What is the future for high school exit exam?
By Jennifer Solis
An Alameda County judge says he will rule Friday on the future of California’s high school exit exam (CAHSEE), but he has already indicated that an injunction will probably allow high school seniors who have failed the test to graduate with their class. School districts, he said, will be allowed to indicate on diplomas if a student has passed the exit exam.
Arturo Gonzalez, the San Francisco attorney who filed the lawsuit in February, on behalf of several students, alleges that the CAHSEE is unfair to students of low income families, ethnic minorities and non-native English speakers who go to schools with fewer resources and sub-par teachers.
The lawsuit asks for a preliminary injunction that would prevent the state’s high schools from denying diplomas to students who have not passed the test, until California ensures that “every student has an equal chance to prepare for it.”
The two-part test requires a knowledge of 8th grade level math and 9th to 10th grade level English. Students can begin taking the exam as sophomores, and again multiple times through their senior year, and must answer correctly little more than half the answers in each section to pass.
In previous years, according to education department figures, about 50,000, or 13-percent of high school seniors, fail to graduate for various reasons. This does not include those who have dropped out of school previously, before the 12th grade. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has added $20-million to his proposed state budget to provide extra resources to help students pass the CAHSEE.
An estimated 46,768 high school seniors in California, about 10.7-percent of the total, have not passed the CAHSEE, or are waiting for results of tests taken this week or in March. Those that passed either of those examinations will not have their results in time for next month’s graduations. Special education students (about 22,300 in the state) already have a one-year reprieve as part of a settlement from another lawsuit.
Of the total who have failed, 83-percent are from low income families, and 71-percent are classified as English learners. The Los Angeles Unified School district has 5,280, or18-percent of its seniors, who have not passed the exit examination. About 19-percent of African American seniors have not passed the CAHSEE, compared with about 4-percent of non-Hispanic Caucasians.
The state’s school superintendent, Jack O’Connell, was a state senator in March 1999, when the Legislature passed his bill establishing the exam. It was supposed to be a graduation requirement for high school seniors graduating in 2004, but was postponed for two years because about 13-percent of that class failed to pass.
O’Connell now calls the exit exam “a cornerstone of California’s school accountability system.”
No matter how Alameda County Superior Court Judge Robert B. Freedman rules on Friday, the losing side will appeal. The following week, Freedman will hear a related lawsuit brought by Public Advocates, which claims the state education department failed to timely investigate alternatives to the state exit exam. Public Advocates recently won a $1-billion settlement regarding equal access to education in California schools.
Although a high school diploma is not a necessary requirement to enter a community college, it is required to receive state financial aid, including a Cal Grant, which is popular for low-income students. Once a student completes 60 units of transferable credits, he or she can enter California’s state universities. The University of California can also admit freshmen who have a very high grade point average, but don’t have a high school diploma nor have passed the CAHSEE.
Community colleges already spend millions of dollars on remedial classes for students who lack basic English and math skills. They must pass these classes before continuing with college level work.
Despite spending over $8,000 per student, California has the largest class sizes in the nation above third grade. Add to that the institutionalized theory of social promotion – the feel-good idea of moving along a failing student to the next grade so that self-esteem does not suffer, and it is no wonder that most students arrive at high school unprepared for ninth grade work.
The state cannot administer a uniform test unless it delivers uniform preparation. The purpose should not be to embarrass students, or compare school districts, but rather to set a standard floor, below which they cannot be recognized as having achieved the educational level required for a state high school diploma. The position of the governor and superintendent of schools is that they have the power, along with the approval of the legislature, to set such a standard.
The mentality of the lawsuit is that it is unfair to compare one human being with another, because it is inherently unfair to the student that loses in that comparison. The legality of the challenge is that the level of the delivery of the state’s education does not meet the same standards throughout the state. For example, the level of education is not the same in East Los Angeles as it is in Woodland Hills.
The question is, since ninety percent of the state’s high school seniors have passed the test, what would be considered an unacceptable rate of failure? Five percent? One percent? Or just one student? Should the state design a test that is certain to be passed by every student taking it? Should this decision be made by a lawyer (now a judge), or an educator, with the affirmation of the elected legislature?
Do we give a diploma simply for showing up for class for 12 years and having achieved a barely passing average of grades?
By setting the level of achievement for the CAHSEE at 8th to 10th grade standards, the exam completely ignores English and math skills taught in 11th and 12th grades. Moreover, the student can be wrong on more than a third of the answers, and still pass.
