(1) The State Board of Education shall adopt academic content standards and requirements for the Certificate of Initial Mastery and for Certificate of Initial Mastery subject area endorsements.
(2) The State Board of Education shall prescribe the academic content standards, pursuant to ORS 329.025 and 329.035, that a student must meet in order to obtain the Certificate of Initial Mastery or a Certificate of Initial Mastery subject area endorsement. The Certificate of Initial Mastery and the Certificate of Initial Mastery subject area endorsements shall be based on a series of performance-based assessments and content assessments benchmarked to mastery levels. The assessment methods shall include work samples and tests. The state board shall establish a certificate for students who, with additional services and accommodations, do not meet the standards for the Certificate of Initial Mastery. Students shall be allowed to collect credentials over a period of years, culminating in a project or exhibition that demonstrates attainment of the required knowledge and skills that have been measured by a variety of valid assessment methods.
(3) Requirements for the Certificate of Initial Mastery or a Certificate of Initial Mastery subject area endorsement shall:
(a) Ensure that students have the necessary knowledge and demonstrate the skills to read, write, problem solve, reason and communicate;
(b) Ensure that students have the opportunity to demonstrate the ability to learn, think, retrieve information and use technology;
(c) Ensure that students have the opportunity to demonstrate that they can work effectively as individuals and as an individual in group settings; and
(d) Ensure that student assessment is based on academic content standards.
(4)(a) The state board shall establish the minimum number of work samples that a student must complete in each subject to receive the Certificate of Initial Mastery or to receive a Certificate of Initial Mastery subject area endorsement.
(b) If a school district receives the approval of the Department of Education, the school district may require a student, as part of the requirements for the Certificate of Initial Mastery or a Certificate of Initial Mastery subject area endorsement, to complete a greater number of work samples for a particular subject than the minimum number established by the state board.
(5) The state board shall adopt requirements for the Certificate of Initial Mastery in mathematics, science and English. Each school district shall implement the Certificate of Initial Mastery in mathematics, science and English.
(6) In addition, the state board shall adopt requirements for Certificate of Initial Mastery subject area endorsements in history, geography, economics, civics, physical education, health, the arts and second languages. A school district may offer to the students of the school district a Certificate of Initial Mastery subject area endorsement in any of the following:
(a) History, geography, economics and civics.
(b) Physical education.
(c) Health.
(d) The arts.
(e) Second languages.
(7) A student may receive a Certificate of Initial Mastery subject area endorsement only if the student has received the Certificate of Initial Mastery.
(8) The state board or a school district may not make the creation of a student portfolio a requirement for the Certificate of Initial Mastery or a Certificate of Initial Mastery subject area endorsement.
(9) The provisions of this section may be applied individually as appropriate to students enrolled in special education programs under ORS chapter 343.
(10) The Department of Education shall develop procedures to accommodate out-of-state students, students taught by a parent, legal guardian or private teacher as described in ORS 339.030, private school students transferring into public schools and migrant children from other states and countries.
(11) Nothing in this section is intended to apply the Certificates of Mastery programs or standards to private school students or students taught by a parent, legal guardian or private teacher as described in ORS 339.030.
Section: Previous 329.447 329.447 329.450 329.451 329.455 329.460 329.465 329.465 329.467 329.467 329.470 329.475 329.475 329.480 329.485 NextLast modified: August 7, 2008