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After the years of worry about whether the newly instituted high school assessment test requirements for Maryland's class of 2009 would be so difficult that they would keep thousands from graduating, the results announced this week seem like pretty stark reassurance: Only 11 students in the entire state failed to graduate because of the tests. In fact, the figure was so minuscule that some are now questioning whether the requirements are too easy and should be stiffened.
But the number 11 is not the one that we should be focusing on. There were another 2,280 students who failed the HSA but also failed other graduation requirements. That means there's an extremely high correlation between the group of students who can't pass the HSA (or didn't bother to try) and those who couldn't pass the previous requirements. The point of statewide testing tied to graduation, presumably, was to ensure that standards are even across Maryland's high schools and that some kids aren't getting diplomas without learning the requisite skills. These data suggest that's not really a problem. Uniformly, throughout the state, if you can pass the existing high school graduation requirements, you can pass the HSA, and vice versa.
That became especially true as the requirements for the HSA got fuzzier. After initial reports showing thousands of students at risk of not graduating, the state school board created a number of loopholes. The basic HSA requirement is for students to score passing grades in tests of English, government, algebra and biology. But you can also pass if you get a high enough combined score in the four tests, even if you don't get a passing grade in each one. Last year, when it looked like as many as 9,000 students were on track to fail because of the tests, the state decided to allow students to complete projects in the subject areas rather than pass the tests. And finally, about 1 percent of students got waivers from the requirements altogether.
In the end, the state was caught in a hard spot: Should it make the requirements strict and possibly derail the educations of thousands, or should it do whatever necessary to minimize the number of failures, even if it risked diluting the whole endeavor? In the end, the state picked the latter option.
So was this a pointless exercise? Not necessarily. State schools Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick, who has made the high-stakes test a personal mission for more than a decade, says that the final result was less a matter of tinkering with the standards than it was the product of intense work by superintendents, principals, teachers and students to make the HSA a success. In a bit of irony, the existence of standardized tests forced educators to pay much greater individual attention to the needs of students. "The attitude in high school, too often, was: 'We taught it; if they didn't get it, that's their problem,'" Ms. Grasmick says. "There was none of that this year."
More important than the sense that Maryland students, like their peers from Lake Wobegon, are all above average, the 2009 HSAs give us a starting point from which to gradually raise standards and give them teeth. The tests don't come close to proving that students are prepared to compete in the global workplace, or even to succeed in post-secondary education. They weren't meant to; they measure skills that students really ought to be learning in the ninth or 10th grade. Ms. Grasmick says her goals are to start reducing the number of students who get waivers - mostly English language learners who have trouble getting courses in the proper sequence - and the reliance on projects. Statewide, about 6 percent of students completed projects in lieu of one or more tests, but the number was much higher in some districts. In Baltimore City, for example, the figure was 21 percent.
In order to make that work, the state needs to do a better job of identifying students who may have trouble with the tests much earlier, so that the individualized attention Ms. Grasmick says was given to the class of 2009 starts when students are in middle school. That would require a re-prioritization of resources - more summer school, after school programs, tutoring - but it would set Maryland on the path of truly raising standards.
Pretty soon, it won't have a choice. Maryland and other states are working to develop a set of national educational standards that are expected to be significantly more stringent. Those standards may one day supersede the HSAs, but Maryland's experience with that test has given it a head start in learning how to meet them.
But the number 11 is not the one that we should be focusing on. There were another 2,280 students who failed the HSA but also failed other graduation requirements. That means there's an extremely high correlation between the group of students who can't pass the HSA (or didn't bother to try) and those who couldn't pass the previous requirements. The point of statewide testing tied to graduation, presumably, was to ensure that standards are even across Maryland's high schools and that some kids aren't getting diplomas without learning the requisite skills. These data suggest that's not really a problem. Uniformly, throughout the state, if you can pass the existing high school graduation requirements, you can pass the HSA, and vice versa.
That became especially true as the requirements for the HSA got fuzzier. After initial reports showing thousands of students at risk of not graduating, the state school board created a number of loopholes. The basic HSA requirement is for students to score passing grades in tests of English, government, algebra and biology. But you can also pass if you get a high enough combined score in the four tests, even if you don't get a passing grade in each one. Last year, when it looked like as many as 9,000 students were on track to fail because of the tests, the state decided to allow students to complete projects in the subject areas rather than pass the tests. And finally, about 1 percent of students got waivers from the requirements altogether.
In the end, the state was caught in a hard spot: Should it make the requirements strict and possibly derail the educations of thousands, or should it do whatever necessary to minimize the number of failures, even if it risked diluting the whole endeavor? In the end, the state picked the latter option.
So was this a pointless exercise? Not necessarily. State schools Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick, who has made the high-stakes test a personal mission for more than a decade, says that the final result was less a matter of tinkering with the standards than it was the product of intense work by superintendents, principals, teachers and students to make the HSA a success. In a bit of irony, the existence of standardized tests forced educators to pay much greater individual attention to the needs of students. "The attitude in high school, too often, was: 'We taught it; if they didn't get it, that's their problem,'" Ms. Grasmick says. "There was none of that this year."
More important than the sense that Maryland students, like their peers from Lake Wobegon, are all above average, the 2009 HSAs give us a starting point from which to gradually raise standards and give them teeth. The tests don't come close to proving that students are prepared to compete in the global workplace, or even to succeed in post-secondary education. They weren't meant to; they measure skills that students really ought to be learning in the ninth or 10th grade. Ms. Grasmick says her goals are to start reducing the number of students who get waivers - mostly English language learners who have trouble getting courses in the proper sequence - and the reliance on projects. Statewide, about 6 percent of students completed projects in lieu of one or more tests, but the number was much higher in some districts. In Baltimore City, for example, the figure was 21 percent.
In order to make that work, the state needs to do a better job of identifying students who may have trouble with the tests much earlier, so that the individualized attention Ms. Grasmick says was given to the class of 2009 starts when students are in middle school. That would require a re-prioritization of resources - more summer school, after school programs, tutoring - but it would set Maryland on the path of truly raising standards.
Pretty soon, it won't have a choice. Maryland and other states are working to develop a set of national educational standards that are expected to be significantly more stringent. Those standards may one day supersede the HSAs, but Maryland's experience with that test has given it a head start in learning how to meet them.
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