LOWER POTTSGROVE PA – Just a week after the Pottsgrove School District Board of School Directors called upon the state to stop spending money on student exams it said Pennsylvania didn’t need and couldn’t afford, the Rendell administration did exactly as asked. Who knew the board’s members were so powerfully connected?

Not.

District offices on Kauffman Road, Lower Pottsgrove PA.

Some within Pottsgrove may indeed be well-hooked to the Harrisburg cognoscenti. But it’s unlikely the directors’ vote last week had anything to do with a decision by Education Secretary Gerald Zahorchak – reported Monday (June 22, 2009) in The Pittsburgh (PA) Post-Gazette newspaper – to temporarily shelve plans to create graduation competency exams for Pennsylvania high-school students.

Zahorchak wrote letters to the chairman of the Senate and House education committees, the newspaper said, which announced no money would be spent on test development for now. Zahorchak said he hopes to forge a consensus on the politically touchy subject.

“Some lawmakers were upset when Zahorchak’s department signed a $201 million contract to develop the tests before they approved a testing method,” an Associated Press report noted. However, it added that work may proceed on other contract provisions, including development of a model curriculum, teacher training, and tools to monitor student progress.

Legislators weren’t the only ones angry about the so-called Keystone Exams. School district officials and boards across the state were up in arms about both their high cost and the diversion of state education funds many thought should have been put into local programs.

Pottsgrove school board members wanted to be counted among that group. Director Robert Lindgren, during the board’s regular meeting last Tuesday (June 16, 2009), distributed a draft resolution to his colleagues that put the Education Department on notice of their opposition. It was unanimously approved with little discussion.

Administration officials have argued that the tests currently used in many school districts’ tests aren’t adequate.

Related (to the Pottsgrove School Board meeting of June 16):

• What It Takes To Run A School District
• Store Opens At Upland; District Anticipates Revenues
• District Honors Retiring Teachers

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