Part of our (very) occasional series “We Agree With The Los Angeles Times‘ Editorial Page” … from Sunday’s Current:

The bar is low enough

If passing grades or senior reports signified that students were fit for a diploma, there never would have been a high school exit exam in the first place. Now that the exam is on the eve of being required for a diploma — starting with the class of 2006 — a bill has made it through the Legislature that would set the whole process back by a decade.

AB 1531 by Assemblywoman Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) would allow school districts to come up with their own assessments for students who flunk the test. This could involve a special project or a portfolio of work.

Without the exit exam requirement, high schools for years have been graduating teenagers with substandard skills …

Bass’ bill would allow mushy measurements of basic subject mastery that could be prone to abuse. How does the state know that a student hasn’t cheated on one of these special projects? Local school districts, which would control and grade the assessments once they are approved by the state, have a vested interest in boosting their graduation rates with a false “pass.”

… Bass’ concern is that the test might deny many poor and minority students a diploma, but isn’t denying them the skills for a decent job far worse?

The effort to weaken the exit exam has been going on since at least April. We pointed out then that the exam sets such a ridiculously low standard that it would be hard to make it easier:

(it)t 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%.”

… 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”

How sad that Bass feels is necessary to circumvent a test that has such low expectations: requiring high school seniors to get only a 55% on a test of grade 6 to grade 8 math, and a 60% on a test of grade 10 English … a test that only about 12% (new data as of August 2005) of seniors have not yet passed.

Bass ignores the fact that sometimes fear can be a powerful motivator. Student scores on standardized tests improve when there is something at stake — like their high school diploma. Bass’ bill gives students the excuse they need to not take the exit exam, and their schooling, seriously.

And Bass’ timing couldn’t be worse. Something about the exam is working. In August, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell released new exit exam results:

So far, an estimated 88 percent of the class of 2006 has passed the English-language arts portion of the test and an estimated 88 percent has passed the math portion of the test. The class of 2006 is the first class in California required to pass the high school exit exam in order to receive a high school diploma.

… “The vast majority of the incoming senior class has already passed the exit exam, and our schools have cut in half the number of students that have yet to pass. At this pace, we are on track toward a passage rate close to the same percentage of students that now fulfill all other requirements to receive a high school diploma.”

… The test results show a 21 percentage point gain in mathematics by African American students, but still, only a 75 percent passage rate by the eleventh grade; and a 19 percentage point gain in English-language arts with an 82 percent passage rate by the eleventh grade.

Results for Latino students show a 20 percentage point gain in mathematics, but an 81 percent estimated passage rate in the eleventh grade; and a 19 percentage point gain in English-language arts with an 81 percent passage rate in the eleventh grade.

Why mess with this (modest) success? As the LAT pointed out, Bass’ alternative assessments are just a return to business as usual. And that wasn’t working so well.

Bass’ bill is the wrong idea at the wrong time.

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Perhaps we shouldn’t be worried. Bass’ bill does state that the “alternative performance assessments … (must) reflect a level of academic rigor equal to or greater than the level of academic rigor required for passage of the high school exit examination.” That’s reassuring.

You can track the status of the bill at the legislature’s site here. You can contact Bass’ office here. See more on the exit exam from the state Department of Education.

Technorati Tags: California, education, exit exam

This entry was posted on Monday, September 19th, 2005 at 11:57 am by A Senior Administration Official and is filed under (Un)education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.