October 2007 — News
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Calif. Law Brings Remediation to Exit Exams (Updated)
However, González told THE Journal, "California schools have at their disposal the most important, and time-honored, way of making sure students graduate with essential skills, which is to teach students those skills in class, and then only pass the students who can demonstrate proficiency in those skills. California's decision to use an exit exam, while not providing equal access to an adequate K-12 education, places the burden of fixing our schools' deficiencies on the students. Moreover, there are numerous other standardized tests that students receive throughout their education that can be used to gauge their performance. Depriving a student of a diploma when he or she has passed other requisite courses will not benefit anyone. Universities and employers recognize the limited value of the exit exam and do not place any emphasis at all on the results of that test. Neither universities nor employers ask, 'How well did you do on the exit exam?'"
The new remediation program should help struggling learners overcome the exit exam hurdle, González indicated, but it will not solve all the problems that low-income and ELL students face.
How significant a hurdle is the CAHEE? Roughly 90 percent of students do pass the exam, but there remain about 34,000 students from the class of 2006 and 29,000 from the class of 2007 in California who have not passed it. Additionally, according to Morrison & Foerster, there remain 61,000 students in grade 12 presently who have not yet passed the English portion and 56,000 who have not yet passed the math portion of the exam. (Students begin taking the test in 10th grade.)
Said González, "A 2005 report by the State's independent evaluator found that not all schools were covering the exit exam material, and most significantly, that many of the schools did not cover the materials during the years in which the Class of 2006 would have been taught them. English learners also may not be taught all of the materials because [ELL curricula do not] cover all of the exit exam skills."
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About the author: David Nagel is the executive editor for 1105 Media's online education technology publications, including THE Journal and Campus Technology. He can be reached at dnagel@1105media.com.
Proposals for articles and tips for news stories, as well as questions and comments about this publication, should be submitted to David Nagel, executive editor, at dnagel@1105media.com.
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