Kudos for the Philadelphia Inquirer endorsing PA Board's plan to require exit exams for high school students...

Editorial: State High Schools
Graduating failure

The numbers are staggering.
More than 56,000 Pennsylvania high school seniors graduated with "empty diplomas" in 2006 because they failed state math and reading tests. They were given diplomas, in some cases, for just showing up. They left high school without mastering the basic skills to get a job or enter college.

That has prompted state Education Secretary Gerald Zahorchak to push for tougher new regulations requiring students to pass at least six tests in English, math, science and social studies. This is a smart step.

Instead of a comprehensive test on everything learned over several years, students would be tested at the end of a course, similar to a final exam. For example, a student could take the Algebra I test as a freshman.

Congratulations to Helen Gym, The Inquirer's 2007 Citizen of the Year!
From today's Inquirer:

Editorial | Helen Gym
This inclusionary leader has tirelessly fought to improve city schools.

Mayor-elect Michael Nutter could've just taken a bow last week after the announcement that the city and schools would get an extra $2.71 million this year from the Philadelphia Parking Authority.
Instead, the man who wants citizens to stand up and help him to make the city better shared the limelight with people who are doing just that: Parents United for Public Education.

"The parents deserve a tremendous amount of credit," Nutter said. "They came upon this issue, focused on this issue, and drew some serious attention to it, and they are the true champions here."

Parents United has spent the last two years speaking out at School Reform Commission meetings, poring over budgets, pushing City Council to commit more resources to education, and insisting that the Parking Authority live up to its promise to help fund city schools.

While this is undeniably a team effort, the voice of one Parents United member stands out:

Helen Gym, The Inquirer's 2007 Citizen of the Year.

Here's a bit of that voice:

"It's crazy to think in this day and age that asking for music in a child's life is radical. That it is radical and revolutionary to demand a qualified teacher, or science labs and decent bathroom facilities, or healthy fresh food in lunchrooms. . . .

"If these things are radical, then all of us need to become militant to our core."

Read more at http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/20071223_Editorial___Helen_Gym.ht..., photo property of the Philadelphia Inquirer.