Oregon, the Marxist west-coast playground that is home to the radical Antifa attacks that have been going on for the past year, is at it again; this time in regard to high school graduation standards. Historically in Oregon, African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans have graduated at lower rates from high school than Caucasians and Asians. For the 2019-20 graduating class, the statewide graduation rate (number of students who actually graduated from high school as compared to the number of students who were initially enrolled in school in their age cohort) was 83%. While the rates for Asian and White students were 92% and 83% respectively, the rate for Black students was 76%, 80% for Hispanic students, and 67% for Native Americans. Significantly though, over the prior five-year period, the Black, Hispanic, and Native American graduation rates greatly increased; the racial gap decreasing, as a result. During this period, the Black graduation rate increased by 27%, the Hispanic rate by 23%, and the Native American rate by 26% (while the Asian rate increased by 7% and the White rate by 14%.)
Somehow, these positive trends were not enough for the looney legislators in Oregon. On July 14, 2021, left-wing Oregon Governor Kate Brown signed into law Senate Bill 744, which suspended the requirement that students meet proficiency standards in reading, writing, and math in order to earn a high school diploma. Why did she sign the law? Because such standards requiring basic knowledge that any student needs to function in society were probably biased against non-Asian minority groups and hence were the reason for their lower graduation rates. As one government spokesman stated, the suspension of the standards will help students who are “Black, Latino, Latina, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islander, Tribal, and students of color” and that “leaders from those communities have advocated time and again for equitable graduation standards….”
Note that no proof was presented that the standards were, in fact, biased against these groups. As a result, the law also mandated that the state Department of Education “make recommendations for state requirements for high school diplomas in this state to reduce disparities” and to determine if “the requirements for high school diplomas in this state have been applied inequitable to different student populations.” The overall goal is “ensuring that the processes and outcomes related to the requirements for high school diplomas are equitable, accessible and inclusive.”
Shoot first, and then take aim.
Rather than focusing on helping non-Asian minority students become more proficient in the essential skills of reading, writing, and math, Oregon wants to change the standards themselves. And the fact that more non-Asian minorities have been reaching those standards, and that the racial graduation gap has been greatly reduced, is irrelevant. If the state graduation standards do not produce equal results for all identity groups, they must be biased and hence have to be changed. Equity and Marxist conformity require as much.
So universities and employers beware: if you are looking to accept or hire high school students from Oregon, they may not be able to read, write, or do math at a proficient level. But that is not important to the state of Oregon as long as “equity” is achieved and “white” standards removed.
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