In order to determine whether or not to remove the state’s United States history test as a prerequisite for high school graduation, the Mississippi Board of Education has voted to solicit feedback from the general public.
Over the course of a special meeting that took place on April 15, the Commission on School Accreditation had decided to do away with the examination.
The Chief Accountability Officer, Paula Vanderford, stated that the elimination of the test would be beneficial. She pointed out that the scores obtained from the United States history test are not included in the accountability report cards that are generated by the Mississippi Department of Education.
Taking the statewide United States History Mississippi Academic Assessment Program test would no longer be a requirement for graduation beginning this fall if the proposition were to be approved. Students in Mississippi would still be required to register for and successfully complete a United States history course in order to graduate from high school.
Those students who were required to retake their final year of high school would be facing alternative choices. As an alternative, Vanderford proposed mandating the completion of a course that prepares students for college and careers.
According to her, removing the test would result in financial savings for the state as well as an increase in the importance of the other three assessments administered by the state: English, Biology, and Algebra.
It was decided by the board to open the move to public discussion for a period of time. Following this, it will be brought back to the board for a final vote in the month of June.
“One point that we talked about in the subcommittee and have talked about at great length with the accountability task force is that we’re one of the few states with high stakes assessments or high-stakes end-of-course assessments for graduation, so it’s been quite a number of years since we’ve taken a look at that to see if we wanted to go with a different route,” Vanderford stated.
Some board members were worried that pupils’ historical knowledge would suffer if the history test were eliminated.
Voting against the test’s removal, Mary Werner said “I think history is so important, and American history is just…even from a former English teacher’s point of view, if you don’t have the history, you have a hard time understanding the literature.”
Vanderford clarified that proving mastery of the subject would only need passing the history course.
Glen East, the chair of the board of education, was similarly worried, but he said that he was sure of Mississippi’s excellent history program. In the end, he supported putting the matter up for public discussion. “Given the obvious expansion of the curriculum and the level of rigour we have applied to it, I do not see us regressing.”
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Mississippi Professional Educators’ executive director, Kelly Riley, said she wasn’t shocked by the choice.
“I think due to the evolving accreditation model as well as the amount of time that is required to be spent preparing for and administering state tests, I can’t say that I’m surprised by today’s decision,” she stated.
