The Mississippi Board of Education voted to solicit public feedback on whether to eliminate the state United States history test as a high school graduation requirement.
The Commission on School Accreditation voted in a special meeting on April 15 to abolish the test. Chief Accountability Officer Paula Vanderford argued in favor of eliminating the test, noting that scores from the United States history test are not included in the Mississippi Department of Education’s accountability report cards.
If approved, the statewide U.S. History Mississippi Academic Assessment Program test would no longer be required for graduation starting this fall. Mississippi students would still have to take and pass a U.S. history class to graduate from high school.
Those who had to repeat their senior year of high school would have to consider alternative options. Vanderford proposed requiring a college and career readiness course as an alternative.
She argued that eliminating the test would save the state money while increasing the weight of the other three state assessments: algebra, biology, and English.
The board voted to open the move for public comment. The board will hold a final vote in 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,” according to Vanderford.
Some members of the board were concerned that eliminating the history test would have a negative impact on students’ historical knowledge.
Mary Werner, who voted against removing the test, said “I believe history is crucial, particularly American history.”Even as a former English teacher, I believe that if you don’t have the history, you will struggle to understand the literature,” said Mary Werner, who opposed removing the test. She voted against moving the issue to public comment.
Vanderford explained that passing the history course would suffice to demonstrate mastery of the material.
Board of Education Chair Glen East expressed concern, but stated that Mississippi’s history curriculum was strong. He ultimately voted to open the issue to public comment. “I do not see us going backwards based on the plain increase in the curriculum and the rigor we have placed on it.”
Kelly Riley, executive director of Mississippi Professional Educators, said she was not surprised by the decision. “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 told the audience.
This article was originally published on Mississippi Today and is republished here under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives 4.0 International License.
