Teens with Disabilities Enjoy Reprieve

[George Sheridan <learn@jps.net>]

Teens with disabilities enjoy last-ditch reprieve
By Laurel Rosenhall -- Bee Staff Writer
Published Monday, March 6, 2006
Story appeared on Page A1 of The Bee
http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/projects/exit_exam/story/14226317p-15050410c.html


A collective sigh of relief swept the state on Jan. 30 when Gov. Arnold 
Schwarzenegger signed a bill freeing students with disabilities from having 
to pass the California High School Exit Exam this year.

In classrooms and living rooms, students, teachers and parents celebrated 
the news that 12th-graders who cope with a host of difficulties - from 
learning delays to dyslexia to deafness - will be able to graduate even if 
they fail the math and English test. Three of the five students The Bee is 
following this year as they work to pass the exit exam have documented 
learning disabilities. Of the three, two are likely to qualify for the 
exemption, as are at least 28 of their peers at Hiram Johnson High School.

The mood the day the news broke "wasn't elation, it was just relief," said 
Debra Schlim, who teaches special education at the urban Sacramento school.

"They can actually think toward their future a little bit," she said. "They 
could never go there before."

The one-year exemption reflects a settlement between the state and 
advocates for special education, who had sued the state alleging the exit 
exam was unfair to students with disabilities. The new law clears the path 
to graduation for between 20,000 and 25,000 California seniors, if they 
have: completed enough credits and all other requirements to graduate this 
year, qualified for diploma-track special education since last summer, 
taken the exam at least twice since 10th grade and attended exam 
preparation classes.

Even though most students with disabilities will be off the hook this year, 
educators still want them to take, and pass, the exit exam. For most 
seniors, February's test marked the fifth time they've taken the exam, 
which tests the skills they should have acquired from the sixth through 
10th grades.

"We're pushing for them to pass because it will make them feel better about 
themselves," said Vice Principal Cyndi Swindle, who oversees special education.

In January, as the school year edged closer to the final test dates, school 
administrators tried new tactics to help students over the hump. They 
started more exam preparation classes and they changed their rules to allow 
students with disabilities to use calculators and dictionaries during the test.

Getting help
About a week after learning in January that he had again failed the math 
part of the exit exam, Juan Calderon did something he probably should have 
done months before. At the urging of his counselor, the 18-year-old signed 
up for a math class.

Juan's learning disability affects his attention span; the intensive crash 
course he enrolled in was tailored for special education students. With 
just three weeks to prepare for the Feb. 7-8 test, Juan spent two hours 
after school every day reviewing fractions, exponents and algebraic functions.

"One of the things that will be allowed is this calculator," teacher Robin 
Kafouros told the students sitting in a ring around her, bright green 
calculators and math worksheets on their desks. Kafouros showed them how to 
use the square-root button for some problems and the multiplication button 
to solve problems with exponents.

She read a question aloud.

"The Cowboys won 81 out of 161 games on their schedule," she said. "About 
what percent of the games did they win?"

"I hate percentages," groaned the girl sitting next to Juan.

Kafouros didn't skip a beat.

"OK," she said to the class. "Are they asking for an exact number?"

"No," said Juan. "'About.' "

"'About,' right," Kafouros said. "Key word."

Students knew that the problem involved division, but many could not 
remember which number would go on the top of the equation and which number 
on the bottom.

After Kafouros went over the difference between the numerator and the 
denominator, Juan leaned over his calculator and punched in 81 ÷ 161. He 
came up with 0.503. But it wasn't one of the four answers offered in the 
multiple-choice problem.

"So what is that?" Kafouros asked, as Juan scanned the possible answers - 
25 percent, 50 percent, 81 percent and 161 percent.

"50 percent," Juan replied, correctly.

Competing demands
While some students with disabilities are still trying to pass the exit 
exam, others appear to have given up. Now that they know they don't have to 
pass the test to graduate, some seniors are making a habit of skipping 
class, said Schlim, the special ed teacher. She identified Kevin Muhammad 
as one of those students.

"It's a mixture of senior-itis and 'I don't need (to pass) this to graduate 
so I don't need to be here to learn this,' " she said. "Disappointing, but 
true."

Attendance records show Kevin was absent for six days, from the day 
Schwarzenegger signed off on the exemption until he had to take the test 
again. Schlim considers that no coincidence.

But Kevin, 17, has an explanation. He had to take his daughter to a doctor 
appointment one day, he said, and his little brother to the emergency room 
another.

The day before the test, as Schlim reviewed math facts, vocabulary and test 
strategy, Kevin was at a recycling plant looking for a new job. The price 
of parenthood had caught up with him as his baby neared four months.