Just how much have we made life failure proof? In ancient generations, if you could not plant a crop, or had hunting skills – you starved. Even more recently, if you didn’t develop the life skills necessary to be either self-employed, or worth hiring for a wage, you lived in poverty. Modern society is more compassionate, and has developed numerous safety nets, so that one can go through life, knowing almost nothing, including the ability to communicate.
No one will argue that there is an unequal application of education. If you are unlucky enough to live in the boundary of schools that are less motivated for success, and have no vouchers to transfer to a private education, you’re trapped. The only option is to get your family to move. For the poor, that is probably not an option.
Standardized tests are the only known indicator for comparing the success of schools, but the under-performing schools are also trapped by the demographics of their neighborhoods. Students that travel long distances, such as from downtown to the Valley, for a better education, are again disadvantaged by the hundreds of hours commuting – time that could have been spent doing homework, or participating in motivational school activities.
The educational standards have been dumbed down so much in the past half century, largely because we have imported poverty through unrestricted immigration. For most English learners, the only exposure they get is a few hours listening to a teacher. As soon as they leave class and enter the hallways, take lunch, socialize after school and return home, they hear and speak only their native language. For Hispanics, the only television they hear is Spanish language. Under such conditions, how can any school succeed in teaching English fluency, especially to the degree that they could understand, much less pass examinations?
Many test critics would like to de-emphasize the math requirements, but it is well known that it exercises and utilizes the same critical thinking and problem solving skills that are necessary in every aspect of life. Such notable entry level employers like McDonald’s have already given up on this expectancy by putting pictures of the food items on their cash register keys.
Even if English is not officially the language of the United States – and many believe it should be – it is the common thread of our society on many levels. It doesn’t matter if one speaks with an accent.
Employers will soon ask job prospects, not if they have a high school diploma, but rather if, and perhaps how well, they did on the CAHSEE. Will the ACLU then step in and sue for employment discrimination?
Standardized testing is to education, what a physical examination is to an autopsy. Whatever happened to Jefferson’s meritocracy?
An Alameda County judge says he will rule Friday on the future of California’s high school exit exam (CAHSEE), but he has already indicated that an injunction will probably allow high school seniors who have failed the test to graduate with their class. School districts, he said, will be allowed to indicate on diplomas if a student has passed the exit exam.
Arturo Gonzalez, the San Francisco attorney who filed the lawsuit in February, on behalf of several students, alleges that the CAHSEE is unfair to students of low income families, ethnic minorities and non-native English speakers who go to schools with fewer resources and sub-par teachers.
The lawsuit asks for a preliminary injunction that would prevent the state’s high schools from denying diplomas to students who have not passed the test, until California ensures that “every student has an equal chance to prepare for it.”
The two-part test requires a knowledge of 8th grade level math and 9th to 10th grade level English. Students can begin taking the exam as sophomores, and again multiple times through their senior year, and must answer correctly little more than half the answers in each section to pass.
In previous years, according to education department figures, about 50,000, or 13-percent of high school seniors, fail to graduate for various reasons. This does not include those who have dropped out of school previously, before the 12th grade. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has added $20-million to his proposed state budget to provide extra resources to help students pass the CAHSEE.
An estimated 46,768 high school seniors in California, about 10.7-percent of the total, have not passed the CAHSEE, or are waiting for results of tests taken this week or in March. Those that passed either of those examinations will not have their results in time for next month’s graduations. Special education students (about 22,300 in the state) already have a one-year reprieve as part of a settlement from another lawsuit.
Of the total who have failed, 83-percent are from low income families, and 71-percent are classified as English learners. The Los Angeles Unified School district has 5,280, or18-percent of its seniors, who have not passed the exit examination. About 19-percent of African American seniors have not passed the CAHSEE, compared with about 4-percent of non-Hispanic Caucasians.
The state’s school superintendent, Jack O’Connell, was a state senator in March 1999, when the Legislature passed his bill establishing the exam. It was supposed to be a graduation requirement for high school seniors graduating in 2004, but was postponed for two years because about 13-percent of that class failed to pass.
O’Connell now calls the exit exam “a cornerstone of California’s school accountability system.”
No matter how Alameda County Superior Court Judge Robert B. Freedman rules on Friday, the losing side will appeal. The following week, Freedman will hear a related lawsuit brought by Public Advocates, which claims the state education department failed to timely investigate alternatives to the state exit exam. Public Advocates recently won a $1-billion settlement regarding equal access to education in California schools.
Although a high school diploma is not a necessary requirement to enter a community college, it is required to receive state financial aid, including a Cal Grant, which is popular for low-income students. Once a student completes 60 units of transferable credits, he or she can enter California’s state universities. The University of California can also admit freshmen who have a very high grade point average, but don’t have a high school diploma nor have passed the CAHSEE.
Community colleges already spend millions of dollars on remedial classes for students who lack basic English and math skills. They must pass these classes before continuing with college level work.
Despite spending over $8,000 per student, California has the largest class sizes in the nation above third grade. Add to that the institutionalized theory of social promotion – the feel-good idea of moving along a failing student to the next grade so that self-esteem does not suffer, and it is no wonder that most students arrive at high school unprepared for ninth grade work.
The state cannot administer a uniform test unless it delivers uniform preparation. The purpose should not be to embarrass students, or compare school districts, but rather to set a standard floor, below which they cannot be recognized as having achieved the educational level required for a state high school diploma. The position of the governor and superintendent of schools is that they have the power, along with the approval of the legislature, to set such a standard.
The mentality of the lawsuit is that it is unfair to compare one human being with another, because it is inherently unfair to the student that loses in that comparison. The legality of the challenge is that the level of the delivery of the state’s education does not meet the same standards throughout the state. For example, the level of education is not the same in East Los Angeles as it is in Woodland Hills.
The question is, since ninety percent of the state’s high school seniors have passed the test, what would be considered an unacceptable rate of failure? Five percent? One percent? Or just one student? Should the state design a test that is certain to be passed by every student taking it? Should this decision be made by a lawyer (now a judge), or an educator, with the affirmation of the elected legislature?
Do we give a diploma simply for showing up for class for 12 years and having achieved a barely passing average of grades?
By setting the level of achievement for the CAHSEE at 8th to 10th grade standards, the exam completely ignores English and math skills taught in 11th and 12th grades. Moreover, the student can be wrong on more than a third of the answers, and still pass.
Just how much have we made life failure proof? In ancient generations, if you could not plant a crop, or had hunting skills – you starved. Even more recently, if you didn’t develop the life skills necessary to be either self-employed, or worth hiring for a wage, you lived in poverty. Modern society is more compassionate, and has developed numerous safety nets, so that one can go through life, knowing almost nothing, including the ability to communicate.
No one will argue that there is an unequal application of education. If you are unlucky enough to live in the boundary of schools that are less motivated for success, and have no vouchers to transfer to a private education, you’re trapped. The only option is to get your family to move. For the poor, that is probably not an option.
Standardized tests are the only known indicator for comparing the success of schools, but the under-performing schools are also trapped by the demographics of their neighborhoods. Students that travel long distances, such as from downtown to the Valley, for a better education, are again disadvantaged by the hundreds of hours commuting – time that could have been spent doing homework, or participating in motivational school activities.
The educational standards have been dumbed down so much in the past half century, largely because we have imported poverty through unrestricted immigration. For most English learners, the only exposure they get is a few hours listening to a teacher. As soon as they leave class and enter the hallways, take lunch, socialize after school and return home, they hear and speak only their native language. For Hispanics, the only television they hear is Spanish language. Under such conditions, how can any school succeed in teaching English fluency, especially to the degree that they could understand, much less pass examinations?
Many test critics would like to de-emphasize the math requirements, but it is well known that it exercises and utilizes the same critical thinking and problem solving skills that are necessary in every aspect of life. Such notable entry level employers like McDonald’s have already given up on this expectancy by putting pictures of the food items on their cash register keys.
Even if English is not officially the language of the United States – and many believe it should be – it is the common thread of our society on many levels. It doesn’t matter if one speaks with an accent.
Employers will soon ask job prospects, not if they have a high school diploma, but rather if, and perhaps how well, they did on the CAHSEE. Will the ACLU then step in and sue for employment discrimination?
Standardized testing is to education, what a physical examination is to an autopsy. Whatever happened to Jefferson’s meritocracy?
Posted by Anonymous @ 5/10/2006 01:15:00 AM
17 Comments:
mathematics=geek
journailism without math=journalist
geek=computers
geek with writing skills=blog
journalist without math skills=unemployed
geek with math and journalism skills = the man with the money and the man who can build his own computer, write his own programs, administer their own network and make ton's of money
Common sense tells us why these journalists who write editorials about how kids shouldn't take algebra ; they don't want the competition.
People always think that taking the easy way out is cool. As long as you can get away with it. I see the lowering numbers for the LA Times as the writing on the wall that all of these folks who didn't task thier brains but only pursued their strengths are in big trouble.
What's your problem with the ACLU? You talk shit about them in basically every post, and half of the time where you mention the group they wouldn't even be hypothetically relevant.
