High school students in Harford County are about to sweat out four days of high-stakes standardized tests they must now pass in order to graduate.
Beginning with the class of 2009 ? currently nearing the end of the ninth grade ? Maryland students must pass four state-mandated High School Assessments in English, algebra, government and biology in order to receive their diploma.
The HSAs will be given May 22 – 25, beginning with the English exam and ending with biology.
About 65 percent of Harford County students passed each of the four tests in 2005, said Tom Ackerman, assistant supervisor of the Office of Accountability. Those scores fell from around 70 percent in 2004, according to the Maryland State Department of Education.
While that means just less than two-thirds of the class would be cleared for graduation on their first try, schools will create new programs for getting the students who failed up to speed for a second try, Ackerman said.
Because the HSAs are not part of federal No Child Left Behind assessments, teachers are less pressured than they would be during other standardized testing, said Harford County Schools spokesman Don Morrison.
“Theoretically, if the teachers have covered the curriculum, they?ll have finished the instructional preparation for this test,” said Dave Volrath, Harford?s Executive Director of Secondary Education.
While the exams create a set of standards each student must meet to pass, the material in the test has typically been woven into schools? lessons, Volrath said.
“We really don?t want our curriculum to deteriorate into nothing but testing, and teaching to the test,” he said.
Given previous scandals around the state with teachers and students cheating on standardized tests, officials are being “extra vigilant,” Volrath said.
