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Oregon students face tough new test this school year

The Columbian
Published: September 1, 2014, 5:00pm

PORTLAND — More than 500,000 students return to school in Oregon this week, and their parents will need to add a phrase to their own vocabulary as a new test rolls out this school year — Smarter Balanced.

The rigorous exam of reading, math, writing, listening, research and thinking skills will be given next spring to students in third through eighth grades and to high school juniors.

Officials have yet to determine the test’s passing score, but results will be used to determine whether students are on track and how Oregon schools are performing, The Oregonian reported Sunday.

Though the exam is new, the change has been in motion since 2008, when a business-driven coalition persuaded most governors and state school leaders that U.S. schools had set their reading, math and writing standards too low for students to compete in the global economy, the newspaper reported.

That’s how the Common Core State Standards were born. Oregon was one of the first states to adopt the standards, and more than 40 states later followed. Old tests couldn’t measure how well schools are teaching the tougher standards, so that’s where Smarter Balanced comes in.

Teachers in most Portland-area districts have been changing their methods to familiarize students with the demands of the test.

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