Graduation Exam Plan Sparks Great Debate

From the story: The plan to require Pennsylvania high school students to pass graduation competency exams will be the hot topic at a state Senate Education Committee hearing in Harrisburg today.

Much of today's testimony, including that of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association and the Pennsylvania State Education Association, is expected to be negative toward the state Board of Education's plan to require high school students to pass certain tests to graduate, beginning with the class of 2014.

The PSEA yesterday issued a release stating that 22 statewide organizations oppose the plan and 130 school boards have passed resolutions against it. Critics argue it's unfair to allow the tests alone to prevent graduation and that the state is taking away local control. Read more….

This may be the only time that I’ll ever agree with the PSBA and PSEA, but for different reasons. The assessment being used by the PA Dept. of Education, the PSSA, has a long sorry history of asking non-academic, psychological questions. It is subjectively scored, and last time that I looked, cost about 3 times as much as other comparable tests.

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