In his proposals,
Bunn also asked the board to discontinue the state third-grade
writing test and fifth-grade science tests.
The Certificate
of Advanced Mastery (CAM), which will contain a school-to-work
component as well as additional academic testing, is scheduled
to be phased in starting in 2004-05.
Oregon's highly touted school reform, once the darling
of national education experts, is dead.
Stan Bunn didn't phrase his message nearly that bluntly
last week, but critics say that the state superintendent
of public instruction's widely reported proposals sounded
a death knell for the the state's school-reform program,
which culminates in the 10th grade with the Certificate
of Initial Mastery.
The CIM, as it's known, is the centerpiece of the landmark
education overhaul crafted by then-state representative
Vera Katz in 1991. According to Katz's plan, all Oregon
students would complete a series of work samples and exams
at the third, fifth and eighth grades building toward
a climactic battery of tests in the sophomore year.
The CIM was intended to be an examination that would
attest to a student's mastery of a specific body of knowledge.
The radical notion embedded in reform was that rather
than simply giving diplomas based on attendance and a
minimum academic performance, all students would instead
have to meet rigorous standards.
Last week, however, Bunn asked the state school board
to break the CIM down into separate pieces of paper for
each subject--one for math, one for English, one for history,
etc. More important, rather than 10th graders all taking
the same tests at once, Bunn proposed that students take
tests any time they are ready, between ninth and 12th
grade.
These seemingly procedural changes have enormous significance.
It's as if students are engaged in a grueling race but
all of a sudden there's no finish line--nor is there any
longer the pretense that even the race's organizers want
it to continue. "It strikes me that this thing is dead,"
says Caleb Burns, a Portland parent who earlier this month
organized a weekend conference, titled "Putting the CIM
to the Test," which examined the methodology of the current
tests. "You start splitting up the CIM and that waters
down the whole thing."
Although the timing of Bunn's announcement took educators
by surprise, his analysis was hardly shocking. In a four-page
open letter to parents and educators, Bunn outlined his
thinking. Woeful results on last years CIM tests (only
26 percent of the state's sophomores passed) have made
the exams a badge of failure rather than a mark of achievement.
Bunn insists that his plan retains the high standards
reformers wanted while making the system more user-friendly,
but critics say he's merely trying to head off increasingly
widespread opposition to a testing regime that many consider
excessive, invalid and an administrative nightmare (see
"None of the Above," WW, May 5, 1999).
Mayor Katz, who hasn't had the opportunity to speak to
Bunn or study his proposal in detail, says Bunn's idea
appears to weaken the thrust of reform. "I'm concerned
that in the name of flexibility we're lowering our expectations
for children," Katz told WW.
Steve Schopp, a Tualatin parent who captured public attention
earlier this school year by sculpting a gigantic message
saying "End CIM/CAM" in a field next to his house, thinks
reform is finished. "It's just an experiment and it's
been a huge waste of time and money," Schopp says. "Who
do they think this experiment is affecting--sheep?"
Teachers have been even more vocal than parents in their
criticism.
"There's a lot of unhappiness about the CIM in the education
community," says Portland Association of Teachers President
Richard Garrett, "and there's widespread support for backing
away from it."
Earlier opposition from Garrett and other union leaders
led the state board to drastically cut the number of work
samples students must complete as part of meeting CIM
standards. That proposal, however, followed extensive
debate, both in public and behind the scenes. Bunn's recommendation
last week came virtually out of the blue.
Steve Olczak, the principal at Reynolds High School in
Troutdale, has mixed feelings about Bunn's proposals.
Reynolds was the only school in the state to require the
CIM for graduation, a requirement it dropped last September.
Olczak says that although the standards have in some cases
improved the quality of education, the current system
isn't working for students or the community.
Olczak worries, though, that the flexibility Bunn proposes
may lead to complications. Test preparation already consumes
a substantial amount of class time, he says; if students
are allowed to take tests at any time, preparation and
administration will be even more complicated. Additionally,
according to Olczak, the state already has difficulty
scoring tests and returning them promptly--and that is
unlikely to improve.
The Board of Education won't vote on Bunn's proposal
until June 14, but chairwoman Susan Massey of North Bend
appears favorably disposed. "If system isn't working that
well, you need to change it," she says.
As for Schopp, last Thursday he called in the same landscaper
to carve a different message in the Tualatin field. His
new grass sculpture reads simply "CIM RIP."
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Willamette Week | originally
published April 26,
2000
