HARRISBURG – Penn State’s College of Education has found that only 18 of Pennsylvania’s 500 school districts – comprising less than 3 percent of the state’s total public school enrollment – appropriately measure whether their students can read and do math at the 11th grade level in order to award high school diplomas, according to a study released today.
“This study confirms that more than 80 percent of our students are enrolled in districts that have not demonstrated, according to the study, that every student is prepared for post-high school success,” Education Secretary Gerald L. Zahorchak said. “While I congratulate the 18 school districts that are leading the way, I believe that all of the commonwealth’s school board members, superintendents and teachers have the best interests of their students at heart.
“The findings in the Penn State study are not the result of an intentional effort on the part of local school districts to graduate students who are unprepared. To the contrary, the results of the Penn State study present an opportunity for school boards, superintendents and the Department of Education to learn about the reality of our system so we can work together to make graduation expectations more transparent for students and their parents and ensure the integrity of the high school diploma.”
In order to receive a high school diploma, Pennsylvania currently requires students to either pass the 11th grade PSSA in reading and math or, for students who do not pass the state test, to be “proficient” on their school district’s local assessment system. In 2007, approximately 56,000 students received a diploma even though they did not pass the PSSA in 11th grade or the retest given in 12th grade.
Twenty-six other states – which together educate more than 75 percent of the nation’s students – already have in place or are in the process of implementing clear expectations for graduation requirements. The Pennsylvania State Board of Education has proposed statewide high school graduation requirements that would provide a menu of ways for students to show that they have the academic skills to graduate starting with the Class of 2015, including a series of standard final exams in math, science, English and social studies that would be created and paid for by the state. The proposal would also allow districts to continue to use local assessments that are as least as rigorous as the state’s.
The Penn State study marks the first examination of existing local assessments used by school districts to award diplomas. A total of 418 school districts provided information for the study, and 79 failed to submit documents despite repeated requests from the Secretary of Education and Penn State researchers.
The Department of Education enlisted the research team at Penn State’s College of Education following requests from state legislators, the Independent Regulatory Review Commission, and state-level education groups. While the study was done at Zahorchak’s request, his staff played no role in reviewing or rating of the assessments. Instead, the assessments were reviewed and rated by eight panels made up of experienced public educators from across Pennsylvania.
The Penn State team spent several months reviewing nearly 1,000 assessments used by districts to measure proficiency in math and reading at the high school level using two criteria: whether the assessments measure 11th grade reading and math skills, and whether the assessments are conducted in a way that ensures the integrity of the results. For example, a local assessment that adequately measured 11th grade reading skills would fail the second test if it was made of up of questions that are publicly available on the Internet, or if a student could receive a diploma based on getting credit for passing the course even if they fail to demonstrate proficiency in the content.
“The researchers wanted to determine if a district had quality tools to measure student performance and, just as importantly, whether those tools were properly used,” Zahorchak explained.
In reading, 99 of the 500 school districts provided an assessment that measures 11th grade skills. Of those districts, only 19 use that assessment in a way that protects the integrity of the exam and is the basis for actually making graduation decisions.
In math, 314 school districts provided an assessment at the 11th grade level. Yet only 31 of those districts are using the assessments appropriately in deciding whether to award diplomas.
Based on this two-step review process, a total of 18 districts have appropriate assessments in reading and math and use those assessments consistently in the awarding of high school diplomas. Those districts had a collective enrollment in the 2007-08 school year of approximately 45,800 students of the more than 1.8 million public school students in the commonwealth.
For example, consider real math problems used by two school districts to determine whether a student should graduate:
District 1
A car has an original value of $20,000. The value decreases at a rate of 18% each year.
Part A – Write a function where f(x) represents the value of the car in dollars and the x represents years.
Part B – After how many years will the car be worth less than ½ of the original value? Show or explain your work.
District 2
Peter has 15 coins; some are quarters and the rest are nickels. If he has $2.95 in coins, how many nickels does he have?
a. 4
b. 5
c. 6
d. 9
e. 11
In addition, some districts indicated that they did not have local assessments, while others acknowledged using criteria such as student attendance or citizenship as a measure of proficiency. Many school districts relied on course grades to award diplomas, whether a student participates in tutoring (regardless of how well they do), or even practice tests or assessments from other states.
“In the public discussion of graduation requirements, some questioned if we knew just how many students were in districts that were lacking solid tools for measuring graduate readiness,” Zahorchak said. “This study gives us a definite answer – an answer that indicates Pennsylvania as a state needs to do much more to make sure its high school graduates are ready.”
The Penn State study of local assessments echoes the findings of several other reports issued in recent months about graduate preparedness. Among them:
Research presented to the State Board of Education in January found one in three Pennsylvania high school graduates who enrolls in a state-owned university or community college cannot pass a first-year college math or English course, and the failure of our high schools to prepare those students costs taxpayers more than $26 million annually.
The national “Quality Counts” report released last month found Pennsylvania trails behind 25 other states in the percentage of adults who hold a post-secondary degree, despite having one of the strongest high school graduation rates in the nation. This disturbing disparity indicates we are graduating students from our high schools who are struggling to achieve the success of their peers in many other states.
Science scores released in December as part of the 2008 Pennsylvania System of School Assessment showed two out of three Pennsylvania high school students enter 12th grade without the science skills necessary to succeed in the high-tech global economy.
“It is time for Pennsylvania to join the league of states that have clear graduation requirements so students know what they have to do, parents know how to help them and teachers know what to teach,” Zahorchak said. “To this end, Pennsylvania must aggressively pursue its reform of high school education with increased resources, more teacher training, extra help for students, a voluntary model curriculum, diagnostic supports and standard final exams. Common high school graduation requirements are essential to this reform.”
For more information on Pennsylvania’s education initiatives, visit the Department of Education Web site.