Keystone Exam graduation requirement delayed

A bill signed by the governor Wednesday morning is taking weight off the shoulders of some local school district administrators, teachers, students and parents.

Superintendents said it’s allowing graduation requirements to be determined by school leaders, instead of state officials, and saving taxpayers money in the meantime.

Senate Bill 880 delays the graduation requirement associated with the Keystone Exams for two years, until the 2018-19 school year.

The Keystones are a set of tests for secondary school students that measure algebra, biology and literacy, and are intended to prepare students for college and the workforce.

“While we should have high academic and educational standards in the commonwealth, there have been issues with the implementation of the Keystone Exams, which is why I am signing a bill to delay their use as a graduation requirement,” Gov. Tom Wolf said in a prepared statement. “My administration is currently engaging teachers, administrators and students, community leaders, stakeholders and advocates from around the state to develop a comprehensive school accountability system that will support schools and help Pennsylvania students succeed.”

Bill effects

Philipsburg-Osceola Area School District Superintendent Gregg Paladina said he anticipated the move for several months.

“It was proposed by the (state) Department of Education back in June and it impacts our district by giving us two years to prepare for the Keystones, and find alternate ways to specifically help those students who don’t pass the Keystones,” he said. “We can determine options for remediation and other things to get them through it successfully, while still addressing areas of concern. We’re still business as usual, but we have options.”

Paladina said P-O has seen a 5 percent increase in the past three years in students who test at least proficient in the Keystones.

“It’s not that we’re going to put less emphasis on it — it’s still part of my evaluation, but there is wiggle room,” he said. “The bottom line is we test our kids far too much, but this takes the weight off the students and parents and school districts, so we can devote time to class instruction that often teaches to the test.”

Potential benefits

In addition to delaying the use of Keystone Exams as a graduation requirement, Wolf spokesman Jeff Sheridan said legislation requires the state Department of Education to investigate alternative methods for students to demonstrate proficiency for graduation beyond the use of the Keystones.

Officials must present their findings within six months to the leaders of the House and Senate education committees, he said.

What Paladina called an “underfunded mandate” forced some local districts to hire teachers to specifically help in the remediation of the students who did not pass the exam.

School districts provide a separate remediation class for those students.

And those positions to fill the class were not necessarily funded in district budgets.

“It’s a big monetary drain, and ends up on the taxpayers because we’d have to hire more staff for this,” he said.

Eliminating that — or finding an alternative way to help failing students — could save districts money, Paladina said.

It also opens up class availability for students.

State College Area Superintendent Bob O’Donnell said students who fail the Keystones won’t necessarily need to go through a remediation class since teachers will already target skills in general class curriculum needed to be successful.

“By potentially taking that (remediation) away, they will have flexibility in their schedule to take another class like an elective,” O’Donnell said.

Penns Valley Area Superintendent Brian Griffith said remediation classes could be replaced by project-based assessments that were proposed by the Department of Education — not to replace the Keystones, but implement with students after they fail the test.

Penns Valley Area has its own set of assessments in addition to using Keystone grades to determine if a student is ready to graduate, Griffith said.

State College Area will still use Keystone exam scores to determine graduation requirements unless the nine-member school board votes to change the requirement, O’Donnell said.

“It’s a step forward in putting some of the control back into the local community,” O’Donnell said.

Graduation rates

The percentage of students who graduate in districts like Philipsburg-Osceola and Penns Valley is in the low to mid-90s, varying by year.

But neither district’s administrators think graduation rates will increase now that students know the Keystones are not a graduation requirement.

“Students leave school for different reasons, and regardless of the test, we do everything we can to get them through,” Paladina said. “Our district will still be evaluated based on Keystone Exam scores, and those students who don’t test well will still need to go through some kind of remediation. I think that’s an incentive for them to try to do their best.”

But the main theme administrators said they like is that the law puts more accountability onto districts.

“One thing doesn’t determine who can succeed, and we need to get back to a more local control,” Griffith said.

This story was originally published February 3, 2016 at 7:05 PM with the headline "Keystone Exam graduation requirement delayed."