Common Core Crowns OREGON ‘Worst Graduation Rate in the U.S.’

This recent headline, Oregon Has the Worst Graduation Rate in the US, is perhaps shocking to those who don’t know what’s going on in education.  However it comes as no surprise to those of us who study diligently.

All over the country folks are upset about Common Core, which is basically outcomes-based education. We are no longer providing the same opportunities for all with the hopes that the outcomes will be good, but ultimately will be what the kids do with those opportunities. We are skewing the opportunities so that everyone has an equal outcome. Make sense? That’s outcomes-based education.

Oregon has been doing this since the 1990s. We had the cim/cam (think certificate of mastery) debacle, which failed. Did we ditch it? No. We renamed/rebranded it.

For all the other states in the nation that are watching and see that Oregon is the worst across the country, take note. We will all be ‘tied for last’ if we move forward with the Common Core.

The federal government is working towards making all states like Oregon. We are simply ahead of the curve. Instead of pulling back on failed OBE policies and letting the teachers do their jobs, we continue to write legislation that entrenches it deeper. We double down on failed procedures.

Imagine it like this: A person is injured, perhaps cut with a knife in the abdomen. It’s superficial but we need to repair it. Instead of stitching it up, we get a bigger knife and go deeper. Uh-oh, now the wound is really bleeding. That’s not good. So we fire up a chainsaw and before you know it, we’ve killed the patient.

Just as we are killing education. Our children’s futures.

So am I surprised that we have the worst grad rates in the country? No. I’m surprised it’s taken this long to be acknowledged.