Teaching

[Lamplighter]

Well said, Sundae and Dana ... your comments stitch together the empirical with the theoretical.

I'm quite proud of Oregon in many ways, but here is another "real world test" of how well Oregon schools are doing.
This has been a public secret for some time, and parents and students are frustrated at their costs, both in $ and time.

Certainly, not all students are expected or need to go on to college,
but for those that do, I doubt Oregon education is far removed from other US states.

75% of Oregon high school grads who go straight to community college must take remedial classes
OregonLive.com-May 7, 2015

A huge new study that followed 100,000 Oregon high school graduates to community college
finds that 75 percent have to take non-credit remedial classes when they get there.

Poor academic readiness, not students' race or income, explained why they
had to take high school- or middle school-level classes when they got to community college,
according to the study, done for the national Institute of Education Sciences by Portland-based researcher Michelle Hodara.
<snip>
The lesson gleaned from her study, Hodara said, is that high schools can and should
do a better job of preparing students academically for college.

The single best predictor of which students could start right into college-level work at community college
was whether they had been taught the skills needed to pass Oregon's state reading and math tests, the study found.

But here, by coincidence one week later, is one response of the Oregon legislature...
[in Oregon "Smarter Balance" = "Common Core"]

Oregon Senate Passes Crucial Testing Law, HB 2680
Salem-News.com - 5/12/15

Bill establishes educator work group to take on assessments
The following statement can be attributed to Oregon Education Association President Hanna Vaandering: