Based on several mandates emerging from both Harrisburg and Washington, D.C., in the last several years, it's evident that decision-makers want the quality of statewide public education to be consistent.

However, one such mandate has only made each school district more different from the next.

Since 2002-03, seniors have been required to complete a graduation project. According to Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) standards, this means students must demonstrate the ability to "apply, analyze, synthesize and evaluate information and communicate significant knowledge and understanding."

What the mandate doesn't specify, however, is how students should be required to demonstrate such knowledge.

The result? Graduation projects in Pennsylvania schools can be anything from brief one-page papers to extensive research projects.

Leah Harris, PDE assistant press secretary, said the requirements are intentionally vague to give individual districts freedom to develop their own programs.

But this lack of consistency is resulting in uneven education across the state.

Making educators and local school board members decide what is acceptable for these projects is not fair. If the state demands something, it should make that requirement clear.

The consequences of such lax guidelines recently manifested at North Hills High School, where the board whittled down program requirements from in-depth projects to one-page papers.

The surprising response to this was not a resounding cheer of joy from the entire student body.

Instead, students who had been working on projects for years and their parents came to meetings and wrote blogs, asking why suddenly no one cared about their work.

Overall, the graduation project concept is a good one. Since its inception, stories of the admirable work resulting from such projects have flooded newspapers. We've read about students who volunteered in distant countries, others who helped better their local community and even more who improved their own schools.

We can only imagine how many more great stories would materialize if all students were held to the same high standards.