Exit exam pass rate up, but test is on chopping block

The pass rate for the state’s High School Exit Exam increased in 2009, but the test may be eliminated by the state Legislature to save money, the California Department of Education recently reported.

Eliminating the test would be a mistake, local educators say.

Interim results show nine out of 10 class of 2009 students passed the exam by March of their senior year, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction reported.

The test includes math up to Algebra I and English/Language arts at about a 10th-grade level. Students take the exam as sophomores and have several opportunities to pass before graduation day and in some cases, such as students in special education, after 12th grade if necessary.

In its budget proposal, the Legislative Budget Conference Committee voted to eliminate the exam as a graduation requirement, saying it was unfair to require students to pass it given the massive budget cuts proposed for education. The governor has pledged to veto any budget agreement that would eliminate the exam, CDE officials said in a statement.

“The exit exam requirement is a cornerstone of our high school accountability reforms, and I share the Governor’s view that its elimination would be a massive step backward for our K-12 public education system. We cannot allow this budget crisis to become an excuse to skirt our responsibility to ensure that all students graduate with at least the minimum level of skills,” said Jack O’Connell, state superintendent of public instruction.

The move would save money because “they wouldn’t have to pay the testing contractor to make the test or score it,” said John Brophy, Calaveras County Superintendent of Schools.

“Given the depths of the hole they’re in, I think it’s a spectacularly bad idea,” Brophy said.

Especially given the time and effort put into creating and implementing it, he said.

“I think it’s shortsighted. The High School Exit Exam is an important kind of gatekeeping device and adds credibility to a diploma,” Sonora Union High School District Superintendent Mike McCoy said.

Some doubt the CAHSEE will be eliminated because of federal requirements schools have to meet to get No Child Left Behind Act funding.

“I’m not sure the state would be able to do it,” said Dave Urquhart, Summerville High principal.

“The feds do require a certification of competence,” McCoy said. “All states have some kind of a measurement device for high school completion.”

Urquhart suggests the state somehow combine the exit exam into the STAR test taken by students in second through 11th-grade.

“Then there’d only be one exam to administer,” he said, adding that, “Most kids pass their sophomore year.”

Unlike the STAR test, which some students don’t take seriously because there’s no consequence linked to how well they do, the CAHSEE is the only mandated standardized test with consequences, local educators say.

Before the CAHSEE, there was no culminating exam or test that students had to pass in order to get a diploma, Brophy said.

“Students were graduating with widely divergent skills based on the district they attended. The business community really pushed for the requirement ... Now students have to possess a basic knowledge,” Brophy said.