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EDITORIAL: Only 48,000 to Go: California Must Keep Exit Exam and High School Students on Track.

Posted on: Monday, 3 April 2006, 03:03 CDT

By The Fresno Bee, Calif.

Apr. 2--The 431,000 California students in the Class of 2006 hope to graduate with their classmates in June. Some will not, however, because they do not yet have reading and math skills to pass the California high school exit exam.

Students have had multiple opportunities to pass. The vast majority of students pass the first time in 10th grade. More pass with each new testing in the 11th and 12th grades.

As of the September and November tests, the 48,000 yet to pass included 30,000 Hispanic students; 6,600 black students; 4,800 white students, 2,800 Asian students and 3,800 other students.

These 48,000 students had additional chances in February and March, but the state does not yet have the results of those tests. School districts get the February results mid-April and the March results at the end of May. Students have another chance to pass in May.

Between now and the May exam, parents, teachers, principals, superintendents, community leaders and community volunteers need to focus like a laser on the students who have not yet passed.

But the state should not back off the exit exam requirement. Lawmakers should reject two very bad recommendations that are now circulating.

One would print the exit exam in two languages side-by-side: English and either Spanish, Vietnamese or Chinese. The other would postpone the exit exam requirement for English-learner students who have been enrolled in California schools for fewer than three years.

These proposals are aimed at students who need to be able to function in English and simply need more time in California schools. It does these students no good to hand them a high school diploma if they cannot read English or do computations at a very basic level.

Attorney Arturo Gonzalez, who is suing the state to postpone the exit exam requirement, asked what will happen to the 6,600 black kids who haven't yet passed the exam. "They're just going to be high school dropouts," he said. "It's just going to be demoralizing."

That kind of defeatism is the wrong approach. California Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell has a more positive approach: Do what it takes to give students another chance.

But, he rightly insists, the answer is not to give diplomas to students who don't have the basic skills to survive in the world beyond high school. Instead, let them continue their education until they have the necessary skills to get a diploma.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Fresno Bee, Calif.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

Source: The Fresno Bee

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