years ago, and the rest of the requirements are still in place.
WHAT WE FOUND
Oregon's Board of Education adopted the Essential Skills requirement in 2008 and phased it in over the following few years. According to a 2014 FAQ from the Oregon Department of Education, the rule requires students to demonstrate proficiency in reading, writing and math skills to earn a diploma. Students can fulfill the requirement through state standardized tests or by submitting work samples that are evaluated using a state scoring guide.
The Oregon Department of Education paused the requirement during the pandemic, and then in 2021 the Oregon Legislature passed Senate Bill 744, which ordered the department to conduct a review of the state's graduation requirements and develop recommendations about how to make them more equitable. It also kept the Essential Skills requirement suspended through 2024.
The legislation passed largely along party lines and drew criticism from Republican lawmakers as well as national attention, and there was a renewed round of headlines this year when the state board of education voted to extend the pause through 2028 at its Oct. 19 meeting.
In a presentation to the board, Dan Farley, ODE Assistant Superintendent of Research, Assessment, Data, Accountability, & Reporting, argued that extension was necessary for the same reason that the original suspension was necessary: the requirements were implemented inequitably and didn't work.
From 2015 to 2019 they had no significant impact on student performance during or after high school, across all demographics, he said — and the ways that students met the requirements could be predicted by race, ethnicity, individual education plan status or multi-lingual learner status.
Students that failed to meet the requirement through standardized testing in 11th grade tended to get shunted into work samples classes during their senior years, depriving them of time for elective classes and other activities that can also have an impact on college admissions.
"So when we see that continually propagated, we have to do what we can to disrupt those, basically racist outcomes," he said.
The Department of Education's Senate Bill 744 report, released in September 2022, recommends doing away with the Essential Skills assessment requirement altogether and focusing instead on creating more in-class opportunities for students to demonstrate proficiency.
Other requirements remain
The state assessment tests are still in place, Farley noted, so parents of students in grade 11 can still see the results to get a sense of how well their students are doing — but those results won't be used as a requirement for graduation. That change fits with a nationwide trend away from using standardized assessment exams as graduation requirements, he added.
Farley and several members of the board stressed during the October meeting that Oregon already had a list of graduation requirements before the Essential Skills Assessment was created, and all of those other requirements are sticking around.
"One of the misunderstandings is that this is a really central aspect of the graduation requirements," Farley said. "There are actually four other pieces of the graduation requirements that remain in place and are substantial and challenging."
Oregon requires students to have 24 completed class credits in order to receive a diploma: four English Language Arts credits, three Mathematics credits, three Science credits, three Social Studies credits, three Second Language credits, one health credit, one PE credit and six elective credits. That requirement puts Oregon on par with most other states, Farley said.
Students also have to complete a set of Personalized Learning Requirements, which include an education plan created and updated by students starting in middle school, career experience such as a job shadow or internship, and an Extended Application project or activity that relates to their career interests and goals after high school.
The legislature also passed Senate Bill 3 earlier this year, which adds a requirement for half a credit in Personal Finance Education and half a credit in Higher Education and career Path Skills, starting in 2027.
