The state Board of Education has made another change on the Keystone Exams.

The board gave final approval to the end-of-course high school assessments in mid-March, formally installing the Keystones as the replacement for the 11th-grade Pennsylvania System of School Assessment exams starting with the class of 2017.

While that was a formality – districts have been administering Keystones in a pilot phase for two years – the board also decided to remove the graduation project requirement. The state board wanted districts to focus on Keystones and not have to juggle the additional mandate of a graduation project, said Department of Education spokesman Tim Eller.

“Allowing that to be a local decision was more appropriate,” Eller said.

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Source: The York Dispatch, Andrew Shaw, April 1, 2013.