The North Hills School Board has joined with other school boards to oppose a state-wide graduation competency assessment.

School board members voted unanimously to adopt a resolution that would be sent on to the Pennsylvania Department of Education, informing the department of their disagreement with such a policy.

"It's been pretty much the opinion of the majority of the school districts in the state that this is just adding another layer of assessments to the students," said Jeff Taylor, director of technology and instructional services for the district. "There's other ways of doing that, sort of equalizing the field when it comes to graduation requirements without adding another layer of assessments."

The assessment, proposed by the department of education, in January as an option to ensure rigor in obtaining a diploma, would require high school students to pass a series of tests in various subjects.

The cost of development and administration of the exams would be paid by the commonwealth.

The exams would be used in place of final exams, and could be taken at any time throughout a student's high school career after completion of a course.

"We have allowed diplomas to be awarded to students who have not been able to demonstrate basic levels of preparedness for life beyond high school for too long," said Gerald Zahorchak, state secretary of education, in January.

"By handing out 'empty' diplomas, we are cheating our children and our commonwealth."

Board member Eloise Peet said adding the exams would be like adding another set of tests on top of the Pennsylvania System of School Assessments, given annually to students as a benchmark under the No Child Left Behind Act.