Tight Budget Puts Chesapeake Cleanup at Risk, Governor Says

Beginning with the Class of 2009, the Maryland Board of Education will require students to pass the High School Assessment, a series of curriculum-based exams in algebra, biology, English and government, to earn a diploma. Students unable to pass the tests could complete projects in those subjects as an alternative.

Del. Jay Walker (D-Prince George's) has introduced two bills taking aim at the tests. One would eliminate the assessment as a graduation requirement. The other proposal is to establish a formula in which students' assessment scores are weighted with their attendance record and grade-point average in determining eligibility to receive a diploma.

In testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee yesterday, Walker said that the tests could deny diplomas to deserving students and that this could be exacerbated in Prince George's, which has one of the state's lowest-performing school systems.

"The teachers do not like the test," Walker said. "Our teachers are trying their best. They are screaming for help, and nobody's listening."

Some parents and community activists testified in support of Walker's bill. But state schools Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick spoke in opposition.

Grasmick said requiring students to pass the assessment to graduate helps motivate them. Awarding a diploma without requiring that students pass the test, she said, is "perpetuating a fraud."

"We believe that the high school diploma should mean something," Grasmick said.

Further, Grasmick said results from the tests give teachers and principals data showing which students might need extra help.

"This is shedding a light that is extremely important," Grasmick said.

-- Philip Rucker

Grad Student Union Measures Fail

Legislation that would allow graduate teaching assistants and adjunct professors at Maryland's public universities to form unions has failed.

The measures would have given teaching assistants collective bargaining rights to negotiate stipend pay, benefits and workloads with university administrators.

In the House, the bill, introduced by Del. Barbara A. Frush (D-Prince George's), failed to pass out of the Appropriations Committee. In the Senate, the bill's sponsor, Sen. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Montgomery), said he will withdraw the proposal.

Legislative analysts said the university system estimated that it would have to spend $1.3 million to cover administrative expenses related to union negotiations with graduate students. Raskin said the General Assembly is unlikely to pass a bill with such a high cost, given the state's fiscal environment.

"We're in tough times economically, so any bill with a hefty fiscal note is dead on arrival," Raskin said.

Raskin was "astonished" that the university system's cost estimate was so high, he said.

"That's more like General Motors and the United Auto Workers in the 1950s," Raskin said.

But he remains committed to graduate student unionization efforts and hopes to introduce the legislation again next year, he said.

"I'm determined to help them," he said.

-- Philip Rucker