School Board Discusses, Again, Changing the Graduation Requirements to Boost Test Scores

Recently on Blog-Lebo, we had a lively discussion about a proposed change to the school district's graduation requirements. The change would require students to score "proficient" or better on the state-mandated PSSA exams to graduate.

The proposal was discussed further at this Monday's school-board meeting, where it was presented as offering remediation to students who were having trouble with the tests.

Some, including school-board director Mary Birks, saw the proposal in a different light, however: as a means to boost the school district's declining rankings by putting more pressure on students. The Post-Gazette:

School director Mary D. Birks spoke strongly against the proposal, calling it "reactive in nature" and designed to boost the school district's placement in the Pittsburgh Business Times rankings.

It's a tricky issue. School-board director Jo Posti writes on her blog about the subtleties of the proposal and Monday's discussion:

Some may look at this change as a response to Mt. Lebanon's rankings among other high-performing districts in the area. In a way, it is. If we're being compared to other districts by the Pittsburgh Business Times and others on the basis of PSSA scores, we obviously want our students to approach the tests with the same level of attention that they approach final exams or SATs. Final exams and SATs are tests that many students feel a more direct impact from, though. There's currently no incentive to perform well on the PSSAs. As a student, your grade isn't impacted, your college career isn't affected and the PSSAs taken during eleventh grade are one of a multitude of stress-inducers during a milestone year.

My understanding is that there are two groups of students who do poorly on the tests: those who are genuinely struggling and those who are doing well but blow off the tests because the tests don't affect college prospects. This proposed change is designed to motivate that second group to take the tests seriously.

In effect, then, this change will require the second group of students to work harder for a benefit that mostly goes to the school district itself. Is that fair?

Again, it's not so simple. While the test may not affect the students' prospects directly, it may do so indirectly. The school's reputation probably does carry over to the students. Enhancing that reputation, then, benefits the students – all students, not just those in that second group.

Also, and this is something school-board director Dale Ostergaard pointed out on Monday, adopting this change will eliminate a source of confounding and make our scores more directly comparable to those of other districts. As a result, we may be better able to isolate and improve weak areas in our educational programs.

In any case, I don't see how the school district can avoid adopting the change. As long as other schools do things to boost their scores (and they do), we will be forced to do likewise to remain competitive.

This change in graduation requirements is up for vote at the regular meeting of the school board on Monday, 16 August, 2010.

Read more:

• Mt. Lebanon considers remediation for test-takers (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
• PSSAs as a Graduation Requirement (School Board Director Jo Posti)