Posted: Friday, March 1, 2013 12:00 am | Updated: 6:02 am, Fri Mar 1, 2013.
Posted on March 1, 2013
Passing the Keystone Exam will be a state requirement for graduation beginning the class of 2017. The Keystone Exams are one component of Pennsylvania’s high school graduation requirements.Earlier this week, Samuel Lee, superintendent for Bristol Township School District, joint board member for Bucks County Technical School, discussed the future graduation requirement for Pennsylvania students at a meeting held at BCTHS on Wistar Road in Fairless Hills.
If students do not demonstrate proficiency and do not pass remedial work, interventions must be provided for student before they take test again, said Lee.
This year the state transitioned from Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) to Keystone Exams. Keystones are the end of course assessments designed to assess proficiency in several subjects.
Current juniors (students graduating in 2014) had to take three Keystones: Algebra 1, Literature and Biology, according to Lee.
“The challenge for those students in the districts could have and would have occurred in eighth grade,” said Lee. “Depending on the student or the district, some kids had algebra 1 in eighth grade so they had to go back and regroup and take the algebra 1 exam in 11th grade.
“For most kids that is not a big deal because you continue your mathematical progression,” said Lee. “That wasn’t the biggest challenge.”
According to Lee, biology was a huge stretch because you take it in eighth or ninth grade and the core curriculum content did not align well with the content on the Keystone Exam. The kids were saying “we never saw this before.”
Literature was a mixed response.
Those scores determine whether or not a district makes average yearly progress. Results are not back yet and there is no clear definition of what making AYP is yet in relation to Keystone scores, according to Lee.
Lee is hoping the state is lenient with achieving the AYP scores, and is optimistic for a fair response.
Later this year freshmen will sit for Keystones. And their course content will be better aligned particularly in biology because they had time to make adjustments to the actual test, said Lee.
“The plan is to expand Keystone Exams in 2010 to include, civics, U.S. history and government among other things,” said Lee.
This year the state transitioned from Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) to Keystone Exams. Keystones are the end of course assessments designed to assess proficiency in several subjects.
Current juniors (students graduating in 2014) had to take three Keystones: Algebra 1, Literature and Biology, according to Lee.
“The challenge for those students in the districts could have and would have occurred in eighth grade,” said Lee. “Depending on the student or the district, some kids had algebra 1 in eighth grade so they had to go back and regroup and take the algebra 1 exam in 11th grade.
“For most kids that is not a big deal because you continue your mathematical progression,” said Lee. “That wasn’t the biggest challenge.”
According to Lee, biology was a huge stretch because you take it in eighth or ninth grade and the core curriculum content did not align well with the content on the Keystone Exam. The kids were saying “we never saw this before.”
Literature was a mixed response.
Those scores determine whether or not a district makes average yearly progress. Results are not back yet and there is no clear definition of what making AYP is yet in relation to Keystone scores, according to Lee.
Lee is hoping the state is lenient with achieving the AYP scores, and is optimistic for a fair response.
Later this year freshmen will sit for Keystones. And their course content will be better aligned particularly in biology because they had time to make adjustments to the actual test, said Lee.
“The plan is to expand Keystone Exams in 2010 to include, civics, U.S. history and government among other things,” said Lee.
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