Some local educators are worried about the state's plan to create one set of graduation standards for every public high school in Pennsylvania.

The most troubling aspect of the proposed graduation criteria, they say, is the plan to require statewide graduation exams.

Students already endure too many standardized tests, they say, and adding more will lead to a further narrowing of curriculum and additional costs to taxpayers.

The state Board of Education was holding a public hearing on graduation standards today in Harrisburg.

Supporters of statewide standards say too many students are graduating from Pennsylvania high schools without the skills they need to succeed in college or the workplace.

Local educators say most schools are doing a fine job of preparing students for the real world. They are also concerned that these statewide standards for graduation would undermine local control.

"I think public education is getting worn down with all of this testing," Penn Manor Superintendent Don Stewart said.

The state Board of Education plans to move forward on proposed changes next week. Afterward, there will be a period for legislative and public comment, and then the board will make its final decision.

The Pennsylvania Department of Education is also backing the proposed standards.

If approved, the new requirements would impact high school freshmen in the fall of 2010, as they begin working toward graduation in spring 2014. These are students who are in sixth grade now.

Lampeter-Strasburg Superintendent Robert Frick was among the educators from around the state scheduled to testify this afternoon.

In a copy of his prepared testimony, Frick said the state needs to develop a curriculum for these tests before handing them out.

Frick is also worried it will narrow what schools offer students, just as art and music were impacted negatively by the federal No Child Left Behind law.

"When high stakes testing becomes even more of a reality than it already is and districts realize how important it is to pass the minimal requirements established by PDE, I believe that the likelihood is high that they will focus most, if not all, of their attention on meeting those basic competencies," Frick said.

Pennsylvania law now requires students to prove they are proficient in both math and reading — either on the state assessment test or on a local assessment decided and given by a school district — before they graduate.

If the state Board of Education moves forward with the proposed changes, statewide graduation requirements would include earning enough credits, completing a graduation project and achieving at least one of the following:

• Scoring at a proficient level on reading, writing, math, science on the PSSA in 11th grade or on a retest.

• Scoring proficiently on the new exams called Graduation Competency Assessments that all students would take in addition to the PSSA. Testing would take place three times a year.

They new graduation exams would consist of 10 tests. Students would need to meet proficiency on six: two for English composition and literature; two for math; one for science; and one for social studies.

"It is a series of tests in English, math, science and social studies that a student would have to take when the student feels ready to take them," Michael Race, a state Department of Education spokesman, said in an e-mail.

Students would take them at the end of the corresponding course, such as Algebra I. Students could take them more than once, and schools could give them instead of final exams, Race said.

If a student does not pass an exam, he or she will receive remediation and have more chances to retake the full test or the portion not passed, he said.

• Demonstrating proficiency on an Advanced Placement exam or International Baccalaureate exam comparable to Graduate Competency Assessments.

• Scoring proficiently on a locally given test comparable to the state graduation exams. But any local assessment would need approval by the Secretary of Education, and school districts would pay those costs.

Statewide standards are needed, despite any criticism, supporters say.

In 2006, some 126,926 high school seniors graduated in Pennsylvania, but 45 percent of them (in Lancaster County's public school districts, 38.7 percent) were not proficient in both reading and math on the 11th-grade PSSA or the 12th-grade retest, according to a report by Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children, a Harrisburg-based nonprofit child advocacy group.

But the students were able to graduate based on local assessments.

"Our concern is that when a student graduates from high school in Pennsylvania, there is no assurance that he or she has met the state standards," said Joan Benso, president and chief executive officer of Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children, in a copy of her prepared testimony for today's hearing.

She also said, "While some argue that the PSSA is not a good test and students fail to take it seriously — this disconnect between proficiency and graduation cannot be ignored..."

These local assessments vary from earning enough credits with passing grades of "D," to passing General Equivalency Diploma pretests.

Some local districts already require reaching proficiency in reading and math on the PSSA in their graduation standards.

But it is common knowledge that many college freshmen must take remedial courses in math and reading because they are not ready for college-level courses.

Students who must spend more time and money on remedial courses, research shows, are more likely to drop out of school.

But the Pennsylvania School Board Association is refuting these claims.

"The assumption was made that these students are not properly prepared for college or careers and that a statewide graduation test was the only way to ensure that a high school diploma from a Pennsylvania high school had any meaning and was consistently of high quality," PSBA said in prepared talking points.

"There is no research to show that students who score below proficient on the PSSA are unsuccessful in college or in the workforce."

Stewart, the Penn Manor superintendent, wants to know how school districts are going to pay for remediation — and how they are going to fit remediation into already tight schedules.

"Are we going to take out another class? Offer summer school?" Stewart asks. "But then there is a cost to the taxpayer."

Dave Hanna has experience with graduation exams. He was a longtime educator in New York before becoming the principal of Manheim Township High School. New York has the state graduation exams called Regents.

"I favor those more than the generic PSSA exams," he said.

However, "I'm hoping they are not thinking of both (the exams and the PSSA). That would be overkill."

CONTACT US: rmeadows@LNPnews.com or 481-6025