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Exam Abuse in Nevada

Ohanian Comment: Notice how reaction to test is changing. First, the kids were blamed for not working hard enough. Now teachers are blamed for not teaching well enough. It is very are that tests are blamed for being inappropriate. In the last sentence in this article, a mother uses the term "flawed exam." It's an expression we need to repeat. Say it loud, say it often:

flawed exam.



With a 3.0 grade point average anchoring a solid academic record, Robyn Collins, 18, has big plans once she graduates from Reed High School in Sparks, Nev. She intends to spend several months in National Guard boot camp before taking advantage of a state scholarship to go on to college.

The only problem is that she might not graduate from high school.

Collins is among 2,195 students -- 12 percent of the state's senior class -- who have completed all their course work requirements but will not receive high school diplomas this spring because they have not passed the math portion of Nevada's high school graduation test. Instead, they will be awarded certificates of attendance, which often are not recognized by employers or four-year colleges.

Instituted as part of the reforms designed to shore up sagging confidence in public education, the latest generation of high school exit exams is stirring a backlash across the country. Legislators and educators in a growing number of states, including Nevada, Florida, Massachusetts, California, North Carolina and Florida, are facing pressure to delay or scrap the tests because of the number of students who are failing them.

The brewing discontent highlights public ambivalence toward high-stakes testing. More than 80 percent of Americans say tests are a good way to measure whether students and schools are meeting standards. But just as many also say that schools should not rely on tests because some children are simply poor test-takers, according to Public Agenda, a nonpartisan public policy research firm.

Test opponents say students should not be held accountable to one academic measure, contending they often fail the tests because they have under-qualified teachers or were never taught the material covered by the exams. In some places, special-needs students and students who speak English as a second language also struggle with the exams.

"I've cried so much about this test," said Collins, who learned yesterday that she had failed the exam for at least the fifth time. "I'm not a stupid kid. . . . It is just that in my opinion, the stuff on the test doesn't equate to anything that I've learned in school."

Test proponents, however, contend that the exams are easy enough that the vast majority of students should pass them. They note that there are multiple opportunities to take the test and that many states offer remedial instruction, and they contend that high school graduates should demonstrate competence in basic skills.

Twenty-four states either require students to pass exit exams to earn a high school diploma or have such tests in the works, according to the Center on Education Policy, a D.C.-based education research organization. Virginia is implementing a new exam scheduled to take effect in 2004; Maryland will add a new test in 2008. The District has no exam planned.

The tests typically cover basic subjects, including math, English and writing, that educators, business owners and others have determined should be mastered by any high school graduate.

Earlier exit exams were aimed at ensuring that high school graduates were minimally competent in reading and basic math. But states have moved toward more rigorous exams that measure more complex skills that are supposed to be taught in high school, including more complicated reading questions, algebra and geometry.

The exams are not part of the No Child Left Behind legislation enacted in 2002, which requires schools to give standardized tests in reading and math to students in grades three through eight.

"Policymakers realized that high schools had been neglected in much of the school reform movement," said Keith Gayler, associate director of the Center on Education Policy, who tracks exit exams across the country. "They were looking for some sort of reform to put in place."

But with thousands of students being denied high school diplomas they would have otherwise received, the reform has ignited opposition from students and parents who believe the tests do not reflect the curriculum covered in school.

"There is definitely a disconnect," agreed Nevada State School Superintendent Jack McLaughlin. "I believe students will give you back what they're taught. But when this many students haven't passed a test after numbers of tries, something is not right."

Florida community leaders and legislators launched a series of protests in April aimed at forcing a moratorium on the tests after state officials announced that nearly 13,000 students -- including a disproportionate number of blacks and Latinos -- would not graduate as scheduled this year because they had not passed at least one of the exams.

The protesters are calling for a boycott of the state's lottery, major theme parks and the citrus industry unless the state backs off the exams, which became graduation requirements this year. So far, Gov. Jeb Bush (R) has brushed aside those threats, calling the tests integral to an education accountability process that has led to steady improvement in student achievement since 1998.

Seven of the nearly 400 school districts in Massachusetts promised to defy state officials and award local diplomas to students who failed the state's high school graduation test after meeting all other graduation requirements. They issued their threats after a federal judge rejected an attempt by test opponents to remove the exams as a graduation requirement.

Five thousand of the state's 60,000 high school seniors have not passed the tests, which became a graduation requirement this year. Students who do not pass the tests but meet all other graduation requirements are issued "certificates of attainment," which are frowned upon by employers and colleges.

California's State Board of Education is considering whether to implement its graduation test as scheduled next year after a study found that the test has spurred widespread improvement in local school curricula but will result in 20 percent of the state's high school seniors being denied diplomas. In other states, including Alaska and Washington, officials have pushed back the effective date of graduation exams or proposed modifying tests to focus more squarely on basic skills.

"People are wondering whether it is the students' fault that they can't pass these tests," Gayler said. "I think people aren't sure. But, meanwhile, there are serious economic and other consequences for the students who can't pass them."

Nevada students are required to pass tests in reading, writing and math as a condition for graduation. Officials said that fewer than 2 percent of the state's seniors have failed the reading and writing portions. But the 60-question math exam has proven much more difficult.

Some officials believe the test may have contributed to a recent increase in the dropout rate, as many students just give up on school, believing they will never pass the exam.

In fast-growing Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, almost a quarter of the high school seniors had not passed the exam before the most recent round of testing on May 20. Part of the problem is that many students -- as many as 40 percent statewide -- have never taken algebra or geometry, which are included on the test. Also, school officials said, the fast-growing and financially strapped school district struggles to find qualified math teachers.

"We have a constant effort to provide training for teachers," said Agustin Orci, deputy superintendent for instruction in Clark County schools. "But the attrition rate is high. There are many, many positions in the casino industry here that pay the same or more as a teaching job."

The Nevada Assembly passed a measure earlier this year that would have suspended the math portion of the exam until educators audited it to ensure that it reflected the curriculum. The proposal, however, was derailed in the state Senate.

Proponents of the Nevada test say it is not that difficult. Students must earn a score of 304 out of a possible 500 to pass the multiple-choice exam. And even if students have not been exposed to all of the items on the test, some education officials believe the exam includes plenty of material with which students should be familiar.

"The kids don't have to know everything to get a passing score," said Debbie Smith, chairwoman of a Nevada committee that sets educational standards. "More than anything, I'm worried about turning these kids out into the work world unprepared."

But others say one test alone cannot measure that. Tyler Douglass, 18, a senior at Cimmaron-Memorial High School in Las Vegas, has been a solid student: He has a B average, has taken a smattering of honors classes and is qualified for Nevada's Millennium Scholarship, which would award him as much as $10,000 in college scholarships over four years.

But like many students in Las Vegas, he has not passed the state's math exam.

"Because you can't get through this one exam, you can't get a diploma?" said his mother, Jill Douglass. "It is really easy for people to say our high school students should know this, this and this. And we do need standards. But you can't expect people to pass an exam if they are not being taught all the material on the test. It's a flawed exam, that's the problem."


— Michael A. Fletcher
As High School Exit Exams Cost Diplomas, Anger Rises
Washington Post
May 30, 2003
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59993-2003May30.html

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