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Failing Marks For Graduation Test'

Posted on: Saturday, 19 July 2008, 03:00 CDT

By Anonymous

Yikes, not another test! The complaint comes not just from students, but their teachers, administrators, school boards - just about everyone in the education establishment at the local level - in response to a plan by the state Board of Education to require high school students to pass a bevy of new tests before they receive their diplomas.

The pass/fail tests - two in English, two in math, one in science and one in social studies - would be in addition to the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment test or PSSA that is administered as part of the federal No Child Left Behind law.

Called the Graduation Competency Exam, the tests could replace final exams and they could be used by students to prove they are ready to graduate. But students still would have to take the PSSA test.

School districts would be required to offer remedial help to students who fail the test, and teachers would receive additional training to help students improve their GCE score.

State officials say they are setting the bar higher to ensure that a high school diploma means something - no matter where it is given in the state.

Right now we don't have that assurance under the current system, says Michael Race, a spokesman for the state Department of Education.

Critics disagree, saying the GCE represents just more teaching to tests (a common complaint leveled at the PSSA test).

They also say it is just one more unfunded mandate from the state that will hinder schools' efforts to educate children. And areas of study not being tested, including foreign languages and the arts, will suffer, they say.

Criticism of the proposal was so vociferous that the state was forced to delay its implementation to give school districts more time to warm up to the idea.

Meanwhile, the state is moving forward with developing the graduation test, dipping into a $54 million allocation to pay for it.

The state expects to spend $36 million a year on the testing and related programs.

At the same time, the state Department of Education plans to develop a model curriculum for teachers to follow for each subject being tested.

A practice graduation test could be ready for school districts to try - on a voluntary basis - by the 2009-2010 school year.

Yet state officials may be getting a little ahead of themselves.

Opposition to a graduation test remains strong at the local level, and the proposal still must pass muster with the state Legislature.

Prospects of that happening appear slim. A test vote opposing the measure passed the state Senate recently by a 48-2 vote.

A graduation test contains two fundamental problems.

First, it assumes that all students study the same curriculum and master the same bodies of knowledge. But that certainly is not the case. From school to school, and classroom to classroom, class content varies.

There also is a problem with timing - the test comes too late to do anything for the student, except identify failure. While there is value in spotting students who are not up to grade at any point, it is far better to do so in a way that allows teachers to intervene along the way and plug gaps in learning. That's what the PSSA test already does.

A graduation test isn't going to make a student any smarter. It diminishes the work and study that a student has accomplished over 12 years of school.

Money poured into a graduation test could better be spent elsewhere to improve student performance.

State officials should jettison plans for such a test and stick with what they already have.

(Copyright 2008 Lancaster Newspapers. All rights reserved.)

(c) 2008 Lancaster New Era. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

Source: Lancaster New Era

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