ESSENTIAL PROFICIENCY STANDARDS
Douglas C. Dougherty, Ph.D., Superintendent Advisor to the Oregon State Board of Education
In order to provide an academically rigorous and sustainable education system for our students, Oregon must reduce the number of standards it assesses to only the most essential proficiency-based learning targets. To accomplish this, it is critical to differentiate between the written curriculum and the essential proficiency standards.
The written curriculum is contained in the framework of the Oregon Standards. This broad range of knowledge and skills includes the recommended goals of various national research councils. The written curriculum must be prioritized. Teaching of this prioritized curriculum should be based on the very best instructional practices that are supported by research, not simply a cursory exposure to every standard. Students must be engaged in meaningful learning, making connections across content areas in order to master the essential proficiency standards.
The essential proficiency standards should be a manageable number of foundational standards that are widely accepted as the most important. The essential proficiency standards become clear targets of what each student must master by the end of each grade level. Eligible content for state assessments should be limited to essential proficiency standards.
These essential proficiency standards embody concepts each student is expected to retain long after the assessment is completed. They are necessary understandings that prepare the student for success in subsequent grades and courses across multiple academic disciplines.
The student’s progress and mastery of the essential proficiency standards should be regularly communicated to the student and his or her parents. Formative and summative assessments would target the essential proficiency standards and the data derived from these assessments would be used for individualizing instruction. The Oregon Department of Education would support teachers in recommending or creating high quality research based formative assessments. They would also be responsible for developing an easily used standards database for entering, analyzing, and reporting students’ progress on the essential proficiency standards.
The Oregon Department of Education Assessment System must utilize a growth model to longitudinally measure these essential proficiency standards to provide more direct information on each student, each subgroup, and each school over time. Through tracking essential proficiencies over time, growth trajectories can be calculated projecting expectations for academic achievement.