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Is Calif. the only state that has-

FrancFFrancF Member Posts: 35,278 ✭✭✭
edited January 2006 in General Discussion
High School Exit Exam testing? I have been wondering, it's becoming an issue here. The new law effects 2006 HS grads.

Here is a tid bit of whats wrong with it.


It's an ominous sounding date: Friday, Jan. 13. That's the day high school students will learn the results of the latest round of California High School Exit Exam testing.

CAHSEE inspires lots of debate. Given that, at best, it tests tenth-grade level material, questions about its value are understandable. It's difficult to understand how students who have accumulated enough credits to graduate can fail this exam.

After all, credits are earned for passing grades, and grades are supposed to measure comprehension and performance, not desk time.

According to the most recent statistics from the California Department of Education, more than 200 students in San Benito County and 100,000 across the state still need to pass the math and English portions of the exit exam to graduate.

But, as the number of students struggling to pass the exam demonstrates, California schools are willing to give passing grades to students who have not mastered the material presented to them.

That cheapens the the diplomas distributed on graduation day. Requiring passage of the CAHSEE doesn't completely fix that problem, but it's a step in the right direction.

At least, with the requirement that students pass the CAHSEE before they can graduate, potential employers can be certain California public high school graduates have at least an eighth-grade education.

That statement is a sad reflection on the state of public education in California.

And it's a prime example of why it's so important that our community redouble its efforts to improve the academic performance of our public high school students.

Those students who receive bad news on Friday the 13th will have one more chance - in February - to pass the test before commencement ceremonies in June.

We applaud efforts to help these students - the first class required to pass CAHSEE in order to graduate - pass this important exam. However, we urge bigger-picture focus, at the same time, on how it is that students can earn credits without first demonstrating competence.

Whether students who fail the CAHSEE graduate or not or participate in commencement ceremonies or not are diverting debates, but let's not be so distracted by them that we forget to fix the real problem that CAHSEE spotlights: awarding passing grades to students who have not earned them.

Comments

  • FrancFFrancF Member Posts: 35,278 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    So- in other words, you could have a 4.0 GPA and enough credits, but if you don't pass the test. You don't graduate.
  • WarMongerWarMonger Member Posts: 1,621 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I went to a really good high school in california and 1% of seniors would fail the test. However, I heard that state wide average is about 30% and LA City school district is close to 55%. How pathetic.
  • WarbirdsWarbirds Member Posts: 16,813 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:FrancF
    Advanced Member

    South Sandwich Islands
    9059 Posts

    Posted - 01/31/2006 : 8:56:18 PM Show Profile Email Poster Reply with Quote
    So- in other words, you could have a 4.0 GPA and enough credits, but if you don't pass the test. You don't graduate

    I was kind of thinking the test would be written at an 8th grade level myself. I wonder if this is part of that No Child Left Behind Program(?) I think that is federal.
  • gruntledgruntled Member Posts: 8,218 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    I believe that almost all of the ones who can't pass are what are called "special education students". Since this is something from
    far after I went to school I don't quite understand what it means
    but I think it refers to people with some types of disabilities.
    How they can master the subjest matter & not be able to pass the
    tests I don't quite understand. It seems to indicate that they have
    been allowed to pass without mastering the subject.
    There is however the possibility that they may only need to be allowed extra time on the tests & I would have no problem with that.
  • kristovkristov Member Posts: 6,633
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by FrancF
    So- in other words, you could have a 4.0 GPA and enough credits, but if you don't pass the test. You don't graduate.


    That is the real world for many of us. In my case I earned my BS in Civil Engineering and a Master of Civil Engineering (structural engineer) from USC and graduated with honors (whoopie). As any engineer will tell you; that meant NOTHING! In order to be a become a licensed engineer I had to pass the PE (Professional Engineer's) exam. No one gave a rats behind about how well I did in school, I needed to pass that test or I was never going to advance above an entry level engineering position and would never be able to sign off on anything. If some kid loaded up his school days with easy classes and wound up with a 4.0 GPA that should not get him a free ride to graduate, I say make him pass the exit test so we can see if he actually learned anything while he was sitting in that classroom chair.
  • NickCWinterNickCWinter Member Posts: 2,927
    edited November -1
    In some school districts, the main job of a teacher is baby sitting or just trying to keep order with little support from administration. And there's the challenge in some schools of trying to teach students who don't speak English.
  • ll_manll_man Member Posts: 160 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Get with it - if these kids can't pass a test that proves they have EIGHT grade skills - they got no business getting a diploma.

    IT's disgusting that people like you don't care about our kid's educations!
  • dlrjjdlrjj Member Posts: 5,528 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Grade inflation is a disease in many schools today and a strong GPA is not always much of an indication of real academic achievement. Many states have had to increase "core requirements" in order to reduce the number of fluff classes taken just to pad a GPA.

    Teachers are often partially evaluated based upon what percentage of their students get A's, B's, etc. to the point that they water down tests, offer extra credit, and design "projects" often consisting of little more than cutting pictures out of magazines and gluing them on a piece of poster board in order to increase "student success". Many schools have bought the "self esteem" movement to the extent that they seem to be more concerned with the possibility of a student being traumatized by failure (low grade) than they are the possibility that the same student might learn to understand the real pride that comes with genuine accomplishment.

    The movement toward some form of an exit exam is a result of a recognition that many schools are failing in their primary job of providing an education. Education needs to be held accountable to a much greater extent than it has in the recent past, and more in line with the requirements students will face outside the "Ivy-Covered Walls".
    Tax evasion is illegal, tax avoidance is an art form.
  • kristovkristov Member Posts: 6,633
    edited November -1
    ...design "projects" often consisting of little more than cutting pictures out of magazines and gluing them on a piece of poster board in order to increase "student success".

    I was able to use that method to good effect by using postcards of the Golden Gate Bridge pasted onto poster board to pass the bridge design portion of my basic structural engineering studies[B)]. Although it sounds funny (or seems more like a big joke) to those who are not structural engineers, in engineering school we would actually design and build replica bridges using craft sticks (sort of big ice cream sticks) and we would then hang weights under these bridges in order to see who's would collapse first.
  • shoff14shoff14 Member Posts: 11,994 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Ohio does, you start taking them in tenth grade. That is how it is now, when I was in school they changed it I think my senior year. I took the test in ninth grade.
  • FrancFFrancF Member Posts: 35,278 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Substandard teachers or substandard students?

    Willing to bet some of you had the P.E. coach that was also your history teacher that read cliff notes, as I had. Sounds like it has not changed much. Some of todays kids still have same quality of education.
    [;)]
  • dlrjjdlrjj Member Posts: 5,528 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by kristov
    Although it sounds funny (or seems more like a big joke) to those who are not structural engineers, in engineering school we would actually design and build replica bridges using craft sticks (sort of big ice cream sticks) and we would then hang weights under these bridges in order to see who's would collapse first.

    They may be glorified Popsicle sticks, but the better methods of building trusses and knee braces can be easily shown by failure analysis of this type. My Engineer son has done a bunch of them.[:)]
    Tax evasion is illegal, tax avoidance is an art form.
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