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Montgomery School Officials Ask for Delay in Using New State Tests for Graduation
10/9/14 | Washington Post

Behind the Headline
Rethinking the High School Diploma
Winter 2015 | Education Next

In Maryland, where students will take new tests based on the Common Core standards for the first time this year, one school board is asking the state to delay a requirement that students pass the new tests to graduate from high school.

The new tests, developed by the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), are expected to be more rigorous than the high school exit exams formerly used by Maryland.

Maryland State Superintendent Lillian Lowery has told the school board that there will be two different cut scores on the new high school tests, one for high school graduation and another to show college and career readiness.

In an Education Next forum posted earlier this month, three experts debated whether states should adopt a two-tiered diploma, in which students who pass rigorous Common Core exams at a career- and college-ready level receive a different diploma than students who fail to make it over that bar.

-Education Next