State Graduation requirements must stop being about passing a test

“Failing to pass one or more of these required tests is a tragic consequence for a student’s lack of test taking skills or a myriad of other reasons why a student can pass a course, demonstrate mastery of the subject but fail a standardized test. It is a lifelong penalty.”

This week Citrus County Schools will graduate approximately a thousand high school students.  Most are excited about their future and the opportunities that await them.  Sadly, we had a number of students that walked for graduation but that will not receive their high school diploma. One might think it is because they didn’t finish all their courses, or didn’t have a high enough GPA— they would be wrong. Yes, there are a few of those students, but we have dozens and dozens of students in Citrus, and thousands around the state of Florida who have completed all the requirements to graduate but because they cannot pass one or two required tests, even though they have passed the course, they will not graduate. These are students that when I was in high school would have successfully graduated, but for the last decade these student must pass these high stakes tests and if not cannot graduate.

Jeffrey Solochek, education reporter for the Tampa Bay Times, today wrote another excellent article sharing about this issue and the numbers this year in Florida. (See; “How many Florida seniors are stalled by graduation exams?” – https://www.tampabay.com/blogs/gradebook/2019/05/31/how-many-florida-seniors-are-stalled-by-graduation-exams/). Again, keep in mind when reading this article and viewing these figures that for the most part the statistics he’s sharing are students who have essentially met all the requirements for graduation except one or more of the barrier tests (Algebra 1 EOC or 10th grade ELA FSA).

In Citrus, I will share that our schools have become successful in helping many (but not all) of our students to find some alternative option so that they may graduate and meet all the testing requirements. To do so it takes significate amounts of extra academic preparation, additional cost, and more importantly LOST time that could have been used towards preparing the student for industry certifications or other post-secondary opportunities. Instead, the student must endure often discouragingly failure after failure just to master a test, rather than mastery of skills that could be more positively beneficial.

While to some these numbers may seem insignificant and small, they were enormous when you look at seniors and even worse juniors that are not on track to graduate because of these two tests.

I have continually advocated for a common-sense alternative assessment option using student academic portfolios of sample works and/or data to demonstrates mastery of the students’ skills in meeting the 10th grade ELA and/or the Algebra 1 standards requirements for high school graduation. Student academic portfolios are permitted in Florida Statute for third grade promotion for “good causes” and should be an option for high school students for the 10th grade English Language Arts (ELA) Florida Standards Assessment (FSA) graduation requirement and for the Algebra 1 End of Course Exam (EOC).

Failing to pass one or more of these required tests is a tragic consequence for a student’s lack of test taking skills or a myriad of other reasons why a student can pass a course, demonstrate mastery of the subject but fail a standardized test. It is a lifelong penalty.

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