Maryland School System Proposes Alternative to Exit Exams

Maryland students may soon have a new option rather than pass a series of standardized exit tests to get their diploma. In a scheme similar to the CLEP tests that allow people who take the tests to earn college credits, Maryland students can forgo taking the exams and submit projects that show they know the material they were supposed to learn.

Students in Maryland who will graduate after 2009 will be required to pass a series of three tests designed to show knowledge in English, algebra, biology or government or earn an adequate average score of the tests before they graduate. The State School superintendent and others fear this may cause some students to fail not because they do not understand the subject, but because they did not score high enough on a standardized test.

The plan has sparked controversy and traditionally graduating school has not relied on any one single test, although passing or failing a class may be the result of finals or some projects such as term papers that are often a major part of a student's English grade. Critics fear that watering down the requirements may result in diplomas from the Maryland's school system meaning less to perspective employers.

Only about half the states in the country require exit exams as a condition for graduating High School and those that do often have some alternate mechanism in place for students who for whatever reason do not test well. Most of the students in the Maryland school system are expected to pass the exam, with the lowest passing rate in one county being around sixty percent.

In the states where exit exams do exist, they are designed to test the mastery of the student of various skills that should be mastered by the time they finish High School. Both opponents and supporters of the measure are concerned about how perspective employers will view the results of such tests. The existence of exit exams arose over concern of an increasing number of students graduating from America's public schools who could not read, write or master basic skills expected of someone who completed High School. Supporters of the alternate methods say that students will not be let off the hook with the projects as they will still have to demonstrate competency with the needed skills, but it will be an outlet for people who do poorly on standardized tests.

Sources:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/28/AR2007082800763_2.html?nav=rss_print/asection