College & Workforce Readiness

Pennsylvania Board Approves New Exit Requirements

By Catherine Gewertz — January 17, 2008 4 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

The Pennsylvania state board of education has approved a new set of graduation requirements that would allow districts to offer four ways for students to prove their academic proficiency.

The panel’s unanimous vote Jan. 17 to change state regulations was an attempt to close what state officials viewed as loopholes in the way diplomas are conferred, but still preserve the state’s tradition of local school district control.

Board Chairman Karl Girton hailed the new rules as signaling an end to the “rubber yardstick” by which districts have been allowed to measure student proficiency.

“We want students with a basic set of skills and knowledge they need to engage in higher-order thinking skills and reason their way through complex problems,” he said.

If given final approval by a regulatory-review board and legislative education committees, the new regulations would take effect with the class of 2014. They would let the state’s 501 school districts keep using either of the two options they now have: a locally designed assessment, or the state’s standardized Pennsylvania System of School Assessment, the PSSA.

Districts would have two additional choices: To get a diploma, students could submit Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate test results, or they could pass six end-of-course exams designed by the state.

Districts could offer any combination of the four options.

Those offering the locally designed assessment would have to pay for a rigorous review by state-screened auditors to ensure that those assessments were aligned to state standards. An earlier proposal to eliminate the local option sparked widespread opposition.

Pennsylvania appears to be unique among states that have adopted some form of state-level exit exam as a graduation requirement. Twenty-six other states have enacted rules requiring such tests, but none of those allows a locally designed option, according to experts who study those policies. States requiring exit exams are increasingly favoring a battery of end-of-course tests over a comprehensive exam. (“States Mull Best Way to Assess Their Students for Graduation,” May 16, 2007.)

The existing local option had begun to cause concern in some quarters in the Keystone State, however. In a September report, the advocacy group Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children pointed out that in the class of 2006, only 55 percent of those graduating had passed the PSSAs.

The rest had secured diplomas through the local option, either because they had failed the PSSAs, or because the local assessment was the only test their districts used for graduation. Because the state didn’t regulate the local tests, many activists argued, those graduates’ skills are in question.

“What we’ve been doing is letting our young people graduate ill-prepared for what’s next,” Joan L. Benso, the president of Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children, said in a recent interview.

Too Many Tests?

Daniel W. Fogarty, the co-chairman of the gubernatorial commission that studied and proposed the changes, said the panel deliberately built supports into the package. He noted that the state would have to offer districts model curricula and assessments, and make sure that districts provide remedial help for students who fail the tests.

Many educators and groups object to the changes. The Pennsylvania School Boards Association opposes, among other provisions, the rules for the local option.

“It has to be validated in so many ways that it will end up looking like just another PSSA test, and it will be so expensive to do that it won’t even be an option” except for the wealthiest districts, said Timothy M. Allwein, a longtime lobbyist for the organization.

The 185,000-member Pennsylvania State Education Association, an affiliate of the National Education Association, advocates addressing the graduation-competency problem by providing targeted technical assistance to districts.

“Just adding more tests won’t do anything to help districts,” said Jerry Oleksiak, the union’s treasurer.

Jack Maguire, the supervisor of the humanities curriculum in the 7,000-student Lower Merion district in Ardmore, just west of Philadelphia, said he fears that the abundance of tests would narrow high school curricula to focus only on that content. He also expressed concern that students would feel overwhelmed by so many tests.

“How many tests can you give a kid?” he said. “If you’re going to give exit exams, at least let districts opt out of the PSSA, or cancel it [in grade 11].”

Mark Roosevelt, the superintendent of the 31,000-student Pittsburgh school district, said he supports the new rules because they would help ensure that diplomas signify a certain baseline of academic skill. Even though half his district’s students graduate through the local option, he was confident the district could ready all students for the tougher requirements by the time the rules took effect.

“It’s our job to move our kids to whatever the standards are,” he said. “It’s our job to motivate kids, families, and everybody to understand that it’s important.”

Jacqueline L. Cullen, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of Career and Technical Administrators, said the new rules could pressure districts to pull back from career, technical, and vocational education in favor of academic coursework.

“This could affect these kids’ ability to become competent in the careers they’ve chosen, and you could see more kids dropping out,” she said.

The Education Law Center, a Philadelphia-based advocacy group for disadvantaged students, contends that chronic underfunding of schools, outlined in a recent legislative study, makes it unreasonable to ratchet up testing requirements.

“It is fundamentally unfair to deny a high school diploma to students who, due to underfunding, have not received a quality education,” Baruch Kintisch, an ELC staff lawyer, said in written testimony for a Jan. 9 state board hearing.

A version of this article appeared in the January 23, 2008 edition of Education Week

Events

Federal Webinar The Trump Budget and Schools: Subscriber Exclusive Quick Hit
EdWeek subscribers, join this 30-minute webinar to find out what the latest federal policy changes mean for K-12 education.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Curriculum Webinar
End Student Boredom: K-12 Publisher's Guide to 70% Engagement Boost
Calling all K-12 Publishers! Student engagement flatlining? Learn how to boost it by up to 70%.
Content provided by KITABOO
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
School & District Management
Moving the Needle on Attendance: What’s Working NOW
See how family engagement is improving attendance, and how to put it to work in schools.
Content provided by TalkingPoints

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

College & Workforce Readiness High School Grads Lack Clarity on Next Steps, Survey Shows
Recent high school graduates share insights on what would have changed their trajectory in a new survey.
4 min read
Genny Willis, the Academy Teacher instructor at Smyrna High School, listens to a roundtable of students in the program in a classroom in Smyrna, Del., on Oct. 15, 2024. At Smyrna High School, there are career pathways and experimental learning opportunities to help students use practical applications towards careers after graduating high school, which can include internships, advanced classes, and specific on the job training.
Genny Willis, an instructor at Smyrna High School in Smyrna, Del., listens to a roundtable of students on Oct. 15, 2024. At Smyrna High School, there are career pathways and experimental learning opportunities to help students use practical applications towards careers after graduating high school, which can include internships, advanced classes, and specific on-the-job training.
Michelle Gustafson for Education Week
College & Workforce Readiness Q&A How Schools and Businesses Can Work Better Together
Businesses and schools often don't understand each other's needs.
5 min read
Carter Crabtree, a Daviess County High School junior, learns to stack landscaping blocks with a mini excavator at a demonstration set up by Barnard Landscaping during the Homebuilder Association of Owensboro's annual Construction Career Day on April 24, 2025, in Owensboro, Ky.
Carter Crabtree, a Daviess County High School junior, learns to stack landscaping blocks with a mini excavator at a demonstration set up by Barnard Landscaping during the Homebuilder Association of Owensboro's annual Construction Career Day on Apr. 24, 2025, in Owensboro, Ky.
Greg Eans/The Messenger-Inquirer via AP
College & Workforce Readiness Colleges Will Give a Leg Up to Students Who Demonstrate Civility
A new program allows students to build a "civility transcript" for college through peer debates.
5 min read
Word bubbles of different sizes and abstract content arranged in a grid like pattern.
Vanessa Solis/Education Week + iStock
College & Workforce Readiness Opinion How One Organization Is Helping Grads Find Jobs
For students to succeed in school and careers, we need a new playbook.
6 min read
The United States Capitol building as a bookcase filled with red, white, and blue policy books in a Washington DC landscape.
Luca D'Urbino for Education Week