Newark
plan would toughen high school test
Stresses preparation for students
who may need the alternative exam
Tuesday, May 31, 2005 • BY JOHN MOONEY •
Star-Ledger Staff
As state officials seek to repeal New
Jersey's controversial alternative high school test, Newark
has proposed its own plan that would maintain the exam but
add a serious set of conditions on students.
Administrators of New Jersey's largest
school system last week unveiled a program that would
require thousands of students who take the alternative test
to go through tutoring, summer school, and other remedial
classes -- or face the prospect of not receiving a diploma.
Parents or guardians also would be required to sign
"contracts" committing their children to the
plan.
Part of broader high school reforms, the
proposal aims to ease the district's infamous reliance on
the Special Review Assessment to graduate
students.
The SRA is an open-ended, untimed
assessment given to those who fail one or both sections of
the required High School Proficiency Assessment, or HSPA.
But few fail the SRA, and it has been chided as an easy
route to a diploma.
State Education Commissioner William
Librera earlier this month proposed his own plan to phase
out the SRA, starting with next year's freshman class. He
often has cited districts such as Newark as abusing the
alternative test and, in turn, cheating students.
Last year, about half of Newark's
graduates -- and as many as 80 percent in large high schools
such as Weequahic and Central -- needed the alternative test
to earn their diplomas, officials said. Statewide, about 15
percent of graduates needed the SRA.
Newark Superintendent Marion Bolden has
been a staunch supporter of the SRA as an alternative for
students, but this week conceded the district can do more to
insure its credibility.
"Maybe some of us have become somewhat
reliant on the SRA," Bolden said. "In talking to the
principals and teachers, the kids know they have the SRA and
maybe are not working quite as hard. Maybe some of it is our
fault."
She said the district's plan would help
insure the SRA is no longer a given for students. Those
failing the state's eighth-grade tests would be flagged and
required to take remedial classes before and after school,
and also over the summer.
Ongoing testing by the district in the
ninth and 10th grades would determine whether the students
need to continue extra classes. They would also need to meet
the district's course requirements for all
students.
If they then still don't pass the HSPA,
students then would be permitted to take the SRA. If
students do not participate in the extra classes, they would
be excluded from the SRA as well, leaving them no shot at a
diploma.
District officials suggested the
possibility of a "certificate of attendance," instead of a
diploma, but others questioned whether that would be
legal.
Either way, Bolden and other district
officials said they want to raise the stakes on both
students and their families.
"Even when we were making the tutoring
and summer programs available, we had youngsters who do not
attend," Bolden said. "We needed to take a much more
aggressive course."
The proposal so far has drawn mixed
reaction.
Presented to the district's advisory
board last week, several board members applauded the
intention but raised questions about the logistics and cost.
Some parent advocates pressed back on where the
accountability should lie, especially with so many students
entering high schools already behind.
Last year, fewer than half of all
Newark's eighth-graders passed the state's Proficiency
Assessment in language arts and math. In the district's six
comprehensive high schools, just a third of this year's
freshman classes passed reading tests in eighth grade,
according to the district.
"I don't have a problem with parents
signing a contract, but I want the principal's signature on
it, too, and I want the teacher's signature on it," said
Wilhelmina Holder, president of the district's high school
parents council.
"The SRA is a problem, no doubt, but it's
not the kids," she said. "It's the instruction and the
educators who may not be qualified to deliver it. ... It's
not the SRA itself, but what got us there."
State officials generally welcomed
Newark's approach, even if it doesn't eliminate the SRA.
"Everybody will be anxious to see from this how many who go
through it will actually end up needing the SRA," said
assistant state commissioner Richard Ten Eyck.
Ten Eyck did question whether the SRA can
be held back from a student who failed the HSPA. "I'll admit
we have had no one test that yet," he said.
While Newark develops its plan, state
officials continue to defend Librera's proposal to kill the
SRA altogether within the next seven years.
A holdover appointee of former Gov. James
E. McGreevey, Librera is not expected to stay on with the
next governor and said he wants his proposal approved by the
state Board of Education in the next several
months.
Modeled after a similar system in
Massachusetts, Librera would have struggling students also
get extra help in the early years of high school and get
extra opportunities to pass the HSPA, starting in the fall
of junior year.
Those who still fail the HSPA would have
a last resort to appeal to the state, based on their grade
point average and attendance.
John Mooney covers education. He may be reached at
jmooney@star ledger.com or (973) 392-1548.
© 2005 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with
permission.
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