9486 in the collection
Alternate Route to Diploma Proposed in Maryland
Ohanian Comment: It is still too early to classify this Page One story as "Good News," but it looks to be a move in that direction. The outrage is that there is no trust of teacher records: 12 years of a student's school work.
By Nelson Hernandez
BALTIMORE, Aug. 28 -- Maryland high school students who are unable to pass a set of exams required for graduation could instead submit projects to demonstrate their mastery of academic subjects, under a plan introduced Tuesday by State School Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick.
Students in the Class of 2009 (this year's juniors) and those who follow must pass the exams in algebra, English, biology and government -- or earn an adequate composite score on them -- to graduate.
Grasmick offered her alternative because she is concerned that hundreds of students could be denied diplomas based on a single set of tests, rather than on their mastery of the subject.
She announced her proposal and discussed this year's results of the High School Assessments at a State Board of Education meeting in Baltimore. She said that the number of students who would be affected by the proposal, known as the "Bridge Plan for Academic Validation," would be small and that most students would be able to pass the tests without assistance.
The state did not release its data, but local jurisdictions reported that overall pass rates on the test for the Class of 2009 ranged from about two-thirds in Prince George's County to higher than 80 percent in Howard County.
Opponents of the tests say thousands of students -- particularly in Baltimore and Prince George's County -- are at risk of being denied diplomas, and some state lawmakers have been calling for the testing system to be examined and perhaps made more lenient.
Supporters of the exams, including Grasmick, have warned that weakening the requirements would devalue high school diplomas and render students unable to compete in the global marketplace.
Charles County Superintendent James E. Richmond said Grasmick's proposal provides flexibility for struggling students.
"It's not letting any student off the hook, and it's not dumbing it down or watering it down," he said. "But as you know, some kids can do things one way and others can do it a different way."
School officials and outside experts were receptive to the Bridge Plan but warned that the state would need to enforce high standards for the projects. The options would be limited to seniors who have failed the tests several times, state officials said.
Most states that use exit exams -- about half do -- have some mechanism for dealing with students who fail repeatedly, said Mike Cohen, president of Achieve, a nonprofit organization that helps states set educational standards. But the methods vary widely.
In Massachusetts, students who have failed the test but done well in coursework can appeal. Only a small percentage of students have relied on the appeal. But in New Jersey, about 12 percent of all graduates, and one-third of all graduates in some urban districts, have relied on alternative assessments, according to a report this month by the Education Law Center, a New Jersey-based advocacy group.
"It is a loophole that you could drive a truck through," Cohen said.
Grasmick said that although local school systems would be responsible for designing the projects, the state would ensure that the standards were equal to those of the tests.
"It would have to be much more than a book report," Grasmick said of the projects. "It is going to be rigorous."
Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) called Grasmick's plan "interesting" but said in an interview that he had not been consulted or briefed about it before its release. O'Malley said the move sounded like a response to an "overly ambitious" testing program that presents some thorny issues.
"You don't want to create a workforce where a number of young people are unemployable because they haven't mastered basic high school skills, and at the same time, you don't want to make a number of kids unemployable because they haven't been able to get a high school diploma," O'Malley said.
Local school officials said they wanted more details but were receptive to the plan.
"Once you go through several takings of a test, not everybody's going to be able to jump the same hurdles the same way," Richmond said. "But if you reach a handful that can demonstrate through a project that's been approved and very much guarded by the school, that's one way of providing another way the kids can make this."
State officials contended that the data showed that a relatively small number of students would be affected by the Bridge Plan and that the vast majority of Maryland students were on track to pass the tests.
Officials estimated that about 55,000 students will graduate with the Class of 2009; about 51,000 students have passed the algebra exam, and the remaining 4,000 have two more years and several more opportunities to pass it. They said the results on the algebra test were comparable to results on the other three tests and noted that some students would fail to graduate, regardless of the tests.
The state school system did not provide its usual testing data, saying that its data were distorted by a large increase in students taking the test for the second time, as well as students for whom the test does not count. For example, students from the Class of 2008 who had been held back were included in the state data, making it difficult to assess how many students in each graduating class still need to pass each test.
The state left it to each jurisdiction to release assessment data, because local school systems can track students more easily.
In Prince George's, about two-thirds of the 7,300 students from the Class of 2009 have passed the tests, county officials said. In English, the pass rate was 68 percent; in biology, 62.1 percent; in government, 73.7 percent; and in algebra, 65.5 percent.
John E. Deasy, the Prince George's superintendent, said he was pleased by the results. His analysis showed that six of the county's high schools would exit "school improvement" status -- a federal classification for schools that are having difficulty on state tests; none will enter that status.
Nevertheless, he said, he was interested in the alternative method proposed by Grasmick, so long as it maintains rigorous standards for his students.
"It deserves serious consideration," he said.
Staff writers Daniel de Vise, Philip Rucker and John Wagner contributed to this report.
Washington Post
2007-08-29
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
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