Should PA Statewide Tests Still be on the Table?

From the Allentown Morning Call

... And new graduation tests are needed, too

July 27, 2008

Pennsylvania's Independent Regulatory Review Commission is charged with examining all new state regulations before they take effect. Usually, it asks technical, arcane questions about minor details within a new set of rules. However, when it looked at plans for a new school district-specific ''graduation test,'' the Graduation Competency Assessments, the commission's question was very fundamental: Why does Pennsylvania need this test at all?

High school students in the Lehigh Valley and all over Pennsylvania are familiar with the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment, or PSSAs. This test, taken in the junior year, measures math and verbal abilities. A student must be scored proficient or better to graduate.

However, Pennsylvania's ''graduation test'' would be tailored to fit individual school districts, instead of being mandated statewide, like the PSSA. The State Board of Education suggested creating 10 subject-specific final exams that a student would take in the senior year. Three exams would be in mathematics, two in English and language arts, three in social studies and two in science. These ''final exams'' may even replace the traditional final exams that the student would normally take at the end of senior year. Starting with the class of 2014, students would have to pass six of the final exams in order to graduate.

Twenty-two other states already use this kind of ''graduation test.''

The Independent Review Commission directed several questions toward the Board about the graduation tests. The commission wanted to know the rationale behind them, how the tests would be implemented, and how much it would cost the school districts throughout Pennsylvania to give, grade and report them.

The State Board and Gov. Ed Rendell, who supports the tests, can make a strong case for them. Unlike the PSSAs, which rate schools and school districts, the graduation tests would rate individual students. Each school will receive individual student scores, which will allow administrators to determine whether a student is ready for higher education, a job, or whatever the student chooses to do after graduation.

The schools already try to do this, but along with the new tests there would be support for counseling, tutoring and other remedial work, as needed. Of course, if the state orders use of the graduation tests, then state dollars to fund the program must follow. So, the tests can help those students who otherwise might fall through a crack. And, it gives the Pennsylvanians who help to pay for the schools one more way to hold them accountable.