Letter from the Education Committee of the Pennsylvania State Conference of NAACP Branches regarding the Keystone Exams

Letter from the Education Committee of the Pennsylvania State Conference of NAACP Branches regarding the Keystone Exams

September 3, 2013

TO:  The Pennsylvania State Board of Education

 Cc:   The House Education Committee of the Pennsylvania Assembly

         The Senate Education Committee of the Pennsylvania Assembly

         The Citizens of Pennsylvania

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People recognizes that for most people, education is the gateway to the economic mainstream; and that as such, education is a civil right.

For this reason, the Pennsylvania State Conference of NAACP Branches strongly opposes regulatory action that links the Keystone Examination to high school graduation.  We call for the removal from Chapter 4 of Keystone Examinations as a high school graduation requirement.  We are certain that such a regulation will create a shameful condition that defames the dream of a free society. 

We base our position on the following recognitions.

1 It is clear that the regulation linking Keystone Examination scores to high school graduation is a present day form of Eugenics. Hidden under the cloak of “the business community has asked for an improved workforce”, and “colleges are concerned about the number of students needing remediation”, attaching Keystone Examinations to graduation is clearly based on the idea that it is possible to distinguish between superior and inferior elements of society through selective scores on a paper and pencil test. This is a clandestine social movement that strips children of their dignity and self worth while it fails to address or to access any of the characteristics that lead to successful employment, as delineated on the Pennsylvania Labor and Industry web site

2. It is clear that the regulation linking Keystone Examination scores to high school graduation is a human rights violation.  It is an unspeakable horror for students who have completed the work assigned by their local school district to a satisfactory level to be told that they fail to graduate based on Keystone Examination scores. Such an action will create an atrocity that will rain down a holocaust on our youth and our society as a whole. To deprive young people of their diploma based on single criteria also deprives them of the freedom to prosper in life. Ultimately, withholding the diploma based on single criteria will deprive them over their lives of decent income, decent food, decent homes, and hopeful prospects as well as the security of justice.

3. The potential to destroy the social order is clear.  Pushing masses of students out of high school without a diploma will create a subculture of poverty comprised potentially of up to 60% of our young citizens. It will result in a sea of frustrated parents whose aspirations for their children have been dashed by the actions of the state; and leave them to deal with the life-long trauma imposed on their families.  

4. The disparate impact on women of linking Keystone examinations to graduation is clear.  As a result of a regulation that creates a distinction of high school failure, women will be further excluded and restricted in their economic and social access in an economy where existing pay discrimination has been demonstrated.

5. The cruel and unusual nature of failing to graduate from high school is a life-long punishment that condemns a person to having the doors to life slammed shut and to being consigned to a life of low income, limited housing choice, limited career choice, limited further education choice, and a limited vision for their progeny.

6. The disparate impact of the use of an arbitrary Keystone Examination score as a graduation requirement on students in underfunded schools is clear. Law makers have created a system of entrapment for the youth of Pennsylvania. They have brought students unawares into the danger and difficulty of a life of adversity. They have failed to provide the resources necessary to succeed on the exam while an obstacle - success on Keystone Examinations - must be overcome in order to move into a stable future.

7. The depraved indifference of regulating Keystone Examination scores as the requirement for high school graduation is clear and easily substantiated. Much has been presented to the public in the way of data and fact as to the harm of the use of such a tool. Evidence has been presented that questions the construction and content of the test. It is clear that the test does access the qualities needed to predict a good employee. The field of education has long since dismissed a test as a valid predictor of a student’s success in higher education. Given this information, clearly to impose such a regulation is deficient in a moral sense of concern, lacks regard for the lives of the children who will be harmed, and puts their lives and futures at risk.

The Pennsylvania State Conference of NAACP Branches cannot overstate the profoundly awful impact of regulating Keystone Examination scores as a requirement for high school graduation. It is a human rights violation to block and deter forever human beings from the opportunity to develop their potential and to pursue their dreams. It is abuse of power for the state to set such policy.  This is an action so brutal that it is tantamount to lynching our own young.