Seriously, we need a better variety of straw-men around here.
ACLU pretends to stick up for minorities and others yet most of the time they make things worst. Al they know how to do is file lawsuits but if they really cared would be part of a solution not the problem. Ask them what they do with the money the make off these lawsuits. These exit exams are another example of how lazy the Latino kids have gotten. Good for the Latino kids on the news yesterday who stated that the test is not hard and the students that are failing are screwing around and not studying. Another dumb excuse is the test is not in Spanish. LEARN ENGLISH. If a kid hasn't learned english by the time they are a senior that's their fault. No other culture allows bi-lingual education in the schools and they still whine and complain. I'm sick of the excuses cause their parents don't know how to discipline their damn kids. Its always stated at meetings the problems with kids today are the PARENTS.
"Standardized testing is to education, what a physical examination is to an autopsy."
If this is the best analogy you can muster, no wonder your SAT scores sucked.
The teachers in LAUSD have the same credentials as the teachers in La Canada.
Why the disparity in test scores?
The schools in Woodland Hills are administered by the same bureaucracy as those in South-Central. Why the disparity in test scores?
It must be the "system" that is keeping the poor students from learning. It is cramming their backpacks with I-pods, camera phones, PSP2'S and other assorted entertainment devices. Go into any LAUSD high school and check those backpacks. How many students are carrying dictionaries? Books? Paper and pen/pencil? I can tell you from experience that many students in LAUSD expect to pass classes because they are present and nice to the teacher. What about learning? That's boring!
I can't believe LAUSD students in the minority communities have cell phones. Some of their parents are working 2 jobs to support the family and yet they give it to them. A pyschologist stated students today get brain energy from video games, text messaging, etc. and rarely do it the old fashion way of reading a book. There's no discipline at home to do homework so they want to blame the system.
Jennifer Solis is a fraud. It's just gay ass Mayor Sam in a skirt.
Lolita fetish?
Yes, let's blame the students. They come to school and pass the classes the need to graduate. So, if they can't pass the test, doesn't the school system bear some responsibility there? Kids sit in overcroweded classes, with no books or shared books, on messed up year-round calendars that parents in richer districts wouldn't stand for and then we tell them that they can't get a diploma because they didn't pass the test. Ya, that makes sense.
10:38am then all those Latinos should have been protesting the education system. Why haven't they come out in numbers against LAUSD. This is the question: If you have 10 students all have Spanish as a main language at home. All poor, in overcrowded schools why is it that 1/2 will pass the test and the other 1/2 fail? I could understand if no one was passing the test at these schools but that's not the case. There are many students at some of the worst schools in LA passing this test.
Oh my god I almost fell off my chair laughing so hard. Ed Reyes just made a comparison when speaking on an illegal immigration issue in city council. When making the comparison he used Madonna and Britney Spears. Someone please give Ed a history book or something to educate himself. We know where is mentality is.
High School ENTRANCE exams is what's needed.
You fail THAT, you go straight to janiorial trade school, and we stop wasting billion$ (high school is THE most expensive K-12 school portion, by far) on deadbeats, 50 percent of which will either drop out, or fail to graduate.
this basically says that minorities are dumbshits and need that extra edge. they way I see it, quadratic equation is the same the whole world over. India, heck India, a third world country with LOW resources puts out more students with the knowledge of math that pretty soon we will see them solve the zeta function theory. a lawsuit like this only solidifies that mexicans are in fact dumb, lazy and want the easy way out.
Ms. Solis's statments were all too true. When are we going to end the blame game and get with the do the school work. as well as learn English. What is so racist about that.?
Let them all clean toilets!!!!
And join their slimeball leader! All they know how to do is march, scream, yell, demand, whine, and complain.
Clean our toilets!!!!
Lets See, can anyone on this blog explain what a linear equation is? anyone...? I bet not one of those mexican kids that were out there complaining knows what it is exactly, can any of the bloggers guess?
el Gringo,
I surmise that you place a high value on education. Andover? Princeton background perhaps..
Anyway, we spend billions yearly for LAUSD and the returns are negligible. Our so-called leaders -- for their own base political purposes -- encourage truancy. Frustrating as hell.
Linear equations are the simplest form of equations and we use these types of equations on a daily basis in our daily lives.
Let's say we buy two books for the same price and you bought a cd for 12 dollars and you spent 18 dollars total you get the equation
2x+12=18
we find out that each book costs 3 dollars
Simplest form equation there is.
Linear equations are also used in bridge building and of course the creation of the foundaitons for huge walls.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home