Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Cost of Keystone Testing in Pennsylvania


Keystone Exam Statewide results for Spring 2014


Algebra 1:  40.1% of students scored Proficient/Advanced
203,357 students TESTED     
81,470 students PASSED 
121,887 students to RE-TEST

Biology:  41.4% of students scored Proficient/Advanced 
164,757 students TESTED   
68,215 students PASSED     
96,532 students to RE-TEST

Literature:  52.4% of students scored Proficient/Advanced 
111,612 students TESTED     
75,076 students PASSED     
68,222 students to RE-TEST
According to the PDE and the Spring 2014 administration of the Keystone exams these are the number of students who needed take a remedial class and re-test:
Algebra 1 - 121,887 students 
Biology – 96,352 students 
Literature – 68,222 students
Please note that the above number of students for Algebra 1 include students who have completed Algebra 1 course which is class of 2015 thru 2019.  

The above numbers for students in Biology and Literature are mostly students in class of 2015 and 2016 as the class of 2017 are current 10th graders taking Bio and Lit now and will be taking the Keystone for both in May for the first time.  The reason that is an important is because those Biology and Literature students who are retesting (a total of 164,574 students) do not need to pass the Keystone to graduate.  

If you look at this from a budget standpoint, consider for example sake that the remedial class and re-test cost $25 for each student then that is $4,114,350.00)!!  Schools are dropping courses to make room for these remedial classes due to cost.  What a huge waste of time, money and instructional time as these are classes that students already passed!!

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