By Phillip David

     In 1991, the Oregon legislature mandated a radical transformation of its public education system. Not merely a set of reform proposals put forward by the state's department of education—the kind that come and go without much effect in states all over the country—HB 3565, known as The Oregon Education Act for the 21st Century, had the power of law. More than a codification of reforms to the existing system, it was intended as an essential transformation of the purpose and process of schooling in Oregon.

     The law shocked Oregonians. After all, their state had a good K-12 school system, producing students who ranked eighth nationally in SAT scores. (And Oregon's performance was actually better than that figure suggests, because some states limit SAT testing to the top ten percent of their high school students. In Oregon, about forty percent of all high school students take the SAT.) So why did the legislature feel the need for a major transformation of an already successful school system?

     The answer lies in Oregon’s changing economy. Because declining wood supplies, tough environmental laws, and a changing national economic picture have altered the realities faced by high school graduates over the last twenty years, it’s no longer possible to secure a high-paying job straight out of high school in timber or other blue-collar industries. Today's economy has created different expectations of Oregon's workers, who now need better language, math, and computer skills than were demanded by employers twenty years ago. Even four years after the Education Act was voted into law, Governor John Kitzhaber reported, in a talk to the North Coast Employer Education Summit, that a surge in high-tech industry had led to a disproportionate number of high-wage research and development jobs going to workers from out-of-state: Oregon's work force needed more and better training.^[1]  Kitzhaber’s thoughts were echoed by a consortium of business and education leaders known as the School Transformation Advisory Council, in a publication titled "Framework for Implementing School Transformation in Oregon."^[2]

     The handwriting was on the wall: economic pressures would likely result from a growing shortage of highly skilled workers, and rising social pressures would naturally follow from increased poverty^[3] among those lacking the appropriate workplace skills. Seeing the opportunity to head off problems before they became entrenched, the state’s legislature decided it was time for public education to take on the task of "provid[ing] students with lifelong academic skills that will prepare them for the ever-changing world."^[4] Thus, in 1995, it further clarified and revised the Education Act.

Establishing Standards

     Two assumptions underlying education improvement in Oregon are now paramount: students must meet high standards, and they should come out of high school prepared for either a successful transition to post-secondary education or the job market. The state's traditional practice—and it is not unique to Oregon—allowed students simply to accumulate credits over four years toward a high school diploma. Passing grades were required to earn course credits, but because passing was contingent on relatively lax standards, it was possible for students to receive a diploma with only a D- grade average.

     The Education Act changed the definition of achievement from being primarily a matter of completing credit hours, to performing to a higher standard, and it did this by establishing a program whereby "certificates of mastery" will be awarded to students who excel. Thus, students who achieve tenth-grade performance standards in specified academic areas (as of 2002-3 there will be six: English, math, science, the arts, second languages, and social sciences, which includes history, civics, geography and economics) receive a Certificate of Initial Mastery. By the 2004-5 school year, students who achieve twelfth-grade performance standards in those academic areas, as well as meeting specific career-related learning standards^[5], will receive a Certificate of Advanced Mastery.

     Certificates are to be awarded only to students who demonstrate achievement through test performance, and who earn high grades on classroom assignments designed to address state standards and scored using official state scoring guides. Although high school graduation will still be permitted for students who pass a given number of courses, certificates will distinguish those who master a higher level of knowledge and skills. The goal is for employers to be able to rely on achievement certificates in making hiring decisions, and for colleges and universities to use them to assess whether applicants are ready for bachelors-level work.

     In addition to initiatives such as these, several other factors are working in Oregon's favor to effectively transform education. Chief among them is that teachers have been included in the reform process—a move that was crucial, because alienating teachers would have meant disaster. Thus, it was a board of teachers that created the standards and assessment tools schools will use. Moreover, the Education Act mandated that each school employ in its governance an advisory group, known as a "site council," made up of teachers, parents, and administrators. The institution of site councils created a collaborative management style in the schools, as opposed to a top-down model. This gave teachers a much-needed voice in determining school's annual goals and providing recommendations for training.

     The inclusion of teachers and parents in the implementation of reform, coupled with well-designed standards and assessment systems, has given Oregon a good shot at achieving the high goals it has set for itself.^[6] It’s encouraging, moreover, that the state’s new academic and performance goals have received good reviews in the press and among professional organizations. The American Federation of Teachers, for instance, named Oregon one of eight states in the country whose standards represent precise, concrete expectations for students. The AFT also commended Oregon for aligning its testing with the standards, and for requiring extra help for students who fail to meet them.

Raising the Bar

     In order for students’ progress toward attaining certificates to be measured reliably across the board, Oregon now employs state examinations in English and math for all students in grades three, five, eight, and ten. (Over the next two years, exams in science, history, civics, geography, and economics will be added to the list; two years after that, standards in the arts and second languages will be added.^[7]) But along with standardized tests, the Board of Education has established higher minimum test scores. For example, in previous years, students scoring 221 on state tenth-grade reading tests achieved a "proficient" performance assessment. The new proficiency standard for the test is a score of 239.

     Requirements like this represent a steep hurdle: 1996 scores suggest more than half the state's tenth graders probably will not achieve the scores needed to earn a Certificate of Initial Mastery on their first try. But catering to what students can achieve easily is no longer de rigeur in Oregon: reaching higher, and giving educators and students the tools to get there, is.

     One important tool teachers now are expected to employ is state scoring guides. In contrast to subjective scoring, state guides measure qualitative achievements and failures with much greater specificity and consistency from class to class and school to school. Writing samples, for instance, are assessed in six areas: ideas and content, organization, sentence fluency, conventions, word choice, and voice. Because grading is no longer a matter of simply assigning letters based on an instructor's general impression of a student's work, scoring now has the capacity to make students acutely aware of their shortcomings and skills, and to help teachers tailor their instruction and provide targeted and effective feedback. (Click here to see samples of student writing, with scores assessed according to the Oregon state scoring guide. Each area of proficiency is measured on a scale of 1-6, with 4 representing a passing score.)

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