"You got a baby, you got to step up your game," he said, mentioning the 
cost of diapers and formula. School had begun to feel like a drain from the 
other demands on his time.

Still, taking the exit exam was important to Kevin, whose learning 
disability affects how he processes what he hears. After the string of 
absences, Kevin showed up on test day.

That evening he said the ability to use a calculator and dictionary made 
him much more comfortable with the exam.

"It was pretty cool," he said.

When Kevin later returned to class, Schlim scolded him for missing so much 
school.

"I said, I'm mad because you're not taking care of what you need to take 
care of,' " she said. "I told him, 'You're a senior, you're going to be out 
of here in a couple months. Is this the kind of man you're going to be?'"
Conflicting rules

Special education is guided by each student's "individualized education 
program." These documents set a course of study and list any special 
conditions under which students should be allowed to take tests - 
"accommodations" such as more time or a smaller setting, and 
"modifications" such as use of a calculator or a dictionary.

According to state law, students are supposed to be allowed those special 
conditions on the exit exam - though tests taken with modifications can 
negatively impact the state's assessment of the school's progress. Under 
requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind law, a test with 
modifications counts as a test not taken, a burden since schools must test 
at least 95 percent of their students.

Hiram Johnson did not allow students to use modifications the first four 
times they took the exit exam. Then, in advance of February's test, school 
officials rewrote student education plans to include modifications such as 
dictionaries and calculators. The reason goes beyond conflicts between 
federal and state laws.

Swindle, the school's head of special education, said she was following 
directions from the state in denying the use of modifications. State 
officials say that's not possible. For years, they say, they've made it 
clear to schools that students with disabilities must be allowed to use any 
accommodations or modifications in their education plans.

Sacramento City Unified School District officials, meanwhile, say they 
asked schools to first test students without modifications in order to 
properly gauge their strengths and weaknesses. After the first test, 
district officials said, modifications were to be allowed.

Legal clash
The spotty communication between schools, districts and the state - as well 
as the incentive to deny students modifications - were described in the 
lawsuit against the state that led to the one-year exemption for disabled 
students.

In Chapman v. California, Disability Rights Advocates, an Oakland-based 
group representing all students with disabilities who have not passed the 
exit exam, alleged that the state could not require students to pass an 
exam for graduation if they have not been taught the material on the test. 
The state agreed that schools needed another year to prepare special 
education students for the exit exam.

The parties settled one part of the lawsuit by allowing seniors in special 
education to graduate even if they don't pass. While that should help Kevin 
and Juan reach the graduation stage, it probably won't do much for Larissa 
Aguilar.

The 17-year-old started the year behind in credits and has been in limbo 
all year - sometimes identified as a junior and other times as a senior. 
School officials held her back to 11th grade but also gave her a heavy load 
of classes and told her if she worked hard, she could graduate by the end 
of the year.

Now the stakes are higher: If Larissa doesn't earn the credits to graduate 
on time, she'll have to pass the exit exam to graduate next year.

Leading up to the February test, some administrators told Larissa she would 
test in February, with the seniors. Others told her she would test with the 
11th graders in March.

The day before the seniors tested, Larissa sat in Tim Carter's after-school 
math tutoring class. On one side of the room, enthusiastic students giggled 
as they worked on problems and asked the teacher to check their answers.

Larissa sat alone on the other side, leafing through the exit exam study 
guide as if it were a magazine. Inside the guide, on a page about adding 
and subtracting fractions, Larissa's notes indicated her mind was far from 
the work at hand:

"Blah, blah, blah. ... Carter," she had written.

Carter's assessment of Larissa wasn't much better. "She's all over the 
place," he said. Speaking of the computerized answer sheets used on the 
test, he added, "I wouldn't even bother turning in the scantron."

Behind their sarcastic relationship, the two have a good rapport. Larissa 
says Carter is the only math teacher she can learn from. His tough-love 
approach seems to work for her.

Larissa was glad to learn she can use a calculator on the exam this time, 
yet complained she didn't know how it would help her with fractions, word 
problems or algebra.

"It won't," Carter said. "If you don't know which buttons to push, it won't 
help."

Then he handed Larissa a calculator and chastised her for her last-minute 
approach to studying: "Why are you here at 4:15 the day before the test 
asking me how to use a calculator?"

As it turned out, that wasn't the day before the test for Larissa. When she 
showed up to take the exit exam, Larissa learned she would be testing with 
the juniors in March after all.

About the writer: The Bee's Laurel Rosenhall can be reached at (916) 
321-1083 or lrosenhall@sacbee.com.




George Sheridan