From the Dec. 4, 1996 Daily Report Card:
-> *1   GED BROUHAHA:  SHOULD IT SERVE AS H.S. EXIT EXAM IN MASS.?
-> Last week the Massachusetts Board of Education endorsed
-> three programs to boost student achievement:  ending a physical
-> education requirement, requiring new teachers to pass a test, and
-> mandating that high school seniors take the GED to determine if they
-> should graduate (multi cites).
->    Of the three, the GED proposal has encountered the most
-> controversy -- so much so that Gov. William Weld (R) and state
-> Board of Education chairman John Silber have proposed a
-> compromise plan.  Some educators complained that the GED sets too low
-> a standard for graduating seniors.  "The GED does not
-> incorporate a terribly elevated level of knowledge," said Michael
-> Sentance, education adviser to Weld.  "We're trying to get beyond a
-> basic level to set higher standards for our schools, and we
-> need a test that judges whether we've done that.  We don't need to
-> waste our time with a distraction like this," he added.
->    State Rep. Harold Lane Jr. (D) remarked that, "The greatest
-> way to confuse people is to give tests like the GED that don't
-> measure what we want to measure."  He threatened that the
-> Legislature would pass such a requirement only "over my dead
-> body."  And Paul Reveille, chairman of the Massachusetts
-> Education Reform Review Commission, said the board's recent GED vote
-> "is a massive and highly problematic detour from the hard
-> work of genuine education reform."
->    The BOSTON GLOBE reports that some board members regretted
-> their vote after Silber vocalized his notion of denying diplomas to
-> students who failed the GED (Aucoin and Zernike, 11/28).
-> Board members are scheduled to reconsider their vote at their
-> next meeting on 11 December.
->    As the public and educators deluged Weld and Silber with
-> calls against the GED plan, the two joined forces to develop a
-> compromise that will be considered by state board members later this
-> month, writes the paper.  The new proposal would require all high
-> school seniors to take the test next spring, but would wait until
-> 1999 to withhold diplomas for those who cannot pass the
-> test.  Rather than deny students a diploma, "Failed GED" would be
-> stamped on the diplomas of students unable to pass the test.
->    According to the paper, Weld said the compromise would "get
-> a source of pressure into the mix as soon as possible" while
-> creating "a middle ground between making the GED a condition of
-> graduation this year, and not having any consequences
-> whatsoever."  He also surmised that "If I were a graduating
-> senior, I would not want 'Failed GED' on my diploma.  So it may be a
-> motivational tool, as well as a diagnostic one."
->    Senate President Thomas Birmingham (D):  "Perhaps this year
-> we'll have to rely on the GED, but we will not be relying on the GED
-> tests in three years.  We will be relying on the standards
-> that should have been promulgated already, and the tests
-> developed pursuant to those standards."
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