Essential Skills Graduation Requirement

Overview of Essential Skills

What are the Essential Skills?

The Nine Essential Skills are cross-disciplinary skills that students should be developing across grades K- 12.

For students first enrolled in Grade 9 in 2010-2011 or later, three of the Essential Skills are graduation requirements:

Read and comprehend a variety of text
Write clearly and accurately
Apply mathematics in a variety of settings

How do students meet the graduation requirements?

Students prove that they have mastered these Essential Skills by earning at or above a cut score on one of the approved assessment options in their district. For information about the assessment options for each Essential Skill, please visit the Reading, Writing, or Mathematics Essential Skill pages. The links to these pages are listed below under the heading “Resources” and in the left column of this page.

Where can I find Work Sample prompts?

Work Sample prompts (one of the approved assessment options for the Essential Skills) are available in the ORSkills online system.

ORSkills FAQ
Quick reference about the ORSkills online system, including answers to questions about features, benefits, and costs of the system.
ORSkills Quick Introduction Video
Two minute introduction to the ORSkills assessment platform available to all Oregon school districts.

How were the Essential Skills developed?

The Essential Skills Task Force – comprised of educators from K-12, community college, higher education, students, and business/community representatives – worked together in 2007 to develop the Essential Skills policy. In 2008 the Essential Skills were available for public review and input was collected through online surveys as well focus groups. The Task Force incorporated the feedback and Oregon Administrative Rules (OARs) for the Essential Skills were adopted by the Board on June 19, 2008.

Essential Skills Resources

To support students, teachers, administrators, and parents learn what the expectations are for the Essential Skills requirement across K-12 curricula, ODE has provided additional links to administration resources, instructional planning resources, and data resources.

Essential Skills Resources

Resources

To support Essential Skills across K-12 curricula, links to instructional planning resources, including Common Core links, and data resources follow.

Essential Skills and Local Performance Assessment Manual (Updated 08/26/19)
Describes the requirements for Essential Skills assessment options, including requirements regarding development, administration, and scoring of assessments.
Assessment Supports and Accommodations – Oregon Summative Assessment and Other Standardized Assessment Options Crosswalk
This document provides a comparison of the assessment supports or accommodations offered for the Oregon Summative Assessment of English language arts and mathematics compared to AESRP approved “Other Standardized Assessment Options” as identified in the Essential Skills and Local Performance Manual.
Assessing Common Core -- information about Oregon's statewide assessment for the Common Core
Work Samples
ORSkills FAQ - Quick reference about the ORSkills online system, including answers to questions about features, benefits, and costs of the system

Oregon Administrative Rule Requirements

Requirements

OAR for Essential Skills and Local Performance Assessment
Full text of Oregon Administrative Rule 581-022-2115: Assessment of Essential Skills
OAR 581-022-2120: Essential Skills for English Language Learners
Full text of Oregon Administrative Rule 581-022-2120: Essential Skills for English Language Learners

Essential Skills Data Reports

Data Reports

School districts report to ODE which assessment option each graduate used to demonstrate proficiency in the required Essential Skills. ODE compiles this information into a report of district and state-level data. The State Board of Education has approved three categories of assessments that students can use to meet the Essential Skills graduation requirements: the state test, other standardized tests, and work samples.

2015 Essential Skills Report
Four-year outcomes: Students who entered high school during the 2011-2012 school year and demonstrated the Reading, Writing, and Math Essential Skills to earn a Regular Diploma or Modified Diploma in 2015
Five-year outcomes: Students who entered high school during the 2010-2011 school year and demonstrated the Reading and Writing Essential Skills to earn a Regular Diploma or Modified Diploma in 2015
2014 Essential Skills Report
Four-year outcomes: Students who entered high school during the 2010-2011 school year and demonstrated the Reading, Writing, and Math Essential Skills to earn a Regular Diploma or Modified Diploma in 2014
Five-year outcomes: Students who entered high school during the 2009-2010 school year and demonstrated the Reading and Writing Essential Skills to earn a Regular Diploma or Modified Diploma in 2014
2013 Essential Skills Report
Four-year outcomes: Students who entered high school during the 2009-2010 school year and demonstrated the Reading and Writing Essential Skills to earn a Regular Diploma or Modified Diploma in 2013
Five-year outcomes: Students who entered high school during the 2008-2009 school year and demonstrated the Reading Essential Skill to earn a Regular Diploma or Modified Diploma in 2013
2012 Essential Skills Report
Four-year outcomes: Students who entered high school during the 2008-2009 school year and demonstrated the Reading Essential Skill to earn a Regular Diploma or Modified Diploma in 2012

Assessment of Essential Skills Review Panel

The Assessment of Essential Skills Review Panel is charged with making recommendations on:

The phasing in of Essential Skills
The adoption of assessment options to measure students' proficiency in the approved Essential Skills
The achievement standards used to determine student eligibility for the high school diploma or the modified diploma.

The State Board of Education considers recommendations from AESRP, but is not obligated to adopt AESRP's recommendations. The State Board of Education may ask for additional information from AESRP, beyond the recommendation, or may ask AESRP for a general position.

Panelist Information

Panelists are selected with attention to geographic representation and representation across a range of functional considerations, including professional roles and affiliations and experience with working with diverse population. Panelists serve a three-year term with annual recruitment and selection in the spring.

List of Current Panelists

ODE Recruitment - Essential Skills and Assessment of Essential Skills Review Panel

ODE is seeking current educators with assessment literacy to review the work conducted by ODE and make recommendations to the Oregon State Board of Education for approval of other standardized assessments and minimum proficiency scores to meet Oregon’s Essential Skills requirements (for secondary completion). Please complete the AESRP Recruitment Form by no later than August 30, 2019.

Please refer to the cover page on the recruitment form for additional information on AESRP member responsibilities, commitments, and estimated meeting dates for the 2019 -2020 instructional year, or contact Tony Bertrand, ELA Assessment Specialist.

AESRP Meeting Information

All meetings of the Assessment of Essential Skills Review Panel are open to the public and will conform to Oregon public meetings laws. The upcoming meeting schedule and materials from past meetings are posted online. Meeting notifications are emailed through the Assessment and Accountability Update Newsletter.

A request for an interpreter for the hearing impaired or for accommodations for people with disabilities should be made by email to Lacey Rhoades. Requests for accommodation should be made at least 48 hours in advance.