Message from TESD

Please Urge Your Senator to Vote “No” to the Keystone Exams

Formerly known as Graduation Competency Assessments (GCAs)

Dear Tredyffrin/Easttown Parent and Community Member,

You may recall that two years ago the State Board of Education introduced a series of tests called the Graduation Competency Assessments (GCAs). With a strong statewide grassroots effort in opposition to these tests, the GCAs were put on hold for at least a year. However, the State Board of Education continued efforts to revise the graduation requirements and in March announced a new series of end-of-course tests called Keystone Exams. Much discussion and debate followed and we felt a sigh of relief in June when Education Secretary Zahorchak notified the chairs of the legislative Education Committees that he was temporarily shelving this revised effort. However, in July, this effort was picked up by Chairman Torsella who introduced yet another compromise to the Keystone Exams. Much to our surprise and despite our efforts, this week the PA Senate Education Committee voted 10-1 to approve the Keystone Exam legislation and move this item, Senate Resolution (SR) 156, to the full senate for a vote on August 13th.

While there have been some changes and compromises to the original intent of the GCAs, the introduction of the Keystone Exams, beginning with the class of 2014, will be detrimental to our students, our curriculum and our taxpayers. The tests will now account for one third of the student's grade in seven subject areas, adding great stress as the result of yet another high stakes test. The tests and preparation will reduce valuable classroom instruction time. The development and implementation of these tests will divert critical tax dollars from our educational program. Our students can't afford this change and neither can our tax payers.

We recognize that summertime is meant to be a break from "school" but we need your help. Our chance to stop the adoption of the Keystone Exams is through the Senate vote on August 13th. We are requesting that you send a letter to one of our State Senators urging them to vote against SR156. We have attached a sample letter and addresses for our two state senators, Senator Andy Dinniman and Senator Ted Erickson.

Thank you for your support.

Sample Letter

The letter may be downloaded, completed and mailed via U.S. mail to one of the addresses below. Alternately, the content of the letter may be copied and pasted into an email. For ease of sending your comments via email, the senators' email addresses have been provided below as well.

Letter to Senators (Microsoft Word)

Letter to Senators (fill-in PDF, complete the form then print)

U.S. Mail and Email Addresses

Senator Andrew Dinniman (Tredyffrin)
One North Church Street
West Chester, PA 19380

andy@pasenate.com

Senator Ted Erickson (Easttown)
5037 Township Line Road
Drexel Hill, PA 19026-4821

eerickson@pasen.gov

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For information about the contents of this message, please visit the T/E School District web site at http://www.tesd.net/ or contact the T/E School District administration building at (610) 240-1900.