Editorial: Competency exam plan doesn’t make the grade

‘ ‘ ‘ High school graduates going to college simply aren’t prepared to be there. Of about… ‘ ‘ ‘ High school graduates going to college simply aren’t prepared to be there. Of about 62,000 recent graduates now attending Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education schools, more than 20,000 had to take remedial courses in high school-level subjects, according to a report from the Pennsylvania Department of Education. ‘ ‘ ‘ The report breaks down the costs of these remedial courses to students and taxpayers and concludes that more than $26 million are spent on coursework that students should be learning in high school. Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell has a solution: graduation competency exams. ‘ ‘ ‘ Under Rendell’s plan, which he has been pressing since early 2007, students would be required to pass six of 10 graduation competency exams to graduate. The tests would cover a variety of subjects including mathematics, English, science and social studies. ‘ ‘ ‘ Ostensibly the purpose of these tests is to ensure that students have mastered the core skills of high school before they move on to college or to join the workforce. But there are a number of problems with the proposal that make it all but completely unworkable. ‘ ‘ ‘ Most worrying is the amount of money it would cost the state to prepare and administer the examinations. Each test ‘mdash; except for one nationally devised algebra exam ‘mdash; would cost about $5 million to prepare, totalling $45 million for nine exams. ‘ ‘ ‘ Add in an additional $9 million to seek and review proposals from test-writing companies and the money it would take to administer each test across the state, and spending could easily top $60 million ‘mdash; all for a problem that, according to the Department of Education itself, only costs taxpayers $13.7 million in the first place. ‘ ‘ ‘ And considering the state is already facing a budget deficit in excess of $2.3 billion, according to Rendell’s projections, now might not be the best time to try to institute a costly system of student testing. ‘ ‘ ‘ Beside the obvious fiscal problems, the graduation competency exams simply aren’t a good idea. As No Child Left Behind has reminded us time and again, measuring students by standardized testing only encourages schools to teach to the test, rather than encouraging a balanced education. Students will spend more time preparing for tests and less time in extracurricular programs or non-curriculum education. ‘ ‘ ‘ The tests also seem to be promoting a very particular type of liberal arts education balanced between English, social studies, math and science, which students who study vocational trades or have a concentrated education plan may find difficult. Not every student has the same post-graduation goals, but lumping them all together as one group to fit graduation requirements ignores that fact. ‘ ‘ ‘ Rather than requiring more standardized testing that forces students near the end of their education to concentrate on learning the basic curriculum, it would be better if the state would increase funding for early childhood and middle school education so that students are prepared to learn the subjects they’re currently falling behind in. ‘ ‘ ‘ It’s clear that the graduation competency exams are a bloated and inefficient way for the state to measure student competency. The only real question is, why can’t the state’s leaders see that?