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Pennsylvania State Senate
05/07/2024 04:37 AM
Pennsylvania State Senate
https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?chamber=S&SPick=20210&cosponId=37298
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Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2021 - 2022 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted: May 4, 2022 02:32 PM
From: Senator Scott Martin
To: All Senate members
Subject: Temporary Graduation Pathway for Students Impacted by COVID Testing Waivers
 
In the very near future I will introduce legislation that will offer students impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic Keystone testing waivers with a temporary pathway to graduation.

In 2018, the legislature expanded the options available to students to meet the statewide requirements to graduate high school.  One of these options is a three-score composite pathway, which requires a student to earn at least a combined score of 4452 on the Algebra, Biology, and Literature Keystone Exams.  One of the scores must be at least a “Proficient” and the remaining two scores must not be less than “Basic”.  The composite score is calculated by the Department of Education and ratified by the State Board of Education and can only be changed by an act of the General Assembly.

In 2020, the Trump administration waived statewide assessments and our General Assembly passed Act 136, which provided each student who was taking and passed a Keystone trigger course with an automatic “Proficient” score on the waived exam.  However, there was no numeric score assigned to the student’s score and so these students could no longer pursue the three-score composite pathway unless they opted to retest.

To assist these students, this legislation will create a new, temporary two-score composite pathway for students impacted by the waivers issued under Act 136.  Students using this graduation pathway will be required to take two out of the three Keystone exams and earn one score of at least a “Proficient” and one score of at least “Basic” on those two exams.  The composite score would be calculated by the Department of Education and ratified by the State Board of Education as was done for the three-score composite pathway.

Students excused from taking a Keystone exam in 2020 should not be inadvertently prevented from pursuing one of our graduation pathways.  Please join me in co-sponsoring this legislation to provide this much needed remedy to our students and schools.


Introduced as SB1244