The Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) recently conducted a webinar for school districts that wanted to learn more about the process for the development and validation of local assessments that would supplant or supplement the use of Keystone Exams as a graduation requirement. The webinar and all of the accompanying documents are posted on the SAS portion of PDE’s web site. Click on these links for the audio of the webinar, the PowerPoint presentation, the summary of requirements and the evaluation handbook. PDE will update this information as more information about costs and timelines are better known.   

Here is the tentative timeline:
School entities will have time between now and June 2012 to review the requirements and decide if they want to pursue this option, and if so, what type of technical assistance they may need from PDE.

By July 30, schools will inform PDE if they will pursue the local assessment option, and have between August 2012-June 2013 to develop and refine their local assessments and gather validity evidence.   

No tentative date has been scheduled for schools to finalize and administer their assessments, as PDE will wait to see how the process unfolds and the amount of funding in next year’s state budget that may be available.

Questions are welcome and should be directed via email to RA-Local-Assessment@pa.gov. PDE will post questions and answers on its web site.

Source: PSBA Legislative Report, 11/18/11.