Schools

Greetings,

Please be aware that within a short time Pennsylvania's high school students may be required to pass high school Graduation Competency Assessments (GCA), unless they receive special education support services, to graduate from high school with a regular diploma. The goal of students obtaining a meaningful diploma is certainly just, all things being equal. Read on to get a bit of background information on this rather new regulation that is designed to follow the No Child Left Behind law, which supposes nearly 100% of all students will be proficient in math, reading, writing, and science by 2014. By 2015 students will be required to prove proficiency in all core content courses in order to graduate, and this could prove detrimental to students who have fallen in the achievement gap and can't get out--unless we push to ensure academic success for all students now.

Please follow this example of why this regulation stands to shift education as we know it today, particularly for African Americans (and summarily throughout Pennsylvania). The 2008 PSSA scores indicate that only 28% of the black eighth graders who took the science PSSA's scored proficient or better; the score for eleventh graders was 11%. Eighth graders scored higher in math proficiency at 68.8% and reading at 83.3%; while eleventh graders scored 36.1% and 52.7% respectively (this year's seniors). I broached this issue with a LMSD teacher who implied that there might not be much to be concerned about given rising ninth graders were doing better than previous years. Fair enough. However, somehow black students seem to lose academic equity when they get to high school and this is not the case for white students. Compare the 2008 eleventh grade black student proficiency PSSA math score of 36.1% to the 2002 score of 35% (not much change in six years); although the reading scores have risen during the same period from 31% to 53% proficiency levels (still below the 63% target). Finally, according to the PA Dept. of Education, [|www.paayp.com], the total aggregate of black student achievement as evidenced by the 2007-08 scores for grades 3-11 are reflected by a -5.3 point drop from 2007 levels in reading proficiency scores to 60.5%, and a slight decline by -1.3% to 61.8% in mathematics (black elementary students scored very well in math/reading thus raising the mean of all grades for blacks).

Please become knowledgeable about this matter while we can impact it. There's a lot to be done all across the state to ensure education equity for all students, particularly if the end result is such a high stakes matter.

PSEA gives us their overview of the matter... Key Issue: High School Graduation Requirements/Exit Exams Updated March 15, 2009 BACKGROUND: The Pennsylvania Department of Education previously proposed regulations requiring students to take subject-specific “graduation competency assessments” in addition to the already mandated Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests in reading, writing, math, and science. Students would have to pass one set of these state tests to graduate. Beginning in 2014, students who failed to score proficient on the PSSAs would have been required to take and pass the GCAs or risk being unable to graduate. PDE also previously proposed limiting the use of local assessments to standardized tests.

In March 2009, in light of legislative opposition, PDE, the chair of the State Board of Education, and the Pennsylvania School Boards Association (PSBA) announced an agreement as an alternative: a battery of new GCA tests, re-named “Keystone Exams.” The exams would be developed in various subject areas, including English, math, sciences, and social studies. Passing those tests would show that a student had met the standards in that area. Good scores on Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate tests would also meet the graduation requirement. The PDE-PSBA proposal would also permit a local assessment, if validated by a panel of state and local officials. The cost of that validation would be shared by the state and the local district. The plan is to be formally proposed by the state Board of Education this summer. If it goes through the regulatory process successfully, it would apply to seniors graduating in June 2015. Students who failed the “Keystone Exams” would get remedial help and retake them, according to PDE, although state officials have not proposed any direct funding to districts to assist with the required remediation.

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” Albert Einstein