Leo Dassa is a junior at
Pikesville High School. He has a 3.5 GPA and has dreams of going to the
University of Maryland. To reach his dream, he had to overcome a hurdle, the High School Assessments.
The High School Assessments are a series of mandatory tests in biology, government, algebra and English. Starting this year, you have to pass the exams to get a Maryland high school diploma.
The HSAs were part of a decade long push by Maryland State School Superintendent, Dr. Nancy Grasmick, to strengthen Maryland’s graduation standards.
“We have a large number of students in Maryland who enter high schools and they have many different teachers,” Dr. Nancy Grasmick explains. “And there ought to be a single state standard that will guarantee there’s equity in the way we’re saying that students had mastered content.”
Leo has a learning disability. “I have a 504, and it lets me be able to have extra time on the test when I need it,” Leo says. “If it wasn’t a test, you would do so well on it, but for people who have learning disabilities like I do, you just freeze.”
Leo was able to pass the HSAs. However, he feels that the test does not allow some students to show how smart they really are.
