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Legislature revisits exit test
By Jim Sanders
Nearly nine years after California opted to create a high school exit exam, some of the state's most powerful education groups are continuing to fight a requirement that students be denied a diploma if they flunk it.
The California Teachers Association, the California School Boards Association and the California Federation of Teachers, among others, are backing legislation to allow student proficiency to be measured in other ways as well.
"This bill really is about a higher and richer standard," said Assemblywoman Julia Brownley, a Santa Monica Democrat who said her Assembly Bill 1379 is designed to complement the exit exam -- not eliminate it.
"In any debate you get into in the educational arena, one-size-fits-all never works," Brownley said.
Democratic legislators thus far have given thumbs up to easing the state's diploma requirement, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed similar legislation in 2005. His Department of Finance opposes Brownley's recent AB 1379.
This year's legislative fight signals that the issue is far from dead, particularly if a Democrat succeeds Schwarzenegger in 2010.
AB 1379 was approved by the Assembly, 47-31, and is pending in the Senate.
California's exit exam is designed to ensure that all high school graduates have a basic level of academic skill.
The test requires 12th-graders to be proficient in mathematics coursework up to the ninth-grade level, and English and language arts coursework up to the 10th-grade level. Students can pass with scores of 55 percent and 60 percent, respectively.
In the class of 2006, the first threatened with denial of diplomas, 91.2 percent of high school seniors passed the test by May of their senior year.
Their successors scored slightly higher: 93.3 percent of seniors in the class of 2007 met the requirement on time, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell announced Thursday.
Students can take the test up to six times. Those who don't receive a diploma with their graduating class conceivably could earn it later through remedial studies, adult school or other options.
Exit exam results consistently have shown racial and economic disparities, with low-income, Latino and African American students scoring lower than white or Asian students.
Not all students necessarily receive equal learning opportunities with qualified teachers and adequate support systems, so it's unfair to use a single test to deny diplomas, said Liz Guillen of Public Advocates, a civil rights law firm.
"I think there's been somewhat of a backlash that one test can be the sole indicator of a person's knowledge or qualification," Guillen said.
Brownley's bill would lay the groundwork for using multiple measures of proficiency by requiring O'Connell to develop alternatives to the exit exam in a series of public hearings.
Under AB 1379, O'Connell would be required to consult with Schwarzenegger's education secretary, among others, and to submit recommendations to lawmakers by October 2008.
The bill would not immediately alter the requirement that students pass the exit exam, but it declares legislative intent that "no single measure be used as the only determinant of eligibility."
Brownley's bill says other measurements of competency could include academic transcripts, completion of projects, coursework portfolios, and alternative tests that are aligned to state content standards and as rigorous as the exit exam.
Students would not have the option of skipping the exit exam, but for those who can't pass it, AB 1379 hopes to create a safety net.
Critics claim that sole reliance on the exit exam can doom students who suffer from extreme test anxiety or are from immigrant families who don't speak English well.
Rick Pratt, assistant executive director of the California School Boards Association, said dependence upon one test can narrow coursework.
"When you have a high school exam that focuses basically on two areas, reading and math, that's where the curriculum focus is going to be," Pratt said.
Dean Vogel, CTA vice president, said teachers simply want lawmakers to keep an open mind.
"Doesn't it seem reasonable that we ought to at least investigate another way to assess these students?" Vogel said.
Twenty-five states require students to take a high school exit exam, but only eight use it as the sole criterion for awarding diplomas, according to a 2005 Stanford University report.
"We believe that standards need to be high, and we believe that expectations need to be high," Vogel said. "Because of that, we should at least be making every effort to assess our students in a meaningful and relevant way."
But Jim Lanich of California Business for Education Excellence said the state should focus its efforts on helping all students pass the exit exam -- not on creating loopholes.
"We need to shift from can't into can -- and how," Lanich said.
Requiring passage of the exit exam creates an objective benchmark for measuring students, comparing districts, holding schools accountable and ensuring that all teenagers have basic skills to work in a global economy, supporters say.
Hilary McLean, O'Connell's spokeswoman, said the exit exam was developed because subjective ways of measuring proficiency, such as grades, were resulting in teenagers receiving diplomas even if they couldn't read or do basic math.
The exit exam is "our best tool for ensuring that students have mastered critical skills," McLean said.
Schwarzenegger, in vetoing 2005 legislation, said it "sends the wrong message" to allow alternative assessments.
"We have a responsibility to each of our students to believe in them, and not to have low expectations," his veto message said.
— Jim Sanders
Sacramento Bee
2007-08-26
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