Taking a test is nothing new for a high school student. But for
the first time in state history, passing or failing an exit exam
will determine whether California high schoolers from the classes
of 2006 and beyond will get their diplomas.
While the state of California is praising this year’s
results, researchers from UCLA’s Institute for Democracy,
Education and Access are contesting the results and optimism in a
new study released last week.
The California High School Exit Examination figures released by
the California Department of Education on Aug. 15 showed an
estimated 88 percent of students passed the English-language arts
portion of the test, while 88 percent of students also passed the
mathematics section.
Education officials lauded the results, which surpassed even the
state’s projections.
“I knew that our students could rise to the challenge of
higher expectations, and I am proud of the rate of student success
thus far on the exam,” said State Superintendent of Public
Instruction Jack O’Connell in an Aug. 15 press release.
But authors of the UCLA study argue that the way the state
calculated the results is misleading, The state does not count
dropouts or students who did not take the exam as “not
passing.”
According to David Silver, coauthor of the UCLA study, the
exclusion of these groups of students leads to a misperception that
a higher percentage of students have actually passed the test.
Silver also said the state’s separate reporting of the
results of the English and math sections glosses over the fact that
many students designated as “passing” by the state have
only passed one section of the test and are not eligible for a
diploma.
When accounting for dropouts and students who didn’t take
the test, the study found that the percentage of students who
passed the English-language arts section of the exam fell to 81
percent, while the percentage of students passing the mathematics
section dropped to 80 percent.
The study’s authors say these smaller percentages of
students passing either section of the test are more accurate
because they include previously excluded groups of students.
But Matt Taylor, a consultant for the California Department of
Education, said including those students who have dropped out or
who have not taken the test artificially inflates the number of
students taking the exit exam.
Taylor said the numbers the state used to get the results were
the most appropriate.
“We believe our number is more accurate,” he
said.
Tenth-grade high school students have been taking the California
High School Exit Examination every spring since 2001, but the Class
of 2006 will be the first that must pass the test to graduate.
Regardless of the results, John Rogers, coauthor of the study
and associate director of the institute, said the state is failing
to examine the effects of an apparent disparity in the learning
environment between schools on pass rates for the exit exam.
The study found that low pass rate schools are more likely than
high pass rate schools to be critically overcrowded, have less
fully-credentialed teachers and have at least half of their math
classes taught by teachers who are not certified in the
subject.
Schools where less than 70 percent of students passed either the
math or English part of the test were labeled as “low pass
rate,” compared to “high pass rate” schools where
more than 90 percent of students passed both sections of the
test.
Schools with severe teacher shortages and dramatic overcrowding
have an average failure rate of 44 percent on the math section of
the test and a 40 percent average failure rate on the English
portion, according to the study.
Rogers believes these students will be held back because they
haven’t been given the “essential tools” to be
successful, and questioned the appropriateness of the exit exam in
general.
“The question is whether it’s justifiable for the
state to move forward with tests based on these
inequalities,” he said.
Silver believes students from substandard schools are at a
disadvantage when taking the exam, greatly diminishing their
chances for a diploma and success in life after high school.
“The state handicaps a vast group of students with
insufficient educational resources and, at an alarming rate, the
(exit exam) policy then locks those same students out of the most
basic future opportunities that a high school diploma
offers,” Silver said.
Since high school exit exam scores are not used when evaluating
freshman applications at UCLA, the controversial test would not
appear to affect future applicant pools to the university, said
Undergraduate Admissions Director Vu Tran.
But Tran noted there is a relationship between high school exit
exam scores and standardized test scores, such as the SAT, which
are considered by the university when making admissions
decisions.
“Although standardized test scores are not used as
exclusive factors in UC and UCLA admissions decisions, they are
nevertheless important ones,” Tran said.
Students who fare poorly on the high school exit exam would most
likely perform poorly on standardized tests, lessening their
chances of admission to selective universities like UCLA, said
Tran.