The LA Times reports that “momentum is growing to provide alternatives to California’s controversial high school exit exam.”

This is a test that provides students six chances, starting in their sophomore year, to prove that they can meet standards expected of sixth to eighth graders in math and tenth graders in English.

To pass, a test assistance site says “the passing score for the Mathematics section … is a Scale Score of 350 which represents an approximately Raw Score (percent correct) of 55%. The passing score for English-Language Arts section … is a Scale Score of 350 which represents an approximate Raw Score (percent correct) of 60%.”

Although the Times reports that “so far, 83% of next year’s seniors have passed the English portion of the test and 82% have passed math,” there are moves afoot to delay the must-pass requirement or provide some alternative proof of competence.

Yes, let’s isolate the students who aren’t passing and give them extra help. But if high school students can’t score 55% - 60% on a test of sixth to tenth grade knowledge after six tries, should we pat them on the back and give them a diploma anyway?

Several months ago Area Man made the controversial posting “If you lined up the people from my high school, I can think of more than 1 out of 142 that were pure jerks and deserving of a life in jail.” A similar thing needs to be said here — if a diploma is supposed to represent something — even this minimum standard — then perhaps 10% - 20% of high school students don’t deserve one.

[Here is a link to the California Department of Education site for the test, which includes actual exams]

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 28th, 2005 at 10:57 am by A Senior Administration Official and is filed under California Schemin', Brilliant, but uncategorizable, (Un)education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.