Sisters High School raises academic bar

Sisters High School, already known in Oregon for its high academic standards, has established rigorous new curriculum requirements which will take effect this fall.

New standards, approved at the May 8 Sisters School Board meeting, establish graduation requirements which link student coursework to performance on the state Certificate of Initial Mastery (CIM) tests.

The new standards are, in part, an answer to the difficulty students in Sisters, and throughout the state, have faced in meeting new-- and sometimes controversial -- CIM standards.

Students who expect to graduate with the class of 2004 with a Sisters diploma will have to meet performance requirements in three areas: reading, writing and mathematics. In writing and math, competencies will be based on work samples, not multiple choice tests.

District curriculum coordinator Lora Nordquist says these "local" work samples will be graded "using the same scoring guide as the state performance tests in writing and math."

These new strategies are the result of a year long process to establish a standards-based system and are in response to a spring 1999 school board directive.

The new system also establishes a minimum score on the reading portion of the CIM.

"Additionally, we will be requiring students to score 225 in reading to graduate," Nordquist explained. "We are confident almost all students will meet that."

The 225 figure, she says, establishes a threshold of "functional literacy" that serves as a guarantee to employers.

It is considerably lower than the CIM minimum reading score of 239.

Finally, Nordquist says, the third graduation requisite, the accumulation of class credits, continues unchanged at 26. One credit is earned for each trimester class successfully completed.

The challenging nature of the CIM was underscored this year. In this year's junior class of 104 students, only 15 met all of the CIM's requirements. Nordquist points out that this was about average for the state.

"And remember, Oregon students placed number one in the nation in SAT scores the last reporting year (among states with a minimum of 50 percent student participation)," she said.

SATs (Scholastic Aptitude Tests) measure students' readiness for college.

Nordquist estimates that approximately one-third of juniors will fully meet the CIM requirements by graduation.

The new requirements elevate the Sisters school system to rarefied heights.

Only one other district in the state links graduation and grades to CIM scores.