Juxtaposed: Education, reality, and Pennsylvania

Corbett nominee says new high school tests will be delayed


By Adrienne Lu


Inquirer Staff Writer


HARRISBURG - Gov. Corbett's nominee to lead the state's Education Department said at his confirmation hearing Monday that implementation of the new Keystone high school graduation exams would be delayed because field tests had indicated students were not well enough prepared for them.


The first exams were to be given at many schools this spring in Algebra 1, biology, and literature. Tests in seven other subjects were to be phased in by the 2016-17 school year.


"It's a good time to take a step back and make sure that, when we go forward to implement a higher-stakes test, that our students are able to pass the test that . . . we're forcing them to pass," Ronald Tomalis said. "The preliminary indications are that it's going to be very challenging in many areas."

Recently American education has been much in the news.  The 2011 Federal budget proposes cuts that would impact education spending nationwide; President Obama has focused on improving education visiting several schools and calling for increased education spending; and the Governor of Wisconsin has proposed a law that would effectively strip government employee unions, particularly teachers, of much of their collective bargaining rights.  Into this mix add the state of Pennsylvania where the governors Education Department nominee called for delaying objective performance tests for high school students noting that it was important that students should be able to pass the tests.

Common Sense has a couple of observations.  Clearly Mr Tomalis, the Education Department nominee, believes that a significant number of Pennsylvania high school students could not pass the proposed tests.  In other words, the education establishment in Pennsylvania at least is unable to actually educate enough students and if students are tested the results will be poor.  Proof positive in Common Sense's view that education is broken.

Noteworthy as well is Mr Tomalis solution - don't test, at least until passing can be guaranteed!  That amounts to arguing that the solution to incompetent and ineffectual education is to sweep it under the rug at least for a while.  But what about the students that are being sent through the education system and not educated?  What about the taxpayers that are spending money for education and not getting it?  Isn't it time the education establishment started living in the real world where results matter?  Common Sense thinks so.

Beyond that though there is an underlying assumption that high school students should be able to pass.  That's something of a two sided notion.  If education works then indeed the majority of students should be able to pass.  But, and it's an important but, a high school diploma should not simply be an attendance certificate.  Rather it should reflect a level of competency.  As such not everyone would have the same competency and indeed some would not be sufficiently competent.  Perhaps it's time to take an accomplishment view of high school.

Just a Common Sense POV.