HSA alternative approved by state board

Friday, Nov. 2, 2007

Beginning with the Class of 2009 — this year’s juniors — students must pass four tests in algebra, government, English and biology — or now an alternative project — to get a diploma.

With the 8-4 vote, students in danger of not graduating from high school because they continually fail the HSAs in all of the state’s 24 school systems will be given an option to do a project to recieve a diploma.

The Maryland State Department of Education will design and develop the projects and the projects will be scored according to MSDE criteria by a local school system panel that has been trained by the state.

The plan, promoted by state Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick, is being piloted in Prince George’s, Talbot and Howard counties.

Students will be eligible for the alternative HSA option only if they meet minimum class credits, community service and attendance requirements by the end of their junior year.

They also must have taken courses and failed one or more of the HSA tests at least twice. After failing the tests, students are required to take free intervention courses, aimed at helping them pass. If they still fail the tests, students could work with an adviser on the alternative project.

Administrators across the state have criticized the plan to create an alternative to the HSAs, saying it would create a second-tier diploma. Others counter that minorities, limited-English speakers and special-education students would fail the tests and not graduate.

While Prince George’s Superintendent John E. Deasy said he supports the plan, there will be a lot more work ahead for teachers overseeing the student projects.

‘‘It might be evenings, it might be the summer ... it’s very premature to say,” he said.

Deasy, who supports nontraditional paths to graduation, stressed that the alternative must be as demanding as the exit exams.

‘‘I think it’ll be a help to a small number of students who need a vehicle ... where they can demonstrate mastery of subject matters,” he said. ‘‘I think it’s really important to provide a secondary road for youth who have not demonstrated it on the primary road.”

Calvert County public school superintendent Jack Smith said he applauds the move by the state to institute an alternative assessment program. Smith said in an e-mail that the bridge plan will allow a high school student who has not been able to pass one of the four HSAs to graduate from high school by participating in a meaningful and substantive project.

‘‘We in Calvert County public schools, are not afraid of accountability and our students perform among the best in Maryland on the high school assessments. What we are concerned about is providing a real opportunity for all students to be successful,” Smith said in the e-mail.

Smith said this change by the state provides that opportunity.

Although the plan was approved 8-4, Wednesday’s meeting was not without controversy.

Board member Blair G. Ewing proposed delaying the vote and implementing HSAs because all of his questions weren’t answered.

He wanted the board to wait until January to vote on an alternative HSA plan, and postpone HSAs as a graduation requirement a year.

Ewing’s proposal failed 8-4.

‘‘We’re not ready because the supports are not in place at the local level,” said Ewing of Silver Spring, a former Montgomery County school board member. ‘‘I have a grave concern that because the infrastructure that students need is uneven and fragmented at local levels. They’re not there for every student — that bothers me a great deal.”

Board member Mary Kay Finan agreed.

‘‘I’m just concerned that these interventions are in place,” said Finan of Cumberland. ‘‘If they’re not, then we are responsible. We need to be accountable to be sure that these interventions are in place to help the students.”

The high school assessment tests have endured a battery of alterations since their inception.

In May, the state will phase out all written-response questions to reduce the turnaround time on test scores.

In March, Grasmick proposed giving special-education students, English language learners and students with physical or mental impairments until 2011 to prepare for the tests.

The exams are aligned with regular curriculum, and those three groups of students have not been exposed to regular classroom instruction, she argued.

Board member David F. Tufaro of Baltimore said while he’s ‘‘not a big fan” of the alternative HSA project, the state board should move forward because of support he has heard from school systems.

‘‘I’m confident that the plan is a good way to go,” said board member J. Henry Butta of Davidsonville. ‘‘I am absolutely convinced that it’s not a rush to judgment. I think we got something that’s good for the state of Maryland and I don’t wanna lose it.”

Not passing the alternative plan or the assessments would have maintained a ‘‘status quo” for struggling students and sent a message to school systems that ‘‘the school board doesn’t care,” said board President Dunbar Brooks of Baltimore County.

‘‘Is the HSA and [alternative] plan perfect? No,” Brooks said. ‘‘All I’m saying is that the [alternative] plan and HSAs start us on a path of where we need to be. We got lots and lots more work to do.”

Staff Writers Gretchen Phillips and Dennis Carter contributed to this report.