With 2009 Test Mandate, Push to Prepare Students

Millions Spent on Graduation Exam Efforts

Maryland students in special education and limited English proficiency programs might not have to worry about the state's long-planned high school graduation exams for the time being, now that state Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick has proposed a delay. But for everyone else, it's full speed ahead.

Beginning with the Class of 2009, students will have to pass tests in algebra, biology, English and government to receive their diplomas. There are some alternative ways of passing the exams, known as the High School Assessments: Students can earn a minimum combined score on the HSAs or take more challenging substitute exams offered in Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses. Certain students may qualify to take an alternative assessment, and the state is developing a program to provide another option for students who have difficulty with tests.

But the goal, Grasmick and local superintendents say, is to get as many students as possible to pass the tests, which they say represent about an eighth- or ninth-grade level of knowledge. They say it will bolster the value of a Maryland diploma and allow students from different jurisdictions to be compared.

With that in mind, school systems are spending millions of dollars, and thousands of hours of instructional time, getting students ready for the tests.

Take Prince George's County, one of the school systems that has had the most difficulty with the exams Last year, 46.2 percent of the 11,600 students who took the algebra test passed. Fewer students took the other tests, but they did not do much better: Only 42.4 percent passed in biology; 45.9 passed in English; and 55.5 percent passed the government test.

Although performance on the tests has improved significantly since they were introduced in 2002, the scores still fall well short of what the county's superintendent, John E. Deasy, would like to see.

The county spent $3.2 million this year and will spend $4.3 million in the coming year on a plan to improve exam scores. The plan covers such things as television and radio spots and fliers and posters publicizing the tests, along with a math show on the school system's cable channel. But the bulk of the money is being put into the Twilight program, which offers extra after-school and weekend instruction for students who have failed the tests.

More money is being spent on programs aimed at improving high school performance in general: the expansion of Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate programs, the assignment of educational specialists to the county's lowest-performing schools and extra training and pay for teachers.

"The mission is to get kids to pass the HSA," Deasy said, repeating a mantra he has told parents at many public meetings.

Brian Edwards, a spokesman for the Montgomery County schools, concurred: "We're operating under the premise that in 2009 kids have got to pass the HSA to graduate."

In Montgomery, administrators have begun preparations by focusing on getting out the word that the tests are mandatory.

"It's really important that we communicate to parents and kids, 'Hey, you've got to pass this,' " said Carol Blum, the county's director for high school instruction.