Pittsburgh school board members Tuesday expressed concern that the state's coming graduation exams will be a new impediment to disadvantaged students and conflict with coming changes in federal education law.

The state plans to phase in the so-called Keystone Exams through 2016-17. To graduate from high school in 2017, current fifth-graders will have to pass at least six of 10 exams or fulfill alternative requirements.

Paulette Poncelet, Pittsburgh Public Schools' chief of research, assessment and accountability, gave an overview of exam requirements to the school board Education Committee Tuesday night. Noting that 25 percent of state students don't graduate from high school on time, if ever, she said the exams are intended to boost school performance statewide.

That rationale didn't satisfy board member Thomas Sumpter.

"If students don't graduate on time now, how's a test going to make them graduate on time?" he said. He said he's concerned that the exams will create a "screen" that impedes some students' job-readiness or college-readiness efforts.

Dara Ware Allen said the state's intentions were good, but also expressed concern about creating a new roadblock for students, especially black males.

Floyd "Skip" McCrea said too many details about the exams remained up in their air, and he complained that the plan was developed by the same state government that "can't pass the budget" on time each year.

On Monday, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan raised the possibility of overhauling the No Child Left Behind Act, the 2002 law that put schools on a schedule for making all students proficient in math and reading by 2014.

Board member Jean Fink said she's worried that changes in the federal law will undercut Pennsylvania's graduation exams somehow.

"It just seems like the state Department of Education has one foot on the path and one hanging over the cliff, and you never know which way they're going to go," Mrs. Fink said.

To increase opportunities for graduation, Dr. Poncelet said, the state will allow students to retake tests, or portions of tests, multiple times. She said some students also will be able to supplement their scores with projects to be designed by the state and scored by state-assembled teams.

Districts have the option of designing their own graduation tests instead of using the Keystones. But Dr. Poncelet said that would be time-consuming and expensive.

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