Joan Duvall-Flynn, Ed.D.

Chair, Education Committee

J. Whyatt Mondesire,

President, PA State Conference of NAACP Branches

ALLEGHENY EAST BRANCH

Lorraine Lewis Burke, President

ALLEGHENY-KISKI BRANCH

Dr. Liney Glenn, President

ALLENTOWN BRANCH NAACP

Daniel C Bosket, President

AMBLER BRANCH NAACP

Evelyn H. Warner, President

BEAVER COUNTY BRANCH

Willie Sallis, President

BETHLEHEM BRANCH NAACP
Esther M. Lee, President

BLAIR COUNTY BRANCH NAACP

Donald E. Witherspoon, President

BUCKS COUNTY NAACP

Victoria Harris, President
 

CARLISLE (Greater) BRANCH
Dwayne Jackson, Sr., President

CHELTENHAM AREA BRANCH 

Harvey L. Crudup, President

CHESTER BRANCH NAACP

Darrell Jones, President

CLAIRTON BRANCH NAACP

Greg E. Stewart, President

COATESVILLE BRANCH NAACP

Tonya Thames Taylor, President

DARBY AREA BRANCH NAACP

Sheila A. Carter, President
 

EAST BOROUGHS BRANCH

Deborah Brown, President 

EASTON BRANCH NAACP

John Robinson, President
 

ERIE BRANCH NAACP

Dorothy Smith- Frazier, President

 FAYETTE COUNTY BRANCH

Clinton Anderson, President

GREATER GETTYSBURG UNIT

Sara Gondwe, President

GRATERFORD CORRECTIONAL FACILTY NAACP

Mr. Donald Jones, CM1887, President

GREENSBURG-JEANNETTE BRANCH NAACP

Rev. Dr. Jack Sullivan, Jr., President

HARRISBURG (Greater)  BRANCH

Stanley R. Lawson, Sr., President

INDIANA BRANCH NAACP

Dr. Carolyn Princes, President

JOHNSTOWN BRANCH NAACP

Dr. Clea P.Hollis, President

LANCASTER BRANCH NAACP

Blanding Watson, President

LYCOMING TRI-COUNTY BRANCH NAACP

Gerald Smith, President

MAINLINE BRANCH NAACP

Diana Robertson, President

MCKEESPORT BRANCH NAACP

Ocie Paige, President

MEADVILLE BRANCH NAACP

Sam J. Byrd, Jr., President

MEDIA BRANCH NAACP

Dr. Joan Duval-Flynn, President

MERCER COUNTY NAACP

Monica Williams-Gregory, President

MONONGAHELA VALLEY BRANCH NAACP

George Burroughs, Jr., President

MONROE COUNTY BRANCH

Beatrice Cyrus, Secretary

NEW CASTLE BRANCH NAACP

Sidney McKnight, President

NORRISTOWN BRANCH NAACP

M. Lana Shells, President

PENN HILLS BRANCH NAACP

Joyce Davis, President
 

PHILADELPHIA BRANCH NAACP

J. Whyatt Mondesire, President

PITTSBURGH BRANCH NAACP

Connie Parker, President

POTTSTOWN BRANCH NAACP

Newstell Marable, President

READING BRANCH NAACP

Robert Jefferson, President

WASHINGTON COUNTY BRANCH

Dean Ellis, President

WEST CHESTER BRANCH NAACP

Alice H. Hammond, President

WILLOW GROVE BRANCH NAACP

WILKES-BARRE BRANCH NAACP

Ronald L. Felton, President

YEADON BRANCH NAACP

Linda Osinupedi, President

YORK BRANCH NAACP

Sandra Thompson, President

NATIONAL BOARD

Jessica D. Butler

J. Whyatt Mondesire