The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

The AP

October 20, 2007

Opposition grows to state test for graduation

HARRISBURG — Opponents of a proposal to require Pennsylvania high school students to pass a state test before they can graduate are hoping to persuade the State Board of Education to come up with another way to measure students’ readiness for college or work.

Teachers unions, school boards and legal advocacy groups all have different reasons for objecting to regulations for subject-specific “graduation competency exams” that the board is developing. The rules would make passing either those exams or the already mandated Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests a prerequisite for high school graduation.

But the groups agree that a student’s graduation should not hinge on passing any state standardized tests, and they are beginning to mobilize their members to weigh in on the proposal.

“Teachers are not opposed to testing students — we do it all the time,” said Carol Karl, a lobbyist for the Pennsylvania State Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union. “It’s when you hang such high stakes for the student on a paper-and-pencil test. It’s the perversion of the purpose of testing.”

The state board is developing a battery of nine “end of course” tests that would replace local exams in English, math, science and social studies. The board envisions starting the tests with students who enter high school as freshmen in the 2009-10 school year.

Some school districts have made passing the PSSA a high school graduation requirement. But students in other districts have the option of passing those tests or a local test that measures how well they meet state standards under current regulations.

Twenty-two states have mandatory high school exit exams, according to the Center on Education Policy in Washington, D.C.

The push for more testing in Pennsylvania is one of a dozen recommendations made by a commission formed by Gov. Ed Rendell to strengthen the state’s graduation standards. Critics of local testing say it creates a patchwork of inconsistent graduation standards across the state’s 501 school districts.

The board hopes to have a set of proposed regulations ready by January. Although it is open to making revisions, it considers the new tests essential to making sure that schools across the state adhere to a uniform set of expectations, chairman Karl Girton said.

The proposed “graduation competency tests” would be administered as early as ninth grade — allowing teachers to identify struggling students earlier — and failing students would have multiple opportunities to retake the tests, Girton said. The PSSA is given only in 11th grade during high school, although students who fail can retake it in 12th grade.



Text Only
The AP
  • Oregonians get a payday thanks to tax refund rules

    December 23, 2007

  • Orders bring diplomat revolt Several hundred U.S. diplomats vented anger and frustration Wednesday about the State Department’s decision to force foreign service officers to take jobs in Iraq, with some likening it to a “potential death sentence.”

    October 31, 2007

  • Democratic rivals target Sen. Clinton at debate Democrats Barack Obama and John Edwards sharply challenged Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s candor, consistency and judgment Tuesday in a televised debate that underscored her front-runner status two months before the first presidential primary votes.

    October 30, 2007

  • Feds trying to clamp down on nation’s ‘dropout factories’ It’s a nickname no principal could be proud of: “Dropout Factory,” a high school where no more than 60 percent of the students who start as freshmen make it to their senior year. That description fits more than one in 10 high schools across America.

    October 29, 2007

  • After all seemed lost, peace is taking root in Ramadi Violence in war-ravaged Ramadi has decreased significantly in the last year, with a developing trust between U.S. troops and Iraqis weary with war cited as a primary reason.

    October 28, 2007

  • G.I., civilian deaths fall as October’s end nears October is on course to record the second consecutive decline in U.S. military and Iraqi civilian deaths and Americans commanders say they know why: the U.S. troop increase and an Iraqi groundswell against al-Qaida and Shiite militia extremists.

    October 23, 2007

  • Teachers preying on kids plague schools A widespread problem in American schools is sexual misconduct by the very teachers who are supposed to be nurturing the nation’s children, according to an Associated Press investigation.

    October 21, 2007

  • Opposition grows to state test for graduation Opponents of a proposal to require Pennsylvania high school students to pass a state test before they can graduate are hoping to persuade the State Board of Education to come up with another way to measure students’ readiness for college or work.

    October 20, 2007

  • FDA: Don’t give children under 6 cold medicines The cold and cough medicines long used by parents to treat their children’s runny noses and other symptoms don’t work and shouldn’t be used in those younger than 6, federal health advisers recommended Friday.

    October 19, 2007

  • Locals may be deployed to Iraq Nearly 4,000 Pennsylvania National Guard members – including some from Mercer County – are being notified that they could be sent to Iraq within a year.

    October 18, 2007