Pennsylvania students bemoan “empty diplomas”

Tens of thousands of Pennsylvania high school seniors who failed state math and reading tests got “empty diplomas” last year because they had not learned basic skills, Pennsylvania Education Secretary Gerald Zahorchak says. Statewide, 45% of the 127,000 seniors failed the tests, leading Zahorchak to lament that diplomas were awarded to many who “show up and shut up.”

Zahorchak used that statistic to push for rules that would require most of this year’s sixth graders to pass either the PSSA—Pennsylvania’s No Child Left Behind benchmark test—or a new set of state tests before they could graduate in 2014.

The proposed regulations are scheduled for an initial vote today, January 17, 2008, by the state Board of Education. Read more iin The Philadelphia Inquirer online.