The State Board of Education is scheduled this week to discuss and act on a draft of the revised testing policy that could make way for Gov. Tom Corbett's plan to scale back the end-of-course tests. Vote in the NEWS POLL.
Pennsylvania's Keystone Exams may again be changing.
Gov. Tom Corbett’s Fiscal Year 2013 budget proposal calls for scaling back the end-of-course exams from 10 to three and axing the mandate that makes the exam count toward one-third of a student’s grade.
Wednesday, the State Board of Education is scheduled to discuss and act on a draft of the revised testing policy that could make way for Corbett’s plan.
Lehigh Valley educators support the idea of end-of-course exams, which they say are better measures of student knowledge than current standardized testing. But, school officials said, the fluid nature of the Keystone Exams has been exasperating.
Saucon Valley Assistant Superintendent Carl Atkinson, who strongly supports the concept of the tests, accuses the state of poor communication.
“The state has been all over the map on this …,” Atkinson said. “It really has been a moving target. It has been extremely frustrating for us at the local level to try to do any planning.”Testing in three areas
Corbett proposes requiring students to score proficient on the algebra I, biology and English literature Keystone Exams starting with the class of 2017, which enters eighth-grade next school year, said Tim Eller, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Education. If the changes are enacted, advanced students could be taking Keystones next spring.
Plans had called for students to score proficient on six of 10 possible Keystone Exams, which would count for one-third of a student’s grade. It was to start with the class of 2015.
“It’s a very different proposal now than what it was when it was originally proposed,” Atkinson said of the exams, which were approved in 2009 after four years of development.Creating, implementing and administering multiple Keystone Exams comes with a big price tag, Eller said. Corbett’s plan hits the core subjects and ensures students are career- and college-ready. Talks continue in Harrisburg over expanding the number of exams, Eller said.
“There have been positive ongoing discussions to expand the number of exams in the more-distant future,” Eller said.District officials say they like that the state wants to use the Keystone Exams to replace the 11th-grade Pennsylvania System of School Assessment reading and math tests.
Pennsylvania applied to the U.S. Department of Education on April 25 asking to make the switch, Eller said.
With the Keystones, students are tested at the end of a course when the material is fresh, not years later as with the PSSAs. It also gives students a stake in testing, Atkinson said.
“I think that is a step in the right direction,” said Jack Silva, the Bethlehem Area School District’s assistant superintendent for education. “I like the Keystone Exams. Three are better than none.”'Nothing is official'
Silva supports less PSSA testing for students but said he wishes Pennsylvania had opted to just use the tests associated with the national common core standards the state adopted.
The frequent changes surrounding the Keystone Exams have stopped Bethlehem from taking final steps to comply, but Silva said he is confident the district’s been preparing for the changes for years.
“The changing details are not getting in the way of the big-picture changes we have had to develop at the high school,” he said.Bangor Area School District Superintendent Patricia Mulroy called the three exams a great start and said she feels her district will be ready.
“We have to be very cautious before they are actually regulated on how quickly you move,” Mulroy said.Districts won’t know what Keystones students must take until the state budget passes. The deadline is June 30 but it’s often been missed in recent years.
“Nothing is official until the budget passes,” Eller said.