SacBee Editorial

[George Sheridan <learn@jps.net>]

They want to be sure we know which side they are on.

Editorial: Exit exam hyperbole
There's still time to get the diploma
Published Monday, March 13, 2006
Story appeared in Editorials section, Page B4
http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/story/14229592p-15052681c.html


A lawyer suing the state made the wild claim that the "only avenue" left 
for students in the Class of 2006 to receive a diploma is litigation. He 
was responding to last Wednesday's decision by the state Board of Education 
to reject alternatives to the state's exit exam.

His assertion is nonsense. Seniors still have more dates to take and pass 
the exam. Equally important, Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack 
O'Connell has said many times that students who do not pass are not denied 
a diploma indefinitely: "It simply means that their basic education is not 
complete," and they must continue their schooling to get the required math 
and reading skills. At the beginning of the school year, more than 90,000 
seniors had not passed the exam.

Arturo Gonzales of the Morrison & Foerster law firm wrote in a brief that 
the state has done nothing to study alternatives to the exit exam. Not 
true. The state's High School Exit Examination Panel met 19 times between 
July 1999 and January 2001 to develop the test, consider other states' 
policies regarding exit exams and listen to national experts.

A consultant, WestEd, examined alternative assessment approaches in other 
states for students with disabilities - and for the general student 
population. In a report last May, the consultant concluded that none of the 
alternatives provided "an equivalent alternative" to the exit exam.

The state's independent evaluator of the exit exam, HumRRO, in its 
September report recommended that the state retain the exit exam 
requirement and consider other options for students who have failed: 
helping students master the targeted skills; giving students more time - 
additional schooling, summer school, community college; exploring the idea 
of a senior-year portfolio.

Two months later, the superintendent solicited public input on alternatives 
with rigor equal to the exit exam: "For any alternative to be acceptable, 
it would have to guarantee the student's knowledge of the standards the 
California High School Exit Exam assesses." He looked at and rejected 
alternatives that would allow students to substitute another exam (such as 
the SAT) as not aligned with California's standards; or essay exams that 
depend on highly variable local scoring; or portfolios that undercut the 
whole idea of having a uniform standard of performance. He rejected the 
idea of local school districts coming up with their own assessments.

The state Board of Education, by its unanimous vote Wednesday, agreed with 
the superintendent.

The problem is not, as Gonzales claims, that the state has not studied 
alternatives. The state has decided that no alternative it examined ensures 
mastery of the skills tested by the exit exam. Many avenues remain open for 
helping students acquire the basic math and reading skills needed for a 
California high school diploma. The avenue of litigation only delays the 
reckoning.


George Sheridan