The opposition groups include many school boards and legislators. A House bill that would block the state Department of Education from even developing the tests already has 107 cosponsors.

"I've been getting inundated with resolutions from school boards; they don't like it," said James Roebuck (D., Philadelphia), chairman of the House Education Committee. He said the Board of Education and the Rendell administration should withdraw the proposal and hold a new round of discussions.

"This is not a partisan issue - the opposition is coming from everywhere," he said.

The state Board of Education's proposed regulation passed unanimously in January as a way to address what Education Department officials say is the widespread granting of "empty diplomas" to students who graduate without mastering basic skills.

The proposal is undergoing an approval process that normally takes as long as a year. If it goes into effect, students would start taking reading, writing, math, science and social studies tests in 2010, and the senior class of 2014 would have to meet the new requirements.

But many school boards say that local districts are the best judge of whether students are qualified to graduate and are fearful that the tests will lead discouraged students to drop out. And legislators say they don't want to see another set of tests added to those students already have to take.

Close to 30 percent of the state's 501 school boards have passed resolutions opposing the test proposal. And 20 groups, ranging from teachers unions to the Pennsylvania PTA and the Pennsylvania State Conference of NAACP Branches, also oppose it.

Supporters are not giving up.

"I'm not willing to withdraw this proposal, because I think it is in the best interests of the students," said Karl Girton, the Board of Education's chairman. "There are many people who support this effort, including the superintendents of most if not all of the state's largest school districts . . . and all 14 state university presidents."

State Education Secretary Gerald Zahorchak says the change is necessary for students to compete in a global economy. "This is an essential piece of our education system - it is key. . . . I will be in front in the charge," he said.

Since 2003, seniors were already supposed to meet state-set graduation standards in core subjects. But Zahorchak and other critics say there is a big loophole: They get diplomas if they pass local assessments that he contends are often dumbed down.

The new board proposal would make school districts prove that their local assessments are as demanding as the state tests.

Tens of thousands of 11th graders - 45 percent of them in 2005-06 - failed one or more PSSA (Pennsylvania System of School Assessment, the state's No Child Left Behind exams) tests, yet received diplomas the next June. That means, Zahorchak says, that districts are giving diplomas to students who have not mastered the basics. He also points to large numbers of students taking remedial courses in college and numerous reports from employers of high school graduates who can't read or do math well.

The new board proposal says students can take up to 10 state tests, called Graduation Competency Assessments, immediately after taking the related subjects.

Students would have to pass six tests or show proficiency by other means, such as passing PSSAs or Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate exams. If they failed, they would get remedial help and could take several retests. The state would develop a model curriculum for the subjects and step up teacher training.

"We have to get to a place where we know we are measuring in a uniform way and we know that our students are achieving the ends that we desire," Zahorchak said in a recent interview.

Opponents see it differently.

"Graduation has always been a matter of local control - they're saying you can only do it right through the state, and we're saying that's not true," said Timothy Allwein, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, which has coordinated much of the opposition.

Rather than come up with one-size-fits-all statewide tests, Allwein said, the state should "look at local assessments, share the best of them with other districts, and make sure all of them are aligned to the standards."

He contended that most districts' graduation requirements meet state standards and that the state should concentrate on fixing those that do not. Local assessments do a better job of showing whether students know the material than the PSSA, he said.

About 14 percent of school districts that responded to a recent survey use portfolio assessments - a comprehensive evaluation of a student's course work - to help determine if a student is qualified to graduate, Allwein said. Portfolio assessment, which would be impossible under the proposed new system, is often used because "if you are not a good test-taker, you are going to have problems" on any standardized test such as graduation competency tests or the PSSAs, he said.

Other opponents cited other objections. "I'm a huge believer in testing," to evaluate how well schools are educating children, said Rogers Vaughn, the president of Chester County's West Chester Area School District. But in his district and many others, the focus has been on improving elementary reading skills, Vaughn said.

Schools need to improve elementary grades before they can impose the tests on high schools, he added. "I recognize that there is a problem - some students are not qualified - but this is not the answer."

The proposal remains a hard sell for some students.

Allegra Simms, 19, a sophomore at Lincoln University and a 2006 graduate of Philadelphia's Dobbins High School who attended a forum on graduation tests last week, said she passed high school algebra but had failed the course in college because high school had not adequately prepared her. "The standards need to be higher, and they need to be equal all the way around," she said.

But she added that school districts need to make sure they can bring all students up to the standards before they give state tests. Otherwise, "can you imagine how many students are going to drop out" because they feel they won't pass?

Supporters of the board proposal remain adamant that the current system shortchanges students and their eventual employers. The tests would be "fulfilling a promise to parents and children that when they leave high school, they are ready for college and for work, and we are not doing that now," said Joan Benso, president of the Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children, a child advocacy group.