• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Pass Rate Rises to 90.4 Percent for Exit Exam: Latest Results Mean Nearly 42,000 Seniors Statewide Won't Graduate This Spring.

Posted on: Friday, 2 June 2006, 21:00 CDT

By Laurel Rosenhall, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

Jun. 2--In the final count before most high schools hold graduation this month, an estimated 41,758 seniors statewide have not passed the exit exam and will not get diplomas this spring.

The figures released Thursday by the state Department of Education reflect tests students took in March and exclude students with disabilities, who are exempt from passing the test this year. Many students retested in May, but those scores won't be known until July.

Speaking from a high school in Burbank, state Superintendent Jack O'Connell commended the additional 4,542 seniors who passed the test in March. Their scores brought the total pass rate for the class of 2006 to 90.4 percent, up from 89.3 percent in February.

"You can see our trajectory," O'Connell said. "We're clearly moving in the right direction."

But he acknowledged that many students have not made it over the hump and encouraged them to go to summer school or adult school to keep working toward a diploma.

"We have nearly 10 percent of our seniors whose education is not complete," O'Connell said. "These students need to master additional course work and additional skills in English language arts and math."

O'Connell was frank in describing the gaps in performance between ethnic groups.

Data show that Latinos make up about 47 percent of the state's overall student body, but about 64 percent of the seniors failing the test. African Americans make up 8 percent of K-12 students, but 13 percent of seniors failing the test.

On the other hand, whites make up 31 percent of the student body, but just 12 percent of failing seniors. And Asian Americans make up 8 percent of the state's students, but 5 percent of seniors failing the test.

"This is one more indicator ... that there is an achievement gap in California," O'Connell said. "We know that; we admit that."

About 44 percent of students failing the test are considered English learners. The large share was no surprise to Arturo Gonzalez, a San Francisco lawyer who sued the state saying the exit exam is unfair to poor children and those who are not native English speakers.

"The English learners are not taught in a method aligned with the exit exam," Gonzalez said. "They are being taught to speak English, but the focus of those classes is not to teach them what's on the exit exam. That's a huge problem."

Supporters of the exit exam saw a different story behind the same figures. Russlynn Ali, director of Education Trust West, a group that advocates academic achievement for disadvantaged students, drew attention to the fact that more than half the students failing the test speak English fluently.

"Those data ... take the excuses away," Ali said. "Far too often we've said we can't do this work because students just got to this country. This is telling us it's not their struggles to learn English, it's something much deeper."

She suggested that the problem is in the way teachers are distributed throughout the state's schools. Poor children and students who are not native English speakers are more likely to attend schools with minimally qualified teachers, while students from more privileged backgrounds are more likely to have teachers with years of experience and subject-specific credentials.

Critics of the exit exam say the 90 percent pass rate reported by the state is inaccurate. They say the state is leaving out tens of thousands of students who started the ninth grade with their peers in the class of 2006 but have since dropped out.

"I do think a more accurate (pass rate) percentage is in the low 80s at this point," said John Rogers, a UCLA education professor who has been studying the exit exam.

The state figures also exclude between 20,000 and 25,000 students with disabilities who were exempt from passing this year. Next year, students with disabilities will be required to pass the exam to receive a diploma.

Hilary McLean, spokeswoman for the state Department of Education, said that even before the exit exam became a graduation requirement, about 10 percent of seniors didn't graduate for any number of reasons such as not completing course work or excessive absences.

-----

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

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

Source: The Sacramento Bee

More News in this Category