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Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2017 - 2018
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | April 25, 2018 12:39 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Senator Andrew E. Dinniman and Sen. John H. Eichelberger, Jr. |
| To: | All Senate members |
| Subject: | Legislation to End the Keystones as a Graduation Requirement |
| Please join the both of us in co-sponsoring this bill which would end the Keystone Exams as a graduation requirement. The PA Department of Education has stated that the Keystone tests are not a good predictor of career and college readiness. With this in mind, it makes no sense to maintain these tests as a graduation requirement. This requirement has also created an expansive unfunded mandate on our schools. We have already passed legislation that ends the Keystone graduation requirements for career and technology (CTE) students. This bill would end the graduation requirement for other students. It would enable us to review SB1095 and SB1145, alternate pathways to graduation, without having to be concerned about any form of Keystone exams in relation to graduation. This bill does nothing except end the Keystone graduation requirement. It does not change teacher evaluations, as a prior form of the bill proposed to do. It is time to listen to the clear voice of our educators, school board members, parents and students to end the Keystone graduation requirement. While we are ending the Keystones as a graduation requirement, the Keystones remain for purposes of Federal accountability based on the plan PDE submitted to the Federal government. The question of whether they Keystones are the best approach will be addressed in another bill soon to be introduced by Senator Aument, which calls for a study of this issue. |
Introduced as SB1177