The Pittsburgh school board will discuss Sunday a proposal by Superintendent Mark Roosevelt to make the school district a model by 2012 for instituting a state graduation test.
The board will conduct a special workshop about the test and other high school reforms from 2 to 7 p.m. at the Board of Education in Oakland.
"Potentially, I think this is great for us," said board President William Isler. "As a school district, we'd like to be working with the state at the beginning of this, rather than after the fact."
District spokeswoman Lisa Fischetti said Pittsburgh Public Schools would have to adopt the graduation exams this year to be ready to launch the program by 2012.
Although he has not formed an opinion on the topic, city school board member Thomas Sumpter said he doesn't want the district to "overburden" students with tests. He also doesn't want the tests to "weed out" students who don't have the same opportunities as others.
Several other school board members declined comment on Roosevelt's proposal until they hear the presentation Sunday.
The State Board of Education conducted a hearing Wednesday on the proposed exams -- called graduation competency assessments -- and is scheduled to vote next week on the draft.
If standards are approved, they would go through a regulatory review process involving state legislators. Pennsylvania Education Secretary Gerald Zahorchak said he doesn't expect the new exams to take effect until the Class of 2014.
"I aggressively support the state imposing standards for high school graduation," Roosevelt said in a joint telephone news conference with Zahorchak. "It's the one state action that's likely to result in the most improvement across the commonwealth."
A former state legislator from Massachusetts, Roosevelt said the graduation test encouraged school districts there to help students who were struggling academically.
He wants to link the Pennsylvania graduation test to The Pittsburgh Promise -- a program to provide college scholarships to district students. The Promise will give as much as $5,000 a year for graduates of the Class of 2008. If members of the 2012 class pass the state graduation test, Roosevelt said he would like to see graduates get $10,000 a year.
Zahorchak said the state tests would be given in English, math, science and social studies. He said students would have to pass six of 10 tests in those areas to earn a diploma.
Districts would have the option, though, of requiring their students to pass the new tests or the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment, Advanced Placement tests, International Baccalaureate exams or local tests. The latter tests must be equivalent to the proposed state exams.
Zahorchak said students could take the exams over and over until they get their diplomas. Those who fail would get tutoring in the areas that are causing them problems.
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