The state board of education has yet to iron out details of its voluntary state graduation exam proposal, but if the Keystone Exams are approved, they may become voluntary in name only.

"If other states' experiences are relevant, over time most students and most school districts will be taking the state test. I would say almost all," said Jack Jennings, president and CEO of the Center on Education Policy, a public school advocacy group based in Washington, D.C.

The 10 Keystone Exams, which would be given at the end of courses, would test students in English, math, science and social studies using multiple-choice and open-ended response questions.

In the current version, the state offers several options for local school districts to allow their high school students to graduate:

• Students could pass at least six of the 10 exams, one each from science and social studies and two each from English and math.

• Schools could count scores from Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate tests for comparable subjects.

• Schools could require students to pass state-validated local assessments.

• Students could complete a locally designed academic project if the student fails a Keystone or state-validated local assessment.

But the current proposal has disincentives for school districts that choose local options, including extra costs and additional testing time.

States have "carrots and sticks" to encourage use of their own exams when they have programs with alternative options, said Will Jordan, associate professor of education at Temple University.

The state will ask the federal government for approval to use three of the Keystone exams, English literature, Algebra I and biology, to meet requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. If the request is approved, the current 11th-grade Pennsylvania System of School Assessment exams will be dropped, and all public schools would be mandated to administer the three tests to all students, except for some in special education.

The Keystone Exams likely would be cheaper to offer than local tests because districts would have to spend their resources to develop local tests, then possibly more time and money to have them validated, although the state would pay half of the validation cost.

Mr. Jennings was among those who said the alternatives allow for more school districts and former opponents to support the plan. He said the other options are "political relief valves" to "take some pressure off of adopting a statewide policy."

"Sometimes you have to do that. Politics is the art of the possible," agreed Alan Lesgold, dean of the University of Pittsburgh School of Education.

State Department of Education spokesman Michael Race said the new proposal and its options improve on the current 11th grade PSSA tests by "leaps and bounds" because the Keystone Exams provide a better assessment of whether students have the necessary skills for employment or higher education.

Some think the step is a relatively small improvement.

"It's a step in the right direction," said Dr. Lesgold. "But as long as we have disagreement, we're going to have to settle on taking small steps in the direction of educating our kids better."

Unlike the current Keystone proposal, the original graduation competency assessment plan, which was approved in an initial vote of the state board of education last year, would have served as a make-or-break determinant for graduation. Various state associations and legislators lambasted the plan and the development costs of state graduation tests.

The latest version, announced by Board of Education Chairman Joe Torsella this month, eased some of the tension by having the test worth only one-third of students' grades in each course and cutting costs by $40 million. A provision for the project option, modeled after Maryland's system, was included to allow districts more options, state board Executive Director Jim Buckheit said.

Maryland's Bridge Plan for Academic Validation started last fall, and Maryland officials are assessing the program's first year. The program allows schools to have students complete locally approved projects to show that they have acquired needed knowledge in the subject.

Mr. Jennings said the program has parallels to a failed plan implemented in New Jersey, where the state initially approved district-regulated projects. After finding that significant numbers of poor minority students were taking the project option, New Jersey officials changed their stance.

"New Jersey is now cracking down on this alternative portfolio pathway and is trying to have state criteria to make sure there isn't a loophole where poor kids don't have to pass a test," he said.

Dr. Jordan said the project plan may be "necessary evil" to give struggling school districts an alternate way to show their students can excel.

According to the Center on Education Policy, 24 states have high school graduation exams.