My eldest took a first HSA last spring and isn't scheduled to graduate until 2012, so it's not a source of worry at the moment, but I've got to say communication about test results has been really poor. As I said the test happened Spring of 2008 and the first notice of results was the pass/fail indication on the first quarter report card in the Winter of 2008. There was no indication of what the actual score was. I don't see why the state can't provide timely test results similar to what you get within a month of taking an SAT. It's at least as critical as an SAT score and it would be nice to see an absolute score, how well you did compared to your school, district and state as a whole. If the state wants caring involved parents they could spend the time and money to communicate.

I hate to say this, but, honestly, if it really was just five points on the algebra test, there's no reason to complain, just do one bridge project. Yes, that's awful that the sheet was lost, but it doesn't excuse the fact that the student had 3 years prior to this to retake algebra.

The State created the HSA requirement waiver for situations like this, and with 5,000 students there are bound to be tough stories, particularly in Baltimore City. But, the basic framework for meeting the HSA baseline have remained the same since I was teaching these 9th graders during SY 05-06.

With all of the interventions & waivers in place, I just don't feel comfortable excusing a senior after 3 years who has been unable to pass the algebra/data analysis HSA, which includes less content than a full algebra I course.

To "Bill":

The point of this blog is that the students are being ill served by the bureaucratic failings of the school systems. To think a student has to be punished because of a school system error is truly sad and absurd.
As a 'teacher', it is unfortunate you are not putting the interests of the student first (especially when you are ignorant of the student's specific situation) and you might truly be an example of why students are not being educated correctly, only being pressed to pass standardized tests.

Thanks, Al, for your interpretation. I find it somewhat insulting that in the same single sentence, you engage in the very line of argument that you propose to denounce (see: "especially when you are ignorant of the student's specific situation"). I'm relatively sure that you're not familiar with my work in schools, and, thus, I find it odd that you would feel comfortable making an uninformed value judgment immediately before criticizing my hypothesized assessment of the student's situation. To suggest that I am an example of why students are not being educated correctly is (I hope) grossly incorrect. Regardless, this has nothing to do with me, this has to do with the State's willingness to demand that school systems set high expectations for students.

The student potentially (assuming he/she did not recently transfer into the district) has had 3 years to pass the algebra exam. He/she has not. It is very possible that he/she has fully mastered algebra but is unable to demonstrate such on the test or through a Bridge Project. I fully admit this may be the case, and this is a critical problem with assessment-based requirements tied to graduation.

However, another scenario is (a) the student has not mastered algebra, (b) has had knowledge for 3 years that he/she has not mastered algebra, (c) has not participated fully in the Bridge Project - which he/she could have participated in because the parent knew that the student had failed the algebra exam, and (d) waited until his/her senior year to get himself/herself straight. The bureaucratic mess is inexcusable. But so is lowering expectations about students' abilities to suggest that it's alright that he/she graduate high school without having baseline content knowledge about algebra and/or that it's alright to excuse 3 years of potential educational ambivalence because at points along the line there were bureaucratic missteps.

I believe deeply in the kids of our City. I believe that they will meet the expectations we set for them, even if there are road bumps down the path. And I believe that suggesting otherwise is a disservice to the kids, to the residents of Baltimore City, and to citizens across the State of Maryland (including in Howard County).

I'm an attorney at the Legal Aid Bureau. If parents or students have questions/problems pertaining to HSAs or other education issues, you can refer them to Legal Aid. We have attorneys practicing in the area of education law who may be able to advise them. They can call our Youth Achieving Potential Project at 410-951-7729.

How about the fact that MSDE can't (won't) tell teachers, parents or students the specific skills that they didn't pass on the HSA? They won't say how much a specific question is worth or what happens if the student leaves a question blank as opposed to guessing. Also the scores come back sooner but are embargoed while the state and local districts "look over" the data. I don't know what can be done about that but tghere is way too much secrecy around this whole process.

For once I totally agree with Bill; accountable is crucial as we go forward-- all parties need to be seriously engaged in the learning process. But I find people on this blog often unidimensionally championing one stakeholder against the others. Let's face it, as a teacher, I frequently hear the lamest "dog ate my homework" excuses. Eventually, these will come back to haunt the student.

Without any kind of insider information, I suspect that some of the problems of long turn-arounds on grading HSA exams will be somewhat alleviated in the coming years as at least the Algegra HSA will drop the BCR/ECR portions from the test. (BCRs and ECRs are the non-bubble-in portions of the test where students must write to explain their answers and show their work that must be graded by hand.) I hope that MSDE also takes veteran teacher's suggestion and provides the kind of section by section analysis for students and/or teachers and/.or schools that the PSAT provides so that struggling students/teachers/schools know where to focus their reteaching in the following semester or year. Although, I certainly have my doubts that this will come to pass, considering the secret HSA-score-calculating formula that is used to produce non-intuitive scores like "415."

Great points, Simon.

I attended a day of professional development this past Thursday at Edmondson-Westside High School. The focus was on the algebra/data analysis HSA bridge projects. We received three of the same bridge projects that many of the students' will need to complete. There were several questions that were incredibly vague or just worded very poorly. The focus of the projects is not on the mathematics, it's on the verbiage a student uses to describe how they got their solution. A student can very easily get a mathematically correct solution but not explain it in the way that the grader sees fit and not get credit for that solution. Is it just me or is that absolutely ridiculous? If it is an algebra/data analysis project then shouldn't we be testing the students' knowledge of algebra/data analysis?

If the child passed three of four and failed math only by 5 they should have hit the magical 1602 number that gets them through. It's not always the case, but 90% of the time it's true.

I'm most concerned that the schools who have the most "projects" have almost the same funding as those with only a few. We're supposed to pull people, money and time out of the air.

Oh and support from the sad, sad office of secondary schools is horrible. If AAA wants to do something he'll get some leadership in there.