At its July 10, 2019 meeting, PA  State Board of Education approved PDE’s recommendation to revise the satisfactory Keystone Exam composite score to 4,452, which would be used as one of the pathways to graduation under Act 158 of 2018.  The Keystone Exam Composite Score is the sum of the scale scores for the three Keystone Exams (Algebra I, biology and literature). A student must achieve at least a scale score of 1,500 on any one exam in order to score proficient, with 4,500 as the sum of three proficient scores. The change in the composite score to 4,452 , helps to ensure that a student who may have missed the composite cut of 4,500 due to measurement error is not prevented from graduating. However, students who meet the board-approved composite score of 4,452 must also score proficient on one of the three exams and no less than basic on the other two. According to PDE, 65.4% of 2017-18 twelfth graders scored met those requirements. For more information, please see PSBA’s summary of Act 158 changes to high school graduation requirements.

Thanks to PSBA for its contributing information.