The State School Superintendent did just what we told you she was going to do – find a way to create a new State High School Diploma and keep her High School Assessments in the process.

Those students who cannot pass any of the High School Assessments can come up with a project to prove that he or she understands and has mastered the quadratic equation. However, the student will not receive a State Diploma; he or she will receive a Local High School Diploma because he or she would have taken an Alternative High School Assessment.

Oh, and one more thing, the local school district will have to pay for these ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENTS and the LOCAL HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA. That could mean that each school district could have different alternative assessment criteria and different local diplomas.

Which diploma do you think will be accredited by the state, recognized by Fortune 500 Corporations, Four Year Universities and the military? That’s right, the State High School diploma which can only be achieved by taking and passing the State High School Assessments.  Same sheep, different clothing!

Jerry Weast and his beloved Montgomery County Public Schools minions are now shaking in their boots because their kids are failing the tests that HE and GRASMICK construed.  Wait a minute wasn’t it WEAST’S school system curricula that the stellar “Voluntary” state curriculum was based upon?  Yep, it sure is. 

He pushed the High School Assessments by showing the state how his school district was leading the state in high scores. Oh, he bragged and took all the accolades from Nancy Grasmick; they were real thick and all buddy-buddy. And now all of sudden he’s crying foul? What a difference a couple of years makes!  I guess he didn’t see it coming; his students are failing this farce of an assessment that he helped create!  NOW he questions the validity of these assessments and now he wants things to change.  What does he think that nobody out here would remember HIS role in pushing the HSAs? You’ve got to be kidding. 

How in the world is a child supposed to come up with a project to prove he understands and has mastered the quadratic equation?  If he mastered it he could actually work and solve the problems with pencil and paper! Duh!  Better start saving your shoe boxes and toilet paper rolls now for all the dioramas to come.  And, quadratic equations are only one small part of algebra.  How many dioramas does a kid need to do?  One for each concept?   Does this sound like just another MSCRAP marshmallow and toothpick task all over again to anyone else but me?

Nancy Grasmick
(MDE photo)

“She [Grasmick] said the county school systems would be responsible for designing the projects.”  Ain’t that a cheap way out!  She screws up the testing and expects the locals to bail her sorry butt out!   I don’t think so, and NONE and I mean NONE of our county commissioners or school board members had better support this!  

These alternative assessments set the stage (again) for those differentiated diplomas we fought so hard to kill just a couple of years ago. The state superintendent created this mess and she is the ONLY one responsible for fixing it.  It is NOT the responsibility of the local school system to foot the bill for Grasmick’s failed assessment system.  Not one single local penny should be spent to “design” squat for the MSDE!!!!!!  Let’s finally see some kahunas out there, tell her to take a hike!  Send her back to the drawing board, this out is a bust!

HIGH SCHOOL ASSESSMEN