We now have a test that tells a clearer story of how Oregon children are doing in school. Today, we learned how students performed on the new, smarter statewide exam that measures progress toward more rigorous standards and critical thinking skills.
The standards were set higher, but our students "smashed expectations." This shows that when we raise the bar and do our part to help our children get there, they will rise to the challenge.
The results for high school students were underwhelming in math, telling us what we already know: Oregon sends far too many high school graduates off to college unprepared in that subject. But with this test, we will know much sooner when our children are not on track and need extra support.
What additional resources do you think Oregon high schools need? Help us paint a clearer picture of what’s happening in our high schools by commenting on this blog post.
Our goal as a state is to ensure Oregon kids can compete with any kids across the country. This new assessment – while imperfect – is a critical tool to help us get there. It provides a baseline of student achievement and shows us that we clearly have a lot of work to do at the high school level.
We started that work by advocating that more high school student have access to a full schedule, but we have more work to do.
Too many Oregon college students spend precious time and money on instruction we should have given them in high school. Now that we have better information on how students are doing, we can work to prevent that from happening..
Share your stories in the comments below, because while these tests tell the truth, they don’t tell the whole story.
Add a comment
Comments
Joy Marshall
July 2, 2015 5:28 PM
JIll MacCartney
July 2, 2015 6:02 PM
Julie Sweet
July 2, 2015 7:02 PM
Mindy LeRoux
July 3, 2015 5:41 AM
Eileen Ordway
July 3, 2015 6:45 AM
Celia Baculi
July 3, 2015 7:08 AM
Leslie Robinette
July 3, 2015 1:37 PM
Neil Stafford
July 3, 2015 2:57 PM