A law adopting statewide high school exams for graduation took effect in Pennsylvania on Saturday, with the goal of ensuring that students leaving high school are prepared for college and the workplace. But critics say the requirement has been so watered down that it is unlikely to have major impact.
"The real pattern in states has been that the standards are lowered so much that the exams end up not benefiting students who pass them while still hurting the students who fail them,” said John Robert Warren, an expert on exit exams and a professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.
Other states have used graduate exit exams, and many have lowered the standards so much that they are meaningless, wasting time, effort, and money, while still managing to hurt some students.
"Education officials in Pennsylvania estimate it will cost $176 million to develop and administer the tests and model curriculum through 2014-15, and about $31 million to administer each year after that."Since school districts do not have to adopt the state test, but can opt for their own evaluation methods, DVSD will need to decide how they will implement the new graduate evaluation requirement.
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