West Chester School District Superintendent Jim Scanlon is going all out advocating for eliminating “high stakes” PSSA and Keystone testing in our public schools by asking all WCASD parents and the public to join him in lobbying our legislators. Don’t do it.
Mr. Scanlon’s claims about these tests are unreasonably alarmist and no less than intentionally misleading. Regarding the Keystone Exams, he claims that his high schools spend the first seven months of the year preparing to take those three tests and then spend approximately six weeks giving the tests to students. In fact, there is no reason to prepare for any of those exams unless the student is taking specifically algebra, literature, or biology. Even then, the examination content should be integrated into the curriculum with no special test preparation required beyond normal review for the final examination, which is administered with or without Keystones.
In fact, the three-hour Keystone Exams could replace final exams, at the discretion of the school district. Mr. Scanlon claims that even straight “A” students who don’t do well on those Keystone Exams won’t receive a diploma, under state law. This is another intentionally misleading claim. Students who are not proficient in the Keystone Exams need to receive extra tutoring, or to retake the course, and this can be done efficiently either within the district or through Chester County Intermediate Unit on line support for $250.
The students who are not proficient can and do retake their exams and they will pass when they meet the standard. If they cannot become proficient on the Keystone Exam, they are directed to undertake a project offered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education or an approved locally produced project. The project can be managed either within the district or one on one on line by a qualified and certified teacher at the CCIU for only $150.
Even if the project is unsuccessful, the superintendent can, if he deems that special circumstances exist, waive up to 10 pecent of his students who are not proficient and still award their diplomas. Special education students may or may not be required pass the Keystone Exams, or do the project, depending on their Individualized Education Plan.
Mr. Scanlon’s case against PSSA tests is even weaker. He claims that test preparation takes an extreme amount of time and forces out creativity, exploration, and collaboration. He claims that those tests take six weeks to administer and that students are worried, anxious, and depressed taking them. He even claims that his schools look more like prisons than educational institutions during test times. That’s an outrageous statement. PSSA tests are given in grades 3-8. They measure achievement of our Pennsylvania Academic Standards, which Mr. Scanlon says he supports.
The standards should be integrated into the curriculum, requiring minimum test preparation time and leaving ample time for creativity, exploration, and collaboration. Districts who overdo test preparation have created their own problem, corrupting instruction from an unjustified lack of confidence in their own curriculum, students, and teachers.
The actual PSSA testing time is not six weeks but either five, six, or seven hours depending on the tests to be given which varies from year to year. If students are worried, anxious, and depressed taking these routine annual “low stakes” tests, then the very adults, like Mr. Scanlon, who should be helping the students relax and do their best and benefit from the tests are instead helping to create this stress. This is wrong. We should not put up with it.
According to USA Today, one third of American high school graduates arrive at college unprepared for college level work and instead begin with non-credit remedial courses. Likewise, employers complain that high school graduates lack basic skills in reading, writing, and numeracy. I have seen this first hand as an employer in the private sector. Now, we are finally raising the bar. Almost all of our students and teachers are up to the challenge. One of our biggest obstacles now are administrators like Mr. Scanlon whose continual pleas for more money, fewer mandates, and less accountability have become insufferable. We have the ethical duty and the educational tools to improve our public schools. Let’s insist that our administrators accept their responsibilities and begin to show us real leadership. It’s happening in my school district and it should happen in every one.
Jeff Hellrung
E. Marlborough Township
(Mr. Hellrung is a retired U.S. Navy captain, a former business manager, and a retired Pennsylvania public school teacher. He is currently serving his third term on the Unionville-Chadds Ford School Board and represents his school district on the Chester County Intermediate Unit Board.)
