School District Changes Graduation Requirements To Require PSSA Proficiency

As discussed earlier (and again) on Blog-Lebo, the school board has discussed changing the district's graduation requirements to place more emphasis on the PSSA exams. This change was recommended by the district's superintendent, Dr. Timothy Steinhauer, who said it would help motivate students to take the tests more seriously.

Last night, in a 6-2 vote, the school board adopted the change. On her blog, school-board director Jo Posti writes about it:

Last night, the Board passed a resolution to [revise] graduation requirements to include proficiency on the eleventh grade PSSAs with a 6-2 vote (Cappucci and Birks against, Fraasch absent)... This change adds a requirement that our competitor districts already require, provides remediation to students who require additional support in mastering subjects, and allows for a variety of methods to fulfill that remediation requirement should it be necessary. It will also, in my opinion, provide better motivation for students to demonstrate their capabilities to the best of their ability on a state-mandated test that is used to fulfill NCLB requirements for proficiency.

As I've written earlier, I think this change was inevitable. As long as other school districts work to maximize their test scores, our district will be forced to do likewise to remain competitive.

Read more:

• Revised Graduation Requirements (Center Court, Jo Posti's blog)
• Mt. Lebanon adds test to graduation requirements (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
• Mt. Lebanon makes passage of state test graduation requirement (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

Updated 2010-08-23 09:25: added link to Tribune-Review coverage. —Tom