Oregon is following in the steps of Virginia’s Fairfax County and Boston Public Schools by suspending standardized proficiency testing.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown privately signed a bill suspending reading, writing, and arithmetic proficiency requirements for students for the next three years. Charles Boyle, a spokesman for the governor’s office, told the Washington Examiner’s Kaelan Deese that the bill would give students “a chance to regroup after a year and a half of disruption caused by the pandemic.”
However, the governor seems to have another reason for supporting this bill, namely the pursuit of “equity.” Boyle told the Oregonian that new standards would help “Black, Latino, Latina, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islander, Tribal, and students of color.” He added, “Leaders from those communities have advocated time and again for equitable graduation standards.”
This argument is not new. Some academics have argued that university admissions based on standardized test scores perpetuate racial disparities. And the nation’s largest teachers union, the National Education Association, decried the use of testing, saying, “Since their inception a century ago, standardized tests have been instruments of racism and a biased system.”
However, contrary to what the advocates may say, the effect of eliminating standardized assessments will not likely be “equitable.” When testing requirements were tossed in Fairfax County’s Thomas Jefferson High School, Asian American admissions decreased while white admissions increased. This is hardly a racially “equitable” outcome. Anti-racist advocate Ibram X. Kendi would probably call it “racist.”
Getting rid of standardized proficiency tests may also lead college admissions officers to select fewer disadvantaged students. A 2020 report by the University of California’s Academic Senate found that among applicants with SAT scores of 1000, nearly 50% of Latinos were admitted, while only 30% of whites were accepted. The report also said that Asian American students benefited more than white students.
As the Los Angeles Times’s Teresa Watanabe wrote, “Applicants’ tests scores, for instance, are compared both to those statewide and at the local high school, enabling UC officers to identify standouts among students with similar socioeconomic backgrounds.”
Racial equity arguments aside, suspending testing will not ensure that students gain essential skills. While Thomas Jefferson High School and the Boston Public Schools used school grades as a substitute for testing, it is unclear what measures Oregon will be using to assess students’ academic proficiency.
According to the Oregonian’s Hillary Borrud, prior to the law’s passage, Oregon allowed students to demonstrate English and mathematics proficiencies through five different exams or an “in-depth classroom project judged by their own teachers.” Now that Brown has signed the law eliminating the requirements without replacing them with new ones, this means students will not have to demonstrate academic proficiency in order to graduate.
This leaves students ill-equipped as they enter either the workforce or higher education. George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley wrote that students who do not achieve proficiency “are still left without any marketable skills as they enter an increasingly competitive job market and economy.”
And while some have found that test scores are better predictors of first-year college performance than high school GPA, Oregon’s “workshop-style courses” that helped students strengthen their English and math skills have been discontinued. Additionally, no new learning opportunities or supports were passed to help minority students during the state’s legislative session.
As I have written before, K-12 public schools’ increased focus on equity has left students behind. Not only is this latest push to end standardized testing “inequitable,” but it also leaves students unprepared for a future beyond secondary school.
