Does HSA pass the test?

With Maryland students' futures on the line, state school board must press for answers to key questions

Should the Maryland State Board of Education require every public school student, beginning with the current class of 12th-graders, to pass four end-of-course exams - the High School Assessments - to graduate from high school? As they reopen deliberations on this question without the benefit of current data, the new board should be guided by the Hippocratic Oath: "First, do no harm."

There is general agreement that high school graduates should be better prepared for employment and higher education; there is also a consensus that taxpayers deserve to know the effectiveness of Maryland's public schools. On the other hand, a young person is significantly better off earning a high school diploma than not, and so is the state; a study this year by the Maryland Public Policy Institute found that each class of dropouts costs Maryland $42 million every year.

The challenging question that continues to confront the school board is ascertaining whether the high-stakes HSA, as implemented, contributes to these goals or will do irreparable harm to some significant number of students (largely minorities, English language learners and special-education students) while producing no offsetting benefit.

I urge board members to press for satisfactory answers to several questions before they cast their votes.

First, precisely what is it that the state is trying to accomplish with these tests? It is important to distinguish school accountability from student accountability. The federal No Child Left Behind law does not require that students pass any particular test in order to graduate. If the objective is increased school accountability, one can use the test results without punishing students. Maryland students in grades three to eight, for example, take Maryland State Assessment (MSA) tests but are not denied promotion if they fail to reach proficiency on a test.

If the goal of these tests is to increase employability or postsecondary education success, the state board should resist being satisfied with rhetoric about 21st-century jobs and increased college attendance. The board should ask for evidence that such an additional graduation requirement positively affects these outcomes in Maryland or any other state. Also, if there are to be high school tests, should nationally recognized tests such as the SAT or the College Board's Accuplacer placement tests be used?