Los Angeles sophomores are tackling the California High School Exit Exam for the first time:
Thousands of Los Angeles Unified 10th-graders will spend today and Wednesday taking the California High School Exit Exam -- a test they must pass before they can earn their diplomas in 2006...
The exam debuted in 2001, replacing a basic-skills test. But when the first round of scores turned out lower than expected, the state Board of Education postponed using it as a graduation requirement until 2006. For most of the state's 500,000 sophomores -- representing the Class of 2006 -- today will be their first try at passing the test, which includes both math and language-arts sections.
I'll be eagerly awaiting the results, especially because of this line:
While most of the questions are based on eighth-grade material, only 59 percent of last year's sophomores passed the math portion and 78 percent of students passed the language arts section in sample tests.
Emphasis mine. I've been reporting pretty consistently that this exam is at the 10th-grade level, but further investigation shows that while the English portion is geared towards concepts that can appear in classes up to 10th grade, the math portion is sixth- and seventh-grade math, and Algebra I (I should have paid closer attention to the CA high school student who commented on this post.) The math portion has the lower passing score (55% of 90 items) and is made up of multiple-choice items only. Study guides can be seen here; only 12 items relate to Algebra I, and those items are quite simple.
(And don't even get me started on their statistics items, which have the least-distracting incorrect options I've ever seen. The only way they could help the students along more would be to include bright red arrows that point to the correct answers.)
How does mastery of middle-school math material provide useful information about whether a student deserves a high school diploma? And why are superintendents like Bob Collins saying things like this?
"We've spent a tremendous amount of time building their confidence," he said. "A lot of kids are intimidated by this test."
Why? They're 10th-graders. The passing scores are set between 55 and 60%, depending on the section. The math questions don't go above Algebra I. Students have five chances to pass, one of which is during the summer after their senior year. If these students are intimidated, something is seriously wrong.
What's worse, some principals foresee a future with special diplomas for those students who can't pass:
At Cleveland High School, 42 percent of students passed the math test and 64 passed the English test in 2002-03, before it was a graduation requirement. If that trend continues, Principal Allan Jay Weiner said the state may have to start offering different types of diplomas for students unable to pass the exam.
"I think at some point in time, in two or three years, it's going to be a real big problem when you have thousands of kids who haven't passed the test," he said. For some special-needs students and those learning English as a second language, passing the test may be nearly impossible, Weiner said.
"We have so many different kids that come here that speak different languages," he said. "It's kind of weird that you come into a country, and you have to take a test, and you can't even read it."
That's why they get five shots at it before graduation time. And if they can't read an eighth-grade level exam, how will they pass higher-level material that is presumably taught in English? Will their special diplomas need to be printed in their native languages so they can read them?
Posted by kswygert at March 16, 2004 01:26 PM