How is the Keystone Exam proposal different from the GCA proposal? Isn’t this really just a re-packaging of the GCA proposal?
The Keystone Exam proposal is different from the GCA proposal in many important aspects, and is not simply a re-packaging of the original plan. The Keystone Exam proposal replaces the GCA proposal with an alternative plan that provides much more flexibility for school districts and does not penalize students. The new plan would: • Eliminate the GCAs as a state-mandated graduation requirement and renames the tests Keystone Exams. Use of one or all of the tests is completely voluntary. • Clarify that districts that choose not to use the Keystone Exams for graduation purposes would not have to offer the exams at all. This is a significant departure from the GCA proposal, which had required the administration of GCAs in addition to the PSSA and local assessments. • Allow districts to continue to use multiple types of local assessment strategies for graduation purposes. There is no requirement for local assessments to be paper-and-pencil, criterion-referenced standardized tests, as had been
