*This article has been corrected since published.
According to social studies resource teacher Ty Healey, the 2011 Maryland budget did not include the National, State, and Local Government (NSL) High School Assessment (HSA), so though it will still be administered this year, passing the exam is not required for students who are graduating after 2011. This is the last year that the test will be administered.
Students graduating this year still need to have passed the test, but since most students take this HSA during their sophomore year, the number of people for whom this test is valuable this year is very small.
“I assume [the tests] were already printed and ready as that money would have come from the previous budget,” said Healey. “I don’t know why we are administering it to every student even though the vast majority do not need it to graduate.”
Though the score will not be counted for underclassmen, students may opt to use the score of their NSL HSA to count towards their composite score graduation requirement. The HSA system requires a composite score from the four HSAs (Algebra, Biology, English 10 and NSL) of 1602 in order to graduate. Next year, the passing composite score for three tests will be 1208. Students graduating in 2012 can still use all four scores to reach the composite score of 1602, or use the Algebra, Biology, and English tests to reach the score of 1208.
Though the HSA requirement has been canceled, taking and passing the NSL class is still a graduation requirement, so students cannot entirely dismiss this material.
