History of IDEA
Jeannie Oakes, Founder and Former Director
Youth Voice in School Finance
NEW REPORT: Los Angeles' road to A-G for all
Without Dollars and Sense Powerpoint
Past Educational Opportunity Reports
Editorial: Don't change exit exam - change the schools instead - New Graduation Rule Leads To More Dropouts
The San Jose Mercury News - November 12, 2007
A report that found an upswing in California's dropout rate will add volume to the call for suspending or modifying the high school exit exam. Instead, it should add urgency to the more substantial job of fixing the state's worst performing schools.
The analysis last week by the Virginia firm that annually evaluates the exam offers sobering news. It arrives on the eve of Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell's Achievement Gap Summit, which opens in Sacramento on Tuesday.
The report found a 4 percentage point decline in the graduation rate directly attributable to the exit exam in 2006, the first year that the exam counted for high school seniors.
The percentage of seniors receiving diplomas dropped from 87 percent to 83 percent, while the comprehensive graduation rate, measuring dropouts starting when the class of 2006 entered ninth grade, fell from 71 to 67 percent. If that wasn't disturbing enough, a think tank from UCLA calculated that the drop was greater in predominantly Latino and African-American high schools. There, the four-year graduation rate fell from an already abysmal 50 percent to 43 percent. According to the Institute for Democracy, Education and Access, these are also the most crowded schools, with larger than average math classes taught by a disproportionately higher number of teachers without math credentials.
The state's graduation rate is only an estimate, since California still has no system that can track individual students. It's possible that some of those who were designated as dropouts attended community college or repeated a year and were still in school. But the trends are clear.
The exit exam measures only ninth-grade math and 10th-grade writing and reading skills. It has had an overall positive impact, which is why requirements shouldn't be diluted.
The latest report by Human Resources Research Organization, the state evaluator, found that the exit exam has added rigor to high school. Teachers generally report that it has helped guide instruction and concentrate students' attention. Thousands of students have persevered through after-school and Saturday tutorials. The exam may be a factor in the significant increase in students taking Algebra I by 10th grade, the SAT exam and college preparatory courses.
Two dozen states require an exit exam, but California is one of only a handful to rely on it exclusively. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has twice vetoed bills that would have required alternatives to the exam for students who can otherwise demonstrate proficiency. The state evaluator's report also recommends consideration of other options, such as grades or students' portfolios.
But we agree with the governor and O'Connell, who is concerned that more subjective measures would take pressure off students to master basic skills they need for college or work.
The low graduation rate in California is a crisis. Focusing on the exit exam is a distraction from the real problems, such as conditions that lead so many low-income Hispanic and African-American youths to fall so far behind in school.
IF YOU'RE INTERESTED
The 2007 California Educational Opportunity Report by UCLA's Institute for Democracy, Education and Access is available at www.idea.gseis.ucla.edu/
The 2007 independent evaluation of the California High School Exit Exam is at www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/hs/documents/evalrpt07.pdf
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