An educator in Oregon sent the following message:
To get a waiver from NCLB the state of Oregon promised that 100% of students
will graduate from high school and 80% will complete college. I’m not sure
if this is madness or deliberate deception because the date set for reaching
these goals is 2025. By then,the governor and legislators will be long
gone, and/or the education pendulum will have swung in some other weird direction.
This is not quite right. The goals are:
100% will get a high school diploma.
And to quote one of the commenters on this post, who quotes the state’s waiver request (p. 24):
“Eighty percent must continue their education beyond high school with half of those earning associate’s degrees or professional/technical certificates, and half achieving a bachelor’s degree or higher. This goal, commonly referred to and as the 40/40/20 Goal, gives Oregon the most ambitious high school and college completion targets of any state in the country.”
A reader adds this astute observation:
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Diane Ravitch's blog 
At least that’s in the forseeable future. I get updates on the 2061 initiative.
Here is the link to the ESEA Flexibility Waiver Application (abridged) for Oregon:
Click to access oregons_completed_esea_flexibility_request_abridged.pdf
From page 24:
“Among those bills was Senate Bill 909, which created the Oregon Education Investment Board (OEIB), chaired by the Governor, to oversee all levels of state education, improve coordination among educators, and pursue outcomes-based investment in education. The Legislature also took the important step of passing Senate Bill 253, which establishes in law the goal that, by 2025, every Oregon student should earn a high school diploma – one that represents a high level of knowledge and skills. Eighty percent must continue their education beyond high school with half of those earning associate’s degrees or professional/technical certificates, and half achieving a bachelor’s degree or higher. This goal, commonly referred to and as the 40/40/20 Goal, gives Oregon the most ambitious high school and college completion targets of any state in the country.” Also, see graph on page 25.
From page 26:
“The Oregon Diploma –– Oregon’s State Board of Education adopted new high school graduation requirements in 2008 to better prepare students for success in college, work and citizenship. To earn a diploma, students need to complete higher credit requirements and demonstrate proficiency in essential skills. For example, this year’s seniors must pass an assessment of reading skills in order to earn a diploma and graduate. Later graduates will need to demonstrate skills in writing and math as well.”
So, two mighty forces are in play here:
1) The goal of having all (100%) of our students earn diplomas by 2025, and
2) High-stakes testing in reading, writing, and math to make diplomas more difficult to achieve.
Oregon does have different diploma options, including the modified diploma and extended diploma. These options will keep the state from discriminating against some students with disabilities, but probably not all.
Utterly idiotic. The goal relies on self-reporting, since the students in question can’t be legally bound to tell the school anything they do after they leave. They could lie, disappear, move out of state or out of country, join the military, or even die. The school could simply fail to hear from them. The school where I teach graduates 400 seniors every year. How would the counseling department keep track of all those people once they left? And why would the school be responsible for their learning four years–or even four months–after they’ve graduated? Are the elementary teachers who had them in kindergarten held responsible for the ones who don’t get bachelor’s degrees? (“I’m sorry, Miss Flowers, but of those students you had sixteen years ago, only 10% got a college degree, so we have to put you on probation. Let’s hope the ones you had fifteen years ago do better.”)
This really is similar to the goals made by the State Board of Education in Idaho a few months ago. Idaho petitioned early for a waiver. The post-HS goals in Idaho are blatantly ridiculous but what was amazing in the SBOE discussion was no mention or conversation about accepting such a glaring turnaround, and it was done without a single mention of changes to funding of higher education. Just “alakazam!,” wave the wand and “make it so.” Thought that this was in support of the NCLB waiver didn’t occur to me until Oregon’s action.
Eventually these absurd promises will come back to bite the “reformers” who make them.
I think we should be the ones to make sure that happens. We need to have a portion of our focus on making these same kinds of ridiculous and unfair expectations universal to show how asinine they really are.
All doctors will achieve 100% cure rate by 2025!
All dentists will end tooth decay by 2015!
All judges will achieve a 100% fairness score by 2020! No wrongful convictions allowed!
All lawyers will achieve 100% wins in their cases by 2030!
All clergy persons will achieve a record of 0% divorces in the marriages they perform by 2015!
All CEOs will achieve a 25% profit for their shareholders every year starting today!
All manufacturers will sell nothing but 100% successful merchandise that is 100% failsafe, foolproof, and unbreakable by 2025!
All fishermen will achieve a 100% catch rate every time they go fishing!
All athletes will achieve 100% wins starting in 2015!
All parents will raise 100% successful children that graduate from Ivy League schools by 2030!
All politicians will achieve a record of 100% success in passing all legislation they put forward and receive 100% of the vote in order to be elected!
I could go on. These are all things that research shows would benefit our society immensely. Let’s get to work on perfection for all!
Here is the playbook for union breaking in Oregon. Oregon may be a blue state in most respects but not in education.
“All fishermen will achieve a 100% catch rate every time they go fishing!”
Do that already now-ha ha!
Rick,
Do you think we could use that magic wand to make sure that the Mariners don’t lose a hundred games this year?
I think that Brian may be on to something with his post; although, if we are making demands of people outside of education for 100% proficiency, is there anything that would keep some from asking for more? Why not 110% efficiency? If we have “Perfection for All” this year, shouldn’t we be looking at “Beyond Perfection” in ten years?
Clearly, we do ourselves and our students a disservice when we commit to goals that are not realistic. When I propose an IEP goal for a student in a meeting, it’s based upon where the student is currently performing and where he or she could reasonably be in a year’s time. Is this concept so difficult for politicians and administrators to comprehend? Whom are we trying to impress with our bravado?
If this happens in Louisiana, the state is really in trouble. Gov. Jindal has cut so much funding for higher education, we may not have universities or technical schools for them to attend.
I don’t think it’s deception. I think that Oregon has a really wry sense of humor. Who will remember in 2025 what was said in 2012?
That’s what we said about NCLB in 2001
Diane Ravitch
Self-reporting isn’t an issue , these programs for long term tracking of students are out there. These databases are linking up in sorts of ways that we are not even aware of and it is all legal and much of it is part of NCLB. The states collect all this data on each student and have for years.
This is an area that most teachers are not even thinking about, besides students grades and test results, our evaluation, employment history is in here and we don’t even ask who is looking at it? “Know thy enemy” is something we as teachers have to get better at. I did a short paper on this for a grad class a while ago and was stunned to look at the amount of data, who looks at it and who has access.
I have often thought that all these business people taking these BROAD courses and then are put into superintendent positions or serve on Dept. of Ed commissions or committees have access to a great deal or data. Made me wonder how much they are saving for future use. I know enough to be very concerned but not enough to really KNOW anything, I do more research into this but am so busy with day to day teaching I don’t have time. However, every year when I type in my student data or sign my on-line evaluation form I get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Who sees all this and is it secure. Our tech guys just laugh at me and say it is the price of instant access and standardized testing data printed out on graphs and charts.
Some stuff I saved and websites I have looked at while researching from time to time.
State Longitudinal Data Systems for Tracking Outcomes for Students with Disabilities
through Postsecondary Activities, Project Forum at NASDSE, 2010 November
Click to access statelongitudinaldatasystemsfortrackingoutcomesforswdthroughpostsecondaryactivities-final.pdf
Data: Now What? Data Beyond High School
http://www.bigpicture.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/new-picture-9.bmp
Illinois Longitudinal Data System Project: What is ILDS? (READ THE STAKEHOLDERS FOR THIS ONE)
“The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE), along with our Education Partners, is now actively moving forward with the design and development of the state-wide Illinois Longitudinal Data System (ILDS). The system, when fully deployed, will provide data to help to track the outcomes of Illinois students as they progress from Pre-K through Postsecondary education, and as they enter the workforce. ”
http://www.isbe.state.il.us/ILDS/default.htm
SAS “the power to know”
“Longitudinal Data Systems
Unify student data from preschool through postgrad and into the work force
Few state education systems can track student progress and trends from data such as attendance, test scores and demographics across districts longitudinally or historically because they have limited access to information showing progress over time. And they lack a process for streamlining funding to proven programs or aligning educational resources to meet workforce requirements.
To address these challenges, states can merge the vast amounts of student data from the disconnected levels of public and even private education – culminating in the development of a data-rich, state-specific longitudinal data system (LDS) that integrates relevant data about a student’s education from preschool through graduate school or actual entry into the work force.”
http://www.sas.com/industry/education/longitudinal-data-systems/index.html
North Carolina to use SAS® EVAAS® for K-12 in teacher, principal evaluations
Measuring student growth key to earning NCLB waiver
http://www.sas.com/news/preleases/ncdpi.html
there are millions of sources and research in this. Maybe the galvanic bracelets have GPS trackers………..
I see a movie script here…”Teachers vs The Reformers: the fight for our children continues!”
I will just say this, this concerns many state legislators. There are legislators on BOTH sides of the political fence that are concerned about the data sharing. THis needs to be further exposed and those concerned need to target their state legislators who understand the danger.
Note that Rudy Crew is now Oregon’s state director of education.
These are more reasons/excuses to spend more money. Yes they will all be gone and no one will be held accountable when this does not happen.
In 18 years, we will be perfect. Or 22 years, I forget which.
Diane
I thought Oregon was largely immune from the insanity. I lived in Nevada, where the Broad Foundation has tightened its stranglehold, and moved up to where I thought things were better. Well, it goes to show Oregon is no better.
And of course all these goals have absolutely no funding attached to them. My husband teaches in Beaverton School District where over two hundred teachers were laid off. The school where he works spent thousands of dollars developing teaching teams, all of which have been summarily dismantled. His partner, a much beloved social studies instructor has been moved to a middle school where he will be teaching math–with less than a month to prepare. Class sizes are expected to reach in the high forties. Indeed, Oregon seems to have a wry sense of humor. . .
I am speechless. I keep deleting my response. I hope that Oregon figures that the idiots encouraging this nonsense will be long gone by 2025.