Last week The Emerald reported on an ongoing argument over the Certificate of Initial Mastery (“High school CIM program faces rejection,” ODE, May 4). Since 1991, the CIM has served as a way to certify that high school students meet state requirements in different subjects. Passing the CIM is not a state requirement for graduation.
Both the Oregon Board of Education and the Oregon House of Representatives find themselves at what could be a critical turning point for the CIM. Advocates of the program believe the CIM provides a good set of standards for measuring education and that CIM scores should be widely considered in college admission processes, as well as be mandatory for high school graduation.
Opponents counter that educators, students and parents find little value in the CIM and that precious money should not be wasted on
educating and administering the tests.
Although creating and meeting standards of education is important in any school system, the CIM doesn’t seem to be the best way to meet educational goals.
CIM curriculum is often far removed from teachers’ lesson plans. This means when CIM time rolls around, classrooms must take a break from carefully crafted lesson plans and instead concentrate on general facts or skills. Studying for the CIM becomes a game of memorizing what may be on the test, rather than a useful, interactive education. As soon as the test has been taken, students and teachers go back to a previous curriculum that is usually unrelated to any specific CIM standard.
Like Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act, the CIM represents a drain rather than an improvement on the education system. Standardized testing and goals don’t always make sense for individual schools and classrooms. For instance, a school targeted toward talented and gifted students could waste time and money refreshing students’ memory of certain math equations when normal curriculum concerns material of a much higher level.
Likewise, students from economically poor areas often fall behind state standards as a result of a lack in school funding. Trying to teach these students CIM material is a waste of time if their previous education is inadequate to understand the CIM. Furthermore, withholding funds from schools that don’t meet standards (as occurs with the No Child Left Behind Act) will only perpetuate the cycle of underprivileged students receiving a
sub-par education and missing out on future educational opportunities.
Students should not be treated like trained monkeys, forced to perform particular tasks when prompted by the state. It doesn’t make sense for graduation from high school or admission to college to hinge on a one-time performance. Surely there are other ways to measure the success of students, such as GPA and individual assessments.
Oregon legislators should provide state schools with the incentive to give students a well-rounded education, rather than lauding those institutions that meet a standardized and arbitrary test.

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