CIM attainment drops at Sisters High

The proportion of Oregon high school graduates earning a Certificate of Initial Mastery (CIM, pronounced “sim”) rose to 37 percent in 2005, compared with 33 percent the year before. The proportion at Sisters High School dropped to 59 percent from 68 percent in 2004.

Sisters High Principal Bob Macauley said, “We are pleased with the scores now, but we think we can do better.”

He pointed out that Sisters remains at the top of the list of Oregon high schools with between 100 and 160 graduates (Sisters had 133 in 2005). The next closest school is Pleasant Hill in Lane County, with 47 percent earning a CIM.

He noted also that only seven high schools in the state recorded CIM attainments at or above 60 percent of their graduating classes.

“This shows we are on track, though we could have done a better job…But we need to get it (the percentage of CIM attainment) back up,” he said.

To earn a CIM a student must pass standardized state tests in several basic subjects and produce “work samples” scored according to state guidelines. The work is intended to be completed in the 10th grade but can be repeated later. A CIM is not required for graduation or college admission, which probably accounts for the lack of interest among many prospective high school graduates.

There was some irony in the state’s announcement, which ordinarily might have touted the statewide increase as significant progress. Instead, the news release from the office State Superintendent of Public Instruction Susan Castillo described the increase from 33 percent in 2004 to 37 percent in 2005 as “a four percent increase,” whereas it was actually a 12 percent increase.

And while Castillo acknowledged that “The CIM represents a high level of achievement, and I appreciate the hard work it takes for students and schools to reach these standards,” she quickly went on to say, “However, CIM distribution is very uneven across the state. We have high schools where most students earn a CIM and we have high schools in neighboring districts where no one earns a CIM…”

In December, Castillo announced that her office was abandoning the CIM, which it had previously strongly supported. She said, and re-emphasized in her latest statement, that she will work with the State Board of Education to develop improved high school graduation requirements that will be better than the CIM.

Following the latest CIM report, both Macauley and Sisters Middle School Principal Lora Nordquist, who is also the district’s curriculum coordinator, reiterated their determination to use the substantive parts of the CIM program regardless of whether the Legislature takes the provision out of the law.

“Sisters School District has not let up on CIM in any way, shape or form,” Nordquist said last week. “We have really tried to embed the work samples in our curriculum.” She said that if the state abandons the CIM “the only thing that goes away is the local work samples.”

While some schools may do so, Nordquist said, “we will not move away from local work samples because those are just great opportunities for kids to work on public speaking skills or writing expository essays, or narrative essays or whatever. Those are just good classroom assignments.

“In my opinion it’s such a tempest in a teapot at the state level because people are saying, ‘Oh, these tests.’ Well, all the tests are staying because they’re part of No Child Left Behind,” a federal law.

Nordquist did not offer an opinion on the reasons for the drop in Sisters’ CIM percentage last year. But Karen Withrow, a physics and chemistry teacher who is the high school’s in-house expert on testing and related matters, said she did not see it as the start of a trend.

She explained that when a school achieves a rate of CIM acquisition as high as Sisters’ it’s natural that there will be some variation from year to year. One class will be a little higher, the next a little lower. She said the school has not changed its practices relative to the CIM and still places strong emphasis on trying to help every student obtain the certificate by the time of graduation.