Graduation exams under the microscope.Do high school graduation exams drive kids to drop out of school? Do the tests correlate with lower SAT scores? Yes, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. a new report in Education Policy Analysis Archives Education Policy Analysis Archives is a peer-reviewed, open access scholarly journal created in 1993 by Gene V. Glass at Arizona State University. Articles are published in English, Spanish or Portuguese. . Graduation tests may represent the final obstacle that causes struggling students to drop out of school, hypothesizes Monty (programming, abuse) monty - /mon'tee/ Any program with a ludicrously complex user interface that performs a trivial task. An example would be a menu-driven, button clicking, pulldown, pop-up windows program for listing directories. Neill, executive director of The National Center for Fair and Open Testing. On the SAT side, the report suggests high stakes High Stakes is a British sitcom starring Richard Wilson that aired in 2001. It was written by Tony Sarchet. The second series remains unaired after the first received a poor reception. curricula may focus on test material and de-emphasize projects that can develop critical thinking skills measured on the SAT. Tests are prone to scoring errors, adds Susan Allison, coordinator of Marylanders Against High Stakes Testing. For example, grading errors on the Minnesota high school graduation exam incorrectly failed 8,000 students in 2000. But the new report may not reveal the full story. Maryland began graduation tests in 1993 and has the highest SAT scores in its region, says state Superintendent of Education Nancy Grasmick Dr. Nancy S. Grasmick is the Maryland State Superintendent of schools. Education She received her doctorate from the Johns Hopkins University, her master's degree from Gallaudet University, and her bachelor's degree from Towson University. . Maryland, like a handful of other testing states, does not yet require a student pass the test to graduate. In Massachusetts, where students must pass English and math tests to receive a diploma, SAT scores have risen and dropout (1) On magnetic media, a bit that has lost its strength due to a surface defect or recording malfunction. If the bit is in an audio or video file, it might be detected by the error correction circuitry and either corrected or not, but if not, it is often not noticed by the human rates have held steady over the last decade. Massachusetts provides students multiple opportunities to pass the exams. Students who fail on their first try may take the exam four more times. Districts can apply for state remediation grants to support failing students by developing before and after tutoring programs, school vacation 'boot camps' and computerized tutorials, says Department of Education spokeswoman Heidi Perlman. Although such programs may help students pass the test, Neill contends high stakes tests place school leaders in a bind by forcing schools to focus on test results instead of programs that engage kids and keep borderline borderline /bor·der·line/ (-lin) of a phenomenon, straddling the dividing line between two categories. borderline students in school. Smaller high schools, arts programs and technical education may improve the dropout rate, Neill says. But Grasmick counters that graduation tests have helped transform high schools and led to aligned curriculum and higher-quality, focused teaching. Fast Facts * 62 percent of states posted increased dropout rates after implementing graduation exams. Poor and minority students may be disproportionately dis·pro·por·tion·ate adj. Out of proportion, as in size, shape, or amount. dis  pro·por affected with dropout rates of up to 40 percent. * Average SAT scores in high stakes states stood at 1,044 compared to 1,078 in exam-free states. Lisa Pratt epaa.asu.edu/epaa |
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