By Nelson Hernandez and Daniel de Vise
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, December 18, 2008 4:05 PM

Thousands of Maryland high school seniors face a question worthy of a graduation exam: What comes first, the end of the course or the state's end-of-course test?

Under the state's testing policy, students are supposed to complete four courses before taking the corresponding graduation exams. But new pressure to get seniors to graduate on time has driven administrators in Montgomery and Prince George's counties to an unusual step: Schools are giving the state tests to some at-risk seniors several months before they finish the classes and again, if necessary, to give them a better shot at getting a diploma.

A state education official called the test-early, test-often approach "inappropriate." It is not clear whether the state has the power to stop it.

Yesterday, state Superintendent of Schools Nancy S. Grasmick made public a plan to allow some students to apply for a waiver to the testing requirement if they were not given enough chances for extra instructional help or if they face certain other hardships. The state Board of Education is expected to vote on the plan today.

The High School Assessments in algebra, English, biology and government are supposed to be taken at or near the end of those courses. This school year, for the first time, the state is requiring students to pass all four, get a combined minimum score or complete alternative academic projects to graduate.

But with one of every six seniors statewide in jeopardy of not graduating because they've failed or missed one or more of the tests, administrators are increasingly anxious to give them as many chances as possible to pass. As a result, some administrators are seeking to exploit what might be a loophole in state testing policy.

The potential loophole applies mainly to about 4,000 seniors who haven't taken one or more of the exams. By taking the tests early in the school year, these students will have more chances to pass. Those who fail twice will be eligible to complete an independent "bridge project" as an alternative.

Officials in Montgomery and Prince George's defended the practice.

"We don't want them to miss an opportunity," said Prince George's schools spokesman John White. About 1,200 seniors in the county haven't taken one or more of the tests. "If they waited till the end of the course, theoretically the last day of the school year, they would have missed the January, April and May testing opportunities, and we don't want to deny students an opportunity to meet the graduation requirements."

A Prince George's high school teacher, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared retaliation from his superiors, criticized the early-testing practice.

"It's very frustrating," he said. Students "want to do well on the test, but they are taking this test before they learn anything. . . . You're telling them, 'Do your best,' but deep down, you know it's really wrong."

William Reinhard, a Maryland State Department of Education spokesman, said he had heard "a couple of examples" of schools pushing to test students before courses were finished, but he declined to name the counties involved or say what consequences, if any, they would face.

"The High School Assessments are designed as end-of-course exams. So it's inappropriate for kids to take them before they're passed," Reinhard said. "There may be the best of intentions in having kids take them, but that's certainly not the way the system was designed."

The Code of Maryland Regulations says, "To be awarded the Maryland High School Diploma, all students . . . shall take the Maryland High School Assessment for algebra/data analysis, biology, English, and government after the student completes the required course." In practice, many students take the tests in the spring, a few weeks before the courses end.

In Virginia, where Standards of Learning exams must be passed to graduate, students take the tests a few weeks before the courses are complete, said Paul Regnier, a spokesman for the Fairfax County school system. The District does not have graduation exams.

White said the wording of the Maryland regulation allows leeway.

"COMAR says students will take it at the end of the course, but it doesn't prohibit them from taking it any sooner," White said.

In Montgomery, about 1,300 seniors haven't taken one or more of the tests. Faculty at Einstein High School in Kensington gave the graduation exams in October to seniors who were "six, eight weeks" into the year-long courses upon which they were being tested, said Principal Jim Fernandez. The students are among about 100 seniors at Einstein, out of a graduating class of about 370, who have not met the exit standard.

Only a handful passed the October exams, Fernandez said. But the main goal was to have the students tested.

The scenario reflects the intricacies of the diploma requirement. Students can fail the tests but meet the standard by completing a bridge project. However, a student can start a project only after taking a test and submit the project only after taking and failing the test twice.

At Einstein, Fernandez said his strategy is to have students take the test once in October and again in January -- about halfway through the courses. The students will simultaneously start work on independent projects. By March or April, they will have passed the test or submitted a project.

"We're doing this for the kids," Fernandez said. "It's an insurance policy."