UNION COUNTY — Union County educators have mixed feelings about the Oregon Department of Education’s proposed state graduation requirement changes.

The recommendations, released Thursday, Sept. 1, call for the removal of the basic skills tests for reading, writing and math that students now need to pass to graduate and the elimination of the Algebra I requirement. The three-credit requirement for math would remain in place.

Cove School District Superintendent Earl Pettit said he has not taken an in-depth look at the proposed changes but indicated he is bothered by them.

“It certainly looks like the standards would be dropped,” he said.

“The trend of lowering expectations concerns me.”

The Cove superintendent believes this is not a good time to be decreasing expectations.

“The world is not getting less complicated,” he said. “More is being expected of kids, not less.”

Pettit said he is worried about the void the elimination of the essential skills test would create and how it would be filled.

“We may be getting rid of testing, but what will we replace it with?” he asked, adding students are expected to know about things that did not exist when he was in school.

Pettit also said the proposal to drop Algebra I as a requirement bothers him because it could ultimately limit what students are capable of doing in the workplace. He said careers in fields like engineering would be harder to pursue without an Algebra I background.

“We want kids to leave with choices,” he said. “Now we may be taking those choices away.”

North Powder School District Superintendent Lance Dixon supports the proposed new graduation requirement changes. He said that for years the essential skills test has been viewed as a barrier to graduation. He noted that there are some students who do well in the classroom while studying curriculum aligned with state standards but struggle with passing the essential skills tests for these standards. He said students who do not pass the essential skills test can submit work samples from classes proving they can meet basic skills standards.

Dixon is open to the idea of removing the Algebra I requirement, noting that students would still be required to earn three math credits. The educator believes consideration should be given to creating math classes that combine elements of algebra and geometry, because this would make it more applicable to the real world.

“When you are building a house, you do not use geometry separately and algebra separately,” he said.

Joe Justice, a member of the La Grande School Board, has mixed feelings about the Oregon Department of Education’s proposal. He said he’s generally supportive of testing and that it can be “a valuable tool.”

Nevertheless, Justice believes that too much emphasis can be placed on testing, and the needs of students who have difficulty with it should be accommodated.

“We should have flexibility with children who have difficulty in the testing world,” he said.

La Grande High School Principal Brett Baxter said he hopes the proposed graduation requirements would not lower the total standards. He hopes that if the graduation requirements are changed, they will be altered in a way that will result in students having a greater number of proficiencies to meet.

They might include proficiencies designed to help students develop interpersonal skills and the ability to work collaboratively, all skills needed in today’s workplace.

Baxter said the development of skills like these are sometimes overlooked because so much emphasis is placed on the goal of students passing the essential skills test.