For students still having difficulty with the assessments, State Superintendent of Schools Nancy S. Grasmick today said MSDE has begun work on a Bridge Plan designed to move them toward graduation. The plan will involve locally administered projects developed for the small number of students who might still need to pass the tests by their senior year, based on state criteria and monitoring.

Approximately 51,000 members of last year's sophomore class-the first class needing to pass the HSAs to receive a diploma-have now passed the Algebra assessment. The typical graduating class in Maryland is 55,000. The vast majority of the students who need to pass the tests for graduation also have completed the HSA requirements in biology, English 2, and government.

The new information, showing test results for the State, was released today in a presentation before the Maryland State Board of Education. The algebra data show that of the 4,000 or more students still needing to pass the assessment, nearly all will pass the exam by graduation. However, it is possible that 10 or fewer students in the average high school will need to use the Bridge Plan to complete the graduation requirements during the 2008-2009 school year.

"We know from these results that the vast majority of Maryland students are finding that they can pass these assessments and will be well on their way to graduation in 2009. But we believe a few students will be well served with a Bridge Plan that allows students to meet their testing requirement for graduation under alternative means," said Dr. Grasmick. "The HSA results are gratifying to all of us, and position Maryland well as we continue to raise the bar to meet the education and workforce goals of the new century. Students and their parents are taking this seriously, and schools have improved instruction to help ensure students grasp important concepts."

Results for English, biology, and government are roughly equal to 2006 algebra results since most students did not take these three assessments until the 2006-2007 school year. While 45,000 students statewide have passed the English assessment by the end of tenth grade, 47,000 have passed government and 41,000 have passed the biology assessment. It is expected that the students who have not yet taken the three courses will test next spring and will increase the total number of passing students to the 55,000 mark.

Feedback from parents and other advocates for children indicates that the academic focus provided by the assessments has helped ensure that students are getting improved instruction.

"I have been told by parents of students with disabilities that since the High School Assessments became part of Maryland's graduation requirements, their children are receiving more focused instruction and are gaining more skills that will be useful to them for the rest of their lives," Dr. Grasmick said.

At the same time, Dr. Grasmick said, the goal of the HSA program is to raise achievement, not decrease the graduation rates for conscientious students. The Bridge Plan-being developed in collaboration with local administrators, school-level officials, and teachers-is aimed at bringing those few students closer to their dreams of a high school diploma without decreasing standards. Students who have special difficulty on one or more of the HSAs after several attempts at passing them, and have received remediation, will have several options to add to their scores. These include grade point average, attendance figures, and other individual academic validation activities.

High School Assessment and Adequate Yearly Progress results will be released on the State report card site, mdreportcard.org, later this fall. School systems will be releasing their High School Assessment individually today and will be notifying individual student test-takers of their results in the next several days. Many of local systems have been tracking the data for individual students for several years and are able to produce a clear picture of their own students' progress.

After many years of study, the State Board voted in 2003 to make passing the HSAs a requirement for the Maryland High School Diploma for the class of 2009 (this year's juniors), a measure supported by a broad coalition of business and higher education leaders. At the same time, the State Board said it would re-examine the requirement before 2009, taking into account the latest data from the administration of the exams.

Approximately half the states have instituted some form of exit exam as a graduation requirement. The HSAs replaced the Maryland Functional Tests, a group of basic-skills exams, which had been a graduation requirement for more than a decade.


MSDE Analysis of 2007 High School Assessment Results
August 28, 2007