The Keystone Exam is a

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

standardized test A standardized test is a test that is administered and scored in a consistent, or "standard", manner. Standardized tests are designed in such a way that the questions and interpretations are consistent and are administered and scored in a predete ...

administered to the public schools of Pennsylvania, United States. The test has been developed by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Education. Since the 2012–2013 school year, the General Keystone Knowledge Test

Literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

Biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

, and

Algebra Algebra () is one of the broad areas of mathematics. Roughly speaking, algebra is the study of mathematical symbols and the rules for manipulating these symbols in formulas; it is a unifying thread of almost all of mathematics. Elementary a ...

I VHS Exams have been available.Pennsylvania Dept. of Education
According to the Department of Education, groups of educators from across the state decided what content should be covered in the exams.Dept of Education Letter to Parents
/ref> Due to the

Coronavirus Pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

, the 2020 spring Keystones and PSSA testing were cancelled.

Transition

The Keystone Exam has replaced the

Pennsylvania System of School Assessment The Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) is a standardized test administered in public schools in the state of Pennsylvania. Students in grades 3-8 are assessed in English language arts skills and mathematics. Students in grades 4 and 8 ...

(PSSA) standardized tests fully for all public school students for secondary school. In the 2012–2013 school year, secondary schools began the transition from the PSSA to the Keystone Exam.Transition plan
/ref>

Graduation Requirement

The passing of Keystone Exams in Algebra I, Biology, and Literature were all a graduation requirement for all high school students. Getting a score of "proficient" or higher was needed in order to pass the exam for a particular subject matter. On February 3, 2016,

Tom Wolf Thomas Westerman Wolf (born November 17, 1948) is an American politician and businessman serving as the 47th governor of Pennsylvania since 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, he defeated Republican incumbent Tom Corbett in the 2014 guber ...

signed a bill from the Senate saying that it should no longer be a requirement for students to pass the exams in the desired subject areas. That also ordered the government to halt the graduation requirement of the Keystone Exams for two years along with the "Project Based Assessment" system. The bill also requires the government to find alternative methods for high school graduation requirements in the coming months.

References

{{reflist Education in Pennsylvania Standardized tests in the United States