Share:
Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2013 - 2014
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | June 11, 2014 11:15 AM |
|---|---|
| From: | Senator Andrew E. Dinniman and Sen. Robert M. Tomlinson, Sen. Mike Folmer, Sen. James R. Brewster |
| To: | All Senate members |
| Subject: | Limitations on Assessments |
This bill (SB1382) eliminates the recent State Board of Education regulation that requires all students to pass three-high stakes exams (based on the new Common Core curriculum) in order to graduate from a public high school in Pennsylvania. The legislation returns the control of whether a student meets the qualifications for graduation back to the local school district where it has always been. It respects local control. This means the school district could decide to exclude test score entirely in its graduation requirement, could decide to weight it as one third of their requirement or weight it as any percentage the school entity wanted. If a school district decides to include passing of the test as a full or partial requirement for graduation, it could also decide on the appropriate level of remediation to be given. Please understand that while Pennsylvania is required to have three Keystone Exams (Algebra, Literature and Biology) under its NCLB federal waiver, it is not required under federal regulations or its waiver to use these tests for graduation. This graduation requirement was added by former Secretary of Education Ron Tomalis without consultation or approval of the legislature. You should seriously consider signing on this legislation if you answer “yes” to any of the following statements: I do not believe that graduating from high school should be determined on the passing of three high-stakes tests. I oppose unfunded mandates and have a real concern with a State Board of Education regulation that will result in a $300 million unfunded mandate on our schools. I do not believe it is fair to stamp failure on students who, because of budget cuts (as in the City of Philadelphia), do not have an equal opportunity to learn the material to be tested. I do not want teaching to the tests to replace the teaching of a traditional broad-based curriculum, which includes the arts and other subjects. School Boards, school superintendents, parents, teachers and students across the Commonwealth have called for a halt to these graduation tests and the millions of dollars in the cost for this unfunded mandate. Now is not the time to add millions of dollars in expenses to our schools. |