The Utah high school class of 2006 is down to the wire:
This week, about 5,000 Utah high school seniors will have their last chance to pass the Utah Basic Skills Competency Test.The class of 2006 is the first to face the consequences of the UBSCT, which was developed to ensure that students are competent in reading, writing and math when they graduate.
To qualify for a high school diploma, each student must successfully pass all sections of the UBSCT or attempt to pass the test three times. Each diploma will note whether the receiving student passed the test.
In other words, if you pass, or if you take the exam three times, you get a diploma. But your diploma will say on it whether you passed the exam. Interesting compromise:
Originally, students who did not complete all sections of the test were to receive an alternative completion diploma.However, the board heard concerns that graduating with an alternative completion diploma could prevent students from receiving federal funding for college...In January, the board decided to give a full diploma to all students who pass the UBSCT or attempt to take the test three times. Students must also complete their school's citizenship and class requirements. However, every diploma must reflect a student's UBSCT status.
I should note that the exam is called the Utah Basic Skills Competency Exam, which makes it pretty clear that the test isn't supposed to be tough. Nonetheless, the anti-testing hyperbole ran thick last fall:
Dear Class of 2006: You're the first to be held to the state's new high school exit exam. And you look like lab rats. School districts are experimenting on you to learn how to best help students struggling on the Utah Basic Skills Competency Test. Answers will come too late to help you much...No one really knows what your "basic diploma," "alternative completion diploma" or "certificate of completion" will mean in the real world. They're just waiting to see what happens to you next year...
UBSCT has three parts — reading, writing and math — and you have to pass them all to get a basic diploma. If you don't pass but tried three times, you can get an alternative diploma. Do neither and you'll probably get a certificate of completion. The exam is Utah's only high-stakes test. Your results will follow you for life. You have two more chances to take it: in October and again in February.
Schools hope you'll be prepared.
Funny, I would think it would be "graduating without the ability to read or write at a basic level" that would "follow a student for life." Please note the level of the reading and math items that are presented at the test's website. The schools should be doing much more than hoping students pass this test in large numbers, and it's just sad to hear about parents who are forced to hire tutors to help their child learn to read the instructions on a can of bug spray:
A Salt Lake County mother reports her daughter passed the exam on the fourth try — thanks to extra help never before offered at the neighborhood school...The Salt Lake County mother laments the lack of help available to her daughter until this year. Her family had been paying for private tutoring."I think if they want to have a test, they need to prepare the kids way before (their senior year)," the mother said. "She has been depressed this whole fall, and it's her senior year. I've just kind of seen her attitude has gone down, her grades have gone down, and it just makes the kids feel like a failure and that they're left behind. I don't think it's a good thing."
...but I disagree with the testing critics that it would be somehow better for students to receive diplomas (and good grades, apparently) without being asked to demonstrate at least this much knowledge.
Posted by kswygert at January 30, 2006 12:51 PM