Group will study Oregon grad requirements
By Terry Murry on Wednesday, June 23rd, 2021 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
PENDLETON – Both houses of the Oregon Legislature have approved establishing a study group to take a deep dive regarding the state’s high school graduation requirements. Oregon has one of the most rigorous sets of graduation requirements in the country, which is part of the reason why the state ranks lower than most in graduation rates. Those surveys do not differentiate between one state’s requirements and another.
InterMountain Education Service District Superintendent Mark Mulvihill believes that it’s time the state take a look at what it requires to graduate from high school as well as what other states require.
“Let’s look at their diplomas,” he said. “Let’s look at where we believe a level of rigor could be. If we’re off – and we are – let’s evaluate that. That’s what this is about.”
Mulvihill said it’s time for the state of Oregon to decide if it wants to be tough on graduation requirements in order to prepare its students for life after high school, or if it wants to strike a more even keel in line with other states.
“Let’s really evaluate and look at it from a scientific lens on the other states,” he said. “If we want to be competitive, let’s have a similar diploma to what everybody else has.”
Mulvihill has long decried extremists on both sides of the political spectrum for using national comparisons as proof of problems in Oregon schools instead of understanding that comparing the graduation rates in Oregon to those in much more lenient states are like comparing apples to oranges.
