School officials in Orland Park-based Community Consolidated School District 230 are considering instituting an assessment program that would allow them to withhold diplomas from students who fail to master curriculum objectives.
The assessment is part of a proposed testing overhaul in the high school district. That proposal, presented at a board meeting Monday, would include a new high school entrance exam and yearly testing of students. District educators would use the tests to measure students’ progress throughout high school, and ultimately, measure whether students learned enough to graduate.
David Conroy, of Orland Park, asked whether the district is putting up another hurdle for the student who is having trouble.
District Supt. Timothy Brown said: “We do not call this a test. This is an assessment process. The faculty will always have the right to override the assessment on the basis of the student’s work.”
If the school board approves the measure, District 230 would be one of a handful–possibly the only–district in the state to use a comprehensive assessment program in awarding diplomas, according to state board of education officials. It was not clear whether other districts use a similar program.
District 230’s first test would be given next year to incoming freshmen and would not affect current high school students.
“We realize that, in some ways, we are charting new territory, but we think we are moving in the right direction,” said Stuart Swenson, director of student services in the district and architect of the proposal. “In no way do we intend this to be a `gotcha’ test, where we try to stop our students from graduating. What we are doing is trying to track student progress through a continuum.”
Requiring seniors to pass a comprehensive test of knowledge is not unique in the country. During the last decade, at least 25 states have mandated exit exams as part of the high-stakes testing movement sweeping the nation.
But despite their growing popularity, graduation exams are drawing criticism from civil rights advocates who argue that such tests are unfair to minority students; from some parents who contend not all kids do well on tests; and from some educators who complain that they are forced to spend the day teaching to a test.
The backlash already is being felt.
In Wisconsin legislators backed away from a mandatory graduation exam after a group of parents and teachers revolted. In Texas, the exit test is embroiled in a court battle between the state and a group that alleges the exam violates the constitutional rights of Hispanic and African-American students. And in at least five states, parents have organized high-level protests and, in some cases, test boycotts.
“Since we already know there are inadequacies at some schools, the assumption that all kids will have an adequate opportunity to pass an exit test is not true,” said Monty Neill, executive director of the Massachusetts-based National Center for Fair & Open Testing, which serves as a clearinghouse for test critics. “And we ought not be holding kids responsible for the failure of adults.”
Illinois legislators have toyed recently with the idea of instituting an exit exam but backed away after support waned. But the Illinois State Board of Education is working with the Illinois Board of Higher Education and the Community College Board to make the new high school Prairie State Achievement Exam a sort of college entrance exam.
State Schools Deputy Supt. Lynne Haeffele said the three groups are discussing how the PSAE, which will be administered to 11th graders for the first time this school year, can be used by state college officials.
“We would like the institutions of higher learning to look at the scores and use them as part of admissions, part of the total package they look at,” Haeffele said.
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She complimented District 230’s proposal, saying it has one of the most “progressive” standards-based programs in the state. She also praised the district’s plan to roll out the test slowly.
“That can be the key to community support and to keeping the issue out of court,” she said.