State Board Keeps SRA Alternative Graduation Test

State Board Keeps SRA
Alternative Graduation Test

State Board of Education unanimously voted last week to continue the Special Review Assessment (SRA), but the state will closely regulate schools that heavily use the alternate graduation test.

The SRA was designed to give students who do not pass the state’s standard graduation test the opportunity to demonstrate that they have attained the proficiency necessary to earn a high school diploma. But in recent years it has been criticized as a “backdoor” to a state-endorsed diploma. Approximately 12 percent of graduates statewide use the SRA after failing the High School Proficiency Assessment.

However, that number has actually been declining, Education Commissioner Lucille E. Davy on Monday told the Joint Committee on the Public Schools, a committee consisting primarily of members from the Senate and Assembly Education Committees.

Monitoring SRA Davy said the Department of Education is concerned about a heavy reliance on the SRA, and she said the state will investigate educational programming in districts where more than 10 percent of the graduates use the SRA. Those districts may be required to submit a plan to reduce the percentage of students taking the SRA.

According to a state Department of Education report earlier this year, 19 high schools saw at least half their graduates use the SRA in 2006.

Three years ago, then-Education Commissioner William L. Librera called for eliminating the SRA, and the State Board agreed. However, the board also had concerns that abolishing the SRA would lead to students having no diploma at all, thereby creating a hardship situation as they pass into adult life. Earlier this year, Davy recommended standardized scoring and tighter administration of the exam, rather than its total elimination.