State Board of Education approves GCA plan

Jan. 17, 2008

On Jan. 17, 2008, the State Board of Education gave its initial approval to its controversial plan to amend the Chapter 4 regulations to implement the high stakes Graduation Competency Assessments. That action followed two days of discussion prior to the vote as well as a public hearing held on Jan. 9 where overwhelming opposition to the proposal was heard.

Among the groups raising concerns at that hearing were:

• PSBA
• Pa. Association of School Administrators
• Pa. Association of Career and Technical Administrators
• Pa. Association of Elementary and Secondary School Principals
• Pa. State Education Association
• American Federation of Teachers
• Pa. PTA
• Pa. Association for Gifted Education
• Education Law Center
• Special education advocates representing autistic students
• Various individual school districts

The board’s formal vote sent the Chapter 4 draft into the first phase of the regulatory review process that will include a formal public comment period and review by the House and Senate Education committees and the Independent Regulatory Commission

            Among those speaking against the GCA plan was Senate Education Committee Chairman James J. Rhoades (R-Schuylkill), who called the plan “just another fad…that won’t help a single student anywhere” and said he would vote “no” when it reached the committee.

            “I hear about accountability all of the time. I hear about setting the bar high for our students. And I am all for both, but telling our students that they need to take another battery of standardized tests doesn’t do either,” Rhoades told the board members.

            Rhoades said that tests, including the PSSA, should not be the only measure of performance that go toward answering the question of whether students have succeeded or failed in school. Rather, he said, performance should be judged on the totality of effort.

            “A high school diploma is the culmination of 12 years of public education, 12 years of tests, quizzes and homework. Twelve years of presentations and research papers, gym classes and getting along with other students. And what are we going to tell our students, our teachers, our schools – that those 12 years really don’t matter? That the effort that led to a high school diploma really wasn’t worth it?” Rhoades argued.

            The senator also criticized the board for unveiling a new initiative without convincing research and expressed concern regarding the expense of the GCA plan.

            “In the past five years, we have spent an additional $2.4 billion on our public schools and we have enacted eight new programs that are supposed to help our students achieve. In this fiscal year alone, we spend $580 million on those eight programs. Before we enact another one, before we spend another nickel, let’s see whether those programs are working,” Rhoades said.

            Another legislator opposing the GCA plan is Sen. Raphael J. Musto (D-Luzerne), who was not able to attend the meeting but sent a letter to the board. He criticized the board for voting on the proposal just three weeks after it was draft was released and “strongly recommended” the board to take more time to consider the proposal. The senator also raised numerous objections to the concept of the plan.       “I am concerned that thousands of Pennsylvania students who complete all of their coursework for 12 years, pass all of their classes, and do everything else that is required of them may be denied high school diplomas because they do not hit some particular score on a multiple choice test. If we are going to do such a thing, with such serious long-term impact on our young people’s lives and incomes, then I want to be absolutely sure  that those standardized tests really prove what we want to know, that is, whether our student have really acquired the knowledge and skills that they will need after graduation,” Musto said in his letter.

“I don’t like the idea of another ‘all-or-nothing’ standardized test and believe our government must think long and hard about forcing this on our public school children. Testing is not teaching. We already require our students to take the PSSAs in multiple grades. To prepare their students for these tests and to avoid the sanctions of NCLB, school are already spending a lot of instructional time on test preparation only. They are teaching test skills, not life skills…If we are going to continue down this path, we had better be sure where the mine fields are and what we are really doing to our young children, Pennsylvania’s most valuable commodity,” Musto wrote.

            “As a legislator, I am also concerned about the costs of this proposal. I want to see some analysis of the fiscal impact on the state, on local school districts and on local taxpayers before the board votes on these regulations. Secretary Zahorchak has been quoted as saying that these tests would cost many millions of dollars to develop and implement. Wouldn’t it be better for Pennsylvania to spend its limited money on programs which we know will improve student achievement?...I am especially concerned about this given the conclusions reached by the costing out study that show we are asking Pennsylvania schools to do their work with $4 billion less than they need to do an adequate job for all students,” Musto said.