T/E Board to State: Leave Our Kids Alone

The Tredyffrin Easttown School Board is launching a new battle in its war on state-mandated standardized tests.

After opening its Monday night meeting by honoring (among others) the 35 National Merit Scholar semi-finalists from Conestoga High School, board members turned their attention to the new Keystone Test program and new graduation test requirements being ordered by the State School Board.

Get Out of Our Classrooms

That's the bottom line message from the Tredyffrin Easttown School Board Directors to the state. The board is also urging the public to put pressure on sate legistlators between now and Monday, November 5 to stop the proposed tests.

The 30 day public comment period on the proposal ends on November 5 and the T/E Board is asking residents to help make the case against requiring students to pass what the board calls "one size fits all" proficiency tests in order to graduate.

T/E Board members are asking district parents to write a letter to their legislators asking them to put pressure on the State Board of Education to stop both the Keystone Exams and the new proficiency tests which would be required for every state high school student as a condition of graduation.  A copy of a proposed letter is attached to this article as a pdf.

Essentially the T/E School Board's position is that Conestoga and T/E District students as a whole take much more advanced courses and do much better than most students in the state and that it should be left up to local districts to set standards for graduation.

A full description of the issue and the board's position on the Keystone Tests and new graduation test requirements are posted on the T/E School District's website.