Some children will never make it to a four-year college. Nor should they. Many students? aptitudes and interests make them much better suited to trade school or to two-year associate degrees. But it does not mean that they should be held to different standards in high school. That is just what state schools Superintendent Nancy Grasmick proposes.
Earlier this week she said some students should be allowed to do projects in place of mandatory High School Assessments.
Starting in 2009 Maryland law requires students to pass all four of the HSAs in order to graduate from high school.
Grasmick said the projects would be “rigorous,” highly monitored and that few would qualify for the projects ? about 1,200 throughout the state.
But how can the state ensure each project will be rigorous? And no cap would be placed on the number of students allowed to switch to projects. Other groups estimate the number of students who will not pass the state assessments to be in the thousands, so many more students may be eligible for them. Given that no one likes to take tests, we anticipate many more than 1,200 will attempt to dumb down standards for themselves to avoid them.
Learning to test well is part of growing up. Students will face many tests later in life ? first in college if they choose that option, but mainly in work and family life. No one will give them an easy pass then.
And changing the test certainly does not benefit the state?s employers, who increasingly will not know what skills a high school diploma brings and whose employees will be accustomed to special treatment.
Parents, teachers, students and school systems have known for years of the shift in graduation requirements starting in 2009. They should not chicken out now.
Besides, a surveylate last year by University of Baltimore?s Schaefer Center for Public Policy showed Marylanders agree with the requirements by large margins. Of the 800 Marylanders who took the survey, 85 percent said high schoolers should pass state tests to graduate.
The state Board of Education should reject the proposal when it considers it in October. Much more is at stake than students? self-esteem. Grasmick has shown courage in promoting reforms including higher pay for teachers in hard-to-staff subjects including math and science, and merit pay for high performing teachers ? both reforms that teachers? unions loathe.
But removing the HSA requirement only means more students not proficient in core subjects will graduate; more taxpayer money will be wasted on remedial classes in higher education; and ultimately ? fewer qualified people will enter the state work force. Who does that help?
