Bill Text: PA SR156 | 2009-2010 | Regular Session | Amended

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Bill Title: Encouraging the State Board of Education to adopt the final-form regulation, Reg. No. 006-312, establishing new high school graduation requirements, and development of voluntary Keystone Exams for use by school districts in this Commonwealth to ensure our high school graduates are ready to compete in the 21st century in our global economy and succeed in the arena of higher education.

Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2009-08-19 - Re-referred to APPROPRIATIONS [SR156 Detail]

Download: Pennsylvania-2009-SR156-Amended.html

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PRIOR PRINTER'S NO. 1335 PRINTER'S NO. 1353
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
SENATE RESOLUTION
No. 156 Session of2009
INTRODUCED BY PICCOLA AND DINNIMAN, JULY 23, 2009
SENATOR PICCOLA, EDUCATION, AS AMENDED, JULY 28, 2009
A RESOLUTION
Encouraging the State Board of Education to adopt the final-form
regulation, Reg. No. 006-312, establishing new high school
graduation requirements, and development of voluntary
Keystone Exams for use by school districts in this
Commonwealth to ensure our high school graduates are ready to
compete in the 21st century in our global economy and succeed
in the arena of higher education.
WHEREAS, A February 2009 study by The Pennsylvania State
University found that many of this Commonwealth's 500 school
districts failed to appropriately measure whether their students
can perform at the 11th grade level in reading and math in order
to award high school diplomas; and
WHEREAS, One in three high school graduates requires
remediation in math or English in the Pennsylvania State System
of Higher Education universities and community colleges, costing
taxpayers $24 million annually; and
WHEREAS, In the 2006-2007 school year, 43% of the students
who graduated from Pennsylvania high schools had not scored at
grade level in the 11th grade math and reading Pennsylvania
System of School Assessment (PSSA); and
WHEREAS, Pennsylvania began moving toward a system of
accountability in public education with Executive Order 1996-6
on September 30, 1996, which formed the Governor's Advisory
Commission on Academic Standards; and
WHEREAS, This strong commitment to building accountability
has been bipartisan through Republican and Democratic
administrations; and
WHEREAS, The first set of standards, Reading, Writing,
Speaking and Listening and Mathematics, went into effect January
16, 1999; and
WHEREAS, The PSSA was developed in the 2000-2001 school year
to assess the academic standards and became the mechanism by
which the Commonwealth complies with the No Child Left Behind
Act of 2001 (NCLB); and
WHEREAS, As a natural extension of the creation of the
standards and first level of assessments in the system of
accountability for the almost $23 billion of Federal, State and
local dollars spent each year on public education, the State
Board of Education in May 2007 announced its plans to consider
the development of Graduation Competency Assessments (GCAs); and
WHEREAS, From May 2007 through May 2008, the State Board of
Education held 22 meetings and public hearings with legislators,
parents, teachers, students, administrators, school board
members, business leaders and taxpayers and heard testimony and
concerns regarding GCAs; and
WHEREAS, In May 2008, the State Board of Education published
proposed regulations implementing GCAs and received 934 letters,
e-mails and resolutions in response to the proposed regulations;
and
WHEREAS, From May 2008 through May 2009, the State Board of
Education had 15 additional meetings and public hearings and
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many informal discussions with education stakeholders, parents,
business leaders, students and taxpayers; and
WHEREAS, From February 2009 through July 2009, the Education
Committee of the Senate held three public hearings on GCAs; and
WHEREAS, As a result of the debates and deliberate
discussions arising out of the many meetings, public hearings,
informal discussions and legislative hearings, the chairman of
the State Board of Education engaged in developing a compromise
proposal in an attempt to find a resolution to the contentious
issue; and
WHEREAS, In July 2009, the chairman of the State Board of
Education announced a compromise on GCAs developed after
conversations with at least 60 legislators and education
stakeholders providing for development of voluntary Keystone
Exams; and
WHEREAS, The resulting compromise has the potential to
accomplish three purposes, serving as an end of course
examination in ten subject areas, satisfying NCLB Adequate
Yearly Progress requirements and replacing local assessments
where a school district voluntarily chooses to adopt the use of
the Keystone Exams; and
WHEREAS, The Keystone Exams would be optional for school
districts to use, counting as one-third of a student's overall
portfolio to pass a course, and the exams would be administered
at the completion of a subject, in some cases as early as the
7th grade; and
WHEREAS, The Keystone Exams would replace the 11th grade PSSA
for NCLB requirements, thus freeing up 18 hours of testing in
the classroom that can then be used for classroom instruction,
while allowing school districts the option of using one test in
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place of three tests, including the current PSSA, local
assessments and classroom exams; and
WHEREAS, Classroom instruction will no longer be geared to
"teaching to the test," but rather the test will lead to and
reflect a renewed direction of student learning of the curricula
through the Department of Education's development of model
curricula and diagnostic tools; and
WHEREAS, School districts would be permitted to continue
using local assessments if the assessments are aligned to State
standards and validated, with the Commonwealth and school
districts splitting the cost of the validation; and
WHEREAS, In addition to being allowed to continue to use
local validated assessments, school districts would also be
permitted to substitute successful passage of Advanced Placement
or International Baccalaureate exams in place of utilizing
Keystone Exams; and
WHEREAS, The new Keystone Exams will be phased in over an
eight-year period, spreading out the costs for the exams, which
will allow the Commonwealth to realize savings through the
elimination of the 11th grade PSSAs, provide the opportunity to
seek Federal funding to help offset costs associated with the
exams and redirect close to $40 million to other educational
programs; and
WHEREAS, The proposed compromise gives districts the
discretion to allow students who perform at an advanced level on
any particular Keystone Exam prior to taking a course to "test
out" of the course and be granted course credits without needing
to take the course; and
WHEREAS, The compromise recognizes that some students do not
test well on standardized tests by permitting alternative
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pathways based upon the Maryland Bridge Plan for students who
have difficulty learning, recognizing the need to continue
alternative measures of proficiency for students with an
Individual Educational Individualized Education Program and <--
providing for a waiver by the Secretary of Education for
extenuating circumstances; therefore be it
RESOLVED, That the Senate encourage the State Board of
Education to adopt the final-form regulation, Reg. No. 006-312,
to provide accountability for the almost $23 billion of Federal,
State and local dollars spent annually on public education and
to ensure that the Pennsylvania high school diploma provides
graduates with the tools to compete in the 21st century and to
succeed in the arena of higher education.
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