By Dawn Keller, Staff writer

dkeller@observer-reporter.com

Area school officials want to see the newest state tests required for graduation stopped dead in their tracks.

"Quite frankly, additional testing is not the answer," Bethel Park High School Principal Zeb Jansante said at a meeting Friday. "It's what you do in the classroom that matters."

Jansante was one of more than 20 administrators, school board members, parents and students who spoke against the tests at the meeting with state school board representatives. At least another 20 were listening in the audience at South Fayette High School but did not speak.

South Fayette Superintendent Linda Hippert invited state Board of Education Chairman Karl Girton and Executive Director Jim Buckheit to the meeting because of so many concerns about the new tests, called Graduation Competency Assessments. State Education Secretary Gerald Zahorchak participated via conference call. A number of area districts, including Ringgold and Chartiers-Houston, passed resolutions opposing the tests, which are scheduled to go into effect in 2014.

The state board recently approved plans that call for the creation of the new GCA tests in 10 subject areas. Under those plans, to graduate, students must pass six of the GCAs, the Pennsylvania System of School Assessments, Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate tests or a local test that independent evaluators certify is equivalent to the GCAs.

"It's important that we have some uniform understanding of what a high school diploma means in Pennsylvania," Girton said.

The students who perform well academically will do well on these tests, said Ringgold School Board President Denise Kuhn.

"It seems to me that we're setting up the other children for failure," she said.

She questions where the money is going to come from to make the program work.

"Who's going to pay for the staffing of remediating?" she said.

Kuhn also questioned why the PSSAs can't do the job.

"If the PSSAs are standardized, why do we need another standardized test?" she said. "It's beyond me."

West Jefferson Hills Superintendent John Lozosky said the state keeps saying that the GCAs are not "high-stakes testing" because there are a variety of tests students can pass. However, all of the alternatives are the same modality, he said.

"It's just a matter of changing one high-stakes test for another," he said.

He said he keeps hearing from parents and students that this is more of the same.

"It's not breaking the mold," he said. "It's important that we look at breaking the mold."

Girton said the GCAs are not additional tests. Currently, students already take final exams. The GCAs can replace those if a district so chooses, he said.

After Girton's explanation and answers, those in attendance were not convinced.

"I think what we're hearing here today and across the commonwealth is that more testing is not the answer for accountability," Hippert said, adding that the state needs to find other ways to assess the skills of students.

Girton said it's important for students to know what their diploma means, that no matter what school they graduate from, they know that they can get a family-supporting job or enter college without remedial courses. He also doesn't think the tests will increase dropout rates.

"This is a much more equitable way for students to show they are proficient," he said.

Girton said the state board approved the GCAs based on the assumption that the state will pay for the assistance students need to pass them.

"If funding does not come forth, we will no longer support this initiative," he said.

He said the General Assembly will most likely hold hearings on the tests, possibly as soon as April.

Girton has heard similar concerns around the state. He said the tests are not a "done deal."

"It's never a done deal until it's published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin," he said, adding that that may not happen for at least a year.

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