Oregon trails in math, English
PORTLAND – Oregon schools ranked near the bottom nationally for the number of math and English courses required to graduate from high school, according to a new survey.
Achieve Inc., an independent group pushing for tougher standards, noted Oregon requires only two years of math in high school for graduation. Washington state, which also ranked near the bottom of the survey, requires only two years, also.
Most states require three years of math, and five states require four years, according to the survey.
Achieve found that for English, literature and writing courses, 32 states and the District of Columbia require four years of study. Four of these states also require additional study in a related course, such as speech.
Oregon, Washington and four other states require only three years.
According to Achieve, every student should take at least four years of rigorous mathematics and English courses to be prepared for college or well-paid careers that may not require a college degree.
The math should include first- and second-year algebra, geometry, and data analysis and statistics. English should include four years of increasingly rigorous study in literature, writing, reasoning, logic and communication skills.
Many states do not expect their graduates to take courses that reflect the demands of life after high school, according to the survey.
“We should no longer have an elementary and secondary school system that by design leaves more than a third of high school graduates unprepared for what they face afterwards,” said Michael Cohen, Achieve president.
Achieve was founded by business leaders and governors participating in the national education summit of 1996. The summit focused on concerns that U.S. schoolchildren were falling behind their peers in other countries and were not being prepared adequately for college and high-paying jobs.
Achieve has helped about half the states measure their standards and assessment tests against the best examples in the United States and abroad.
Oregon and Washington state have moved toward measuring academic proficiency through state tests rather than compiling a transcript of required courses.
In Oregon, the chief measure of student proficiency in high school is the Certificate of Initial Mastery, or CIM. The certificate is supposed to demonstrate that a student has a good grasp of writing and reading, algebra, geometry and basic statistics. But fewer than 30 percent of graduating seniors earn the CIM.
Pat Burk, Oregon’s deputy school superintendent, said the Board of Education is considering changes to strengthen course requirements in English, math and science for graduation. But it has to balance those concerns against another mandate in Oregon’s school reform plan: giving juniors and seniors time for career-related study, he said.
Burk noted that many Oregon students take more math and English courses than required by the state.
Students taking the SAT college entrance exam last year – about 56 percent of Oregon seniors – report taking on average 3.9 years of English, 3.7 years of math and 3.2 years of natural sciences in high school, Burk said.
In Washington state, the Board of Education took nearly two years of testimony before setting graduation standards in 2000. The state isn’t contemplating increasing course requirements, but Larry Davis, executive director of the Board of Education, said most school districts have established higher requirements than the state minimums.
Nationally, Arkansas, Idaho, New Mexico and Texas require the most English – four years plus additional study in speech. In math, Arkansas, Alabama, Minnesota, West Virginia and South Carolina require four years for graduation, but only Arkansas specifies exactly which courses must be taken all four